Just after 9:30 AM I set out on my ascent to Sweeney Ridge.

The path to the ridge is not a dirt trail but a graded paved road which is an extension of Sneath Lane which runs east to El Camino Real.

This road was built to service the Nike Missile Control Site (SF-51) that was active on the ridge from the 1950s to 1974.

Sweeney Ridge, along with Marin Headlands to the north, is now part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

On the way up, looking south, the sun was reflecting off of San Andreas Reservoir. The reservoir is part of the San Francisco Water District and covers the active San Andreas Fault.

My destination and sketching stop would be the Portola San Francisco Bay Discovery Site. This is the location where on November 4, 1769, the first Europeans set eyes on the San Francisco Bay.

The way history of Spanish Exploration of California has been written negates that the Ohlone had already been on the land and had already seen San Francisco Bay centuries before. So the idea of San Francisco Bay being discovered in 1769 is a fallacy.

I had not been to the Discovery Site in a few years and I was surprised to see that the 1975 serpentine rock that is the Discovery marker was boarded up. The sign on the board read: “The plaque is under repair. We apologize for the inconvenience. Sincerely, Golden Gate NRA staff”.

Now I wasn’t sure if park staff was covering up the inscription that is carved into the rock which reads: “From this ridge the Portola Expedition discovered San Francisco Bay, November 4, 1769” to hide the content from visitors or protecting the marker from vandalism. Perhaps they were doing both. (I later found out that the sign had been vandalized and now the board covering the vandalized maker is now vandalized with the words: “WOKE CENSORSHIP”.)

Just east of the stone marker two information panels have been installed filling in the history of the Ohlone people.

On the western side of the ridge is the town of Pacific. This is were the Portola Expedition set off. Near the community center there is an odd stature of Portola, one hand on his boxy sword, the other clutching a rolled up map.

The statue is by Josep Maria Subirachs, a Catalonian sculptor responsible for the statues on the Passion Facade on Gaudi’s masterwork, La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.

A few years ago I had the opportunity to sketch the cathedral that is still under construction. And I sketched some of the figures on the Passion Facade.