What’s the largest open space in San Francisco?  Golden Gate Park?  Guess again. It’s the San Francisco Presidio.  At 1500 acres, it’s about 1.5 times the size of Golden Gate Park.  And while it does have more buildings than the park, many of them historic, it has beaches, grassy fields, forests, wetlands, a lake, a golf course, tennis courts, playgrounds and 24 miles of trails.  Fishing, wildlife viewing (including 300 bird species), kite-flying, wind-surfing, not to mention hiking, cycling and riding engaged many hundreds of visitors on a recent sunny Saturday. 
    We’re members of the Bay Area Travel Writers’ and our July meeting was hosted by the Presidio Trust at their offices facing the Main Parade Ground here. The Trust, in partnership with the National Park Service and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, administers most of the former army post.  Under special legislation that requires the trust be self-supporting, it must cover operating costs and fund capital projects without federal appropriations. The Trust has fostered over $1 billion in investment in historic preservation, habitat remediation and infrastructure upgrades and other projects through leases, other revenue and tenant investment. 

    “That can’t be our boat,” said Janet’s cousin, Karen.  “It looks too small.”  Indeed, it did look small, but it was our boat.  And the 18' aluminum outboard, coupled with the skills of our skipper Mark, proved more than up to the task of transporting seven of us 15 miles or so down the Susitna River, and bringing us safely back. 
    We’re at Deshka Landing.  Mainly because so few roads exist in this enormous state, it’s one of the few public access points to the Susitna. Cousin Karen worked diligently with local archeologist Fran who arranged this trip down river to visit a place called Susitna Station–the place where Grandpa Cy lived in 1910-11 and where his eldest son, Karen’s father, was born. Mark navigated the braided channel of the Susitna at high speed, watching intently for snags, rocks and sandbars–carefully avoiding things that weren’t obvious to the rest of us. Just before our arrival he took us to Seal Island at the mouth of the Yetna River, and sure enough four or five Harbor Seals lolled on the gravelly bar, a good 20 miles from Cook Inlet.  He said they followed the salmon up the river.