Today, I walked to El Polin Spring in San Francisco's Presidio and looked in a hidden Field Note. Thus I completed ⅒ of one of 22 Fun Things …

Today, I walked to El Polin Spring in San Francisco's Presidio and looked in a hidden Field Note. Thus I completed ⅒ of one of 22 Fun Things to do in your National Park. While in the area, I glimpsed a hummingbird, and completed an entire Fun Thing to do in your National Park. marked-up photo of a boardwalk in a somewhat scrubby valley. the marks call attention to a small wooden box at the edge of the boardwalk, somewhat concealed by plants

marked-up photo of a boardwalk in a somewhat scrubby valley. the marks call attention to a small wooden box at the edge of the boardwalk, somewhat concealed by plants

looking down at edge of boardwalk at a little box. there is a foot in the picture, perhaps for scale

the box, open, reveals some interpretive text about berries: Summertime is well known for berries and the berries we eat all come from wild ancestors. Around El Polin Spring there are many native berries: elderberries (tiny red clusters), thimbleberries (large soft leaves), snowberries (white), twinberries, wild strawberries, California blackberries and more. Even poison oak has berries! See how many different kinds you can notice. [Note: Not all berries are safe for humans to eat!]

I was following a map, but really following my memory. The Presidio Trust publishes an activity map for kids, Adventures in the Presidio. Page 2 of that linked pdf is a map encouraging you to find Hidden Field Notes (inside wooden blocks perched on fence posts and stumps). There was a little picture of what to look for: a little box held together by a hinge. When I saw that, I realized I'd already spotted one of those Hidden Field Notes, near El Polin Spring. The activity map had a box with a note: "glimpse a hummingbird at El Polin Spring". I leaped to the conclusion: This map was showing me where to find Hidden Field Notes. Or maybe geocaches; somewhere else on the map, it mentioned geocaches. This seemed kinda sketchy; if I hadn't already known about this little box in El Polin Spring, that would have been a darned large area to search; the map location wasn't even that close to real thing, seeming to indicate a place west of Inspiration Point. Some friends of my mom tried to use this map to find a box north of Mountain Lake Park; it didn't go well; the map seems to suggest you should hop over a padlocked gate and walk along an unused, overgrown dirt road that's more of a gully than a road in some places.

Now that I'm home, I looked over the map more closely and I think I figured it out.

Hey mom, tell your friends: the "map" doesn't show wooden boxes. It's basically an activity list sketched onto a map. You aren't expected to go to the places marked on the map; that's good since some are in the Pacific, on a golf course, on private property… There is a separate map of the wooden boxes, a.k.a. Field Notes: Behold the map. The ~~map~~ activity list also mentions GeoCaches; the Presidio does have some GeoCaches, but they're not shown on this ~~map~~ activity list. There's a geocache on the north side of Mountain Lake Park, but not near the mark on the ~~map~~ activity list. (That geocaching.com site I linked to has maps; you need to have an account and be logged in to see them.)

A clearer, albeit much-less-pretty guide to kids' activities in the Presidio: Self-Guided Adventures.