Alta Journal is pleased to present a five-part original series by author and Alta contributor Gary Kamiya. Each week, we’ll publish online the next portion of “Urban Camping.” Visit altaonline.com/serials to keep reading, and sign up here for email notifications when each new installment is available.
This Alta Serial is a camping story with a wild twist: It takes place in San Francisco. Kamiya embarks on a four-night, five-day adventure without sleeping in a hotel or at a campground. His aim is to touch each of this seven-by-seven-mile city’s four corners and to immerse himself in its natural beauty and built environment. Carrying a backpack and a sleeping bag (and a credit card), he steps away from the familiar comforts of home to begin his journey.•
DAY 1: LEAVING HOME
From the majestic daytime views at Coit Tower to a sleepless night on Irish Hill.
DAY 2: THE LONG WALK
From the forsaken Irish Hill to the wilds of Glen Canyon Park.
DAY 3: TO THE SEA
From a grassy terrace in Glen Park to the windswept dunes of Ocean Beach.
DAY 4: A WALK IN THE PARK
From a quiet morning at Ocean Beach to the green meadows of Golden Gate Park and the former playground of a 19th-century tycoon.
DAY 5: THE LAST LEG
From a gardener’s path in Sutro Heights Park to the warm embrace of Coit Tower.
Gary Kamiya is a cofounder of Salon, a former executive editor of San Francisco magazine, and a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. He was born in Oakland, grew up in Berkeley, and has lived in San Francisco since 1971. His first book, Shadow Knights: The Secret War Against Hitler, was a critically acclaimed narrative history of Britain’s top-secret Special Operations Executive. Kamiya’s second book, Cool Gray City of Love: 49 Views of San Francisco, was awarded the 2013 Northern California Book Award for Creative Nonfiction and has sold more than 50,000 copies. His local history column, Portals of the Past, runs every other Saturday in the San Francisco Chronicle, and Kamiya’s work has appeared in the New York Times Book Review, ArtForum, Sports Illustrated, Mother Jones, and many other publications and has been widely anthologized, including in The Best African American Essays 2010, A New Literary History of America from Harvard University Press, and The Longman Reader. Kamiya is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Ron Ross Founder’s Award by the San Francisco History Association and the Redmond Kernan History Award from the Presidio Historical Association. He lives on Telegraph Hill.
