Lake Merced

Updated on Wednesday, June 2, 2021

Lake Merced

Lake Merced is a natural lake near Fort Funston. It used to be San Francisco's main fresh water supply but is now the emergency reserve (somewhat worrying as a previous earthquake caused much of Lake Merced to drain into the Pacific).

The lake is also the site of the Terry/Broderick duel where in 1859 the Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court (Terry) killed a US Senator (Broderick) in an argument over slavery.

The loop around the lake is a flat five mile path, unfortunately marred by heavy traffic and constant gunfire from clay pigeon shooting and/or the SFPD firing range.

Rob and Rudy at Lake Merced

Rob and Rudy at Lake Merced.

Penguin's Prayer

Gill and Rudy next to a sculpture called "Penguin's Prayer". Given the latitude I expect the penguin is praying for the next ice age.

(4.85 miles, total elevation gain 0 feet, 1 hour, 39 minutes, average 2.93 mph, view in Google Earth, view in Google Maps.)

Hike starts at: 37.712302, -122.489232.

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(Hike Map)

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Comments

jerry

It was never SF's main water supply. Before SF stole the Tuolumne River and Hetch Hetchy Valley it relied on water from the SF peninsula, not Lake Merced.

Rob Ellison

Jerry, I read at the Lake that it was, this information is repeated on Wikipedia. More than willing to accept that this is wrong though - do you have a better source?

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I Thought He Came With You is Robert Ellison's blog.

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