Friends say they're heartbroken and details remain sketchy following the death last week of a 37-year-old woman in the Ventana Wilderness area of Los Padres National Forest, near Big Sur.

Joanna Ruth Shields of Carlsbad was found dead near Sykes Hot Springs on April 9, and marks seen on her body suggest that foul play may have been involved. The death has officially been deemed "suspicious" by the Monterey County Sheriff's Office, but the official cause and manner of death have not been released, pending toxicology results.

As KSBW reports, Shields's body was found in a remote area by a group of hikers on Thursday morning. They were reportedly returning from a two-night hike into the backcountry, and Shields may have been on a similar backpacking trip.

One of those hikers, Gabe Holmes, told the station, "I didn’t see any blood. She was pale. She had markings around her neck. I don’t want to say, you know, choking marks, but when the firefighter lifted the jacket, he confirmed that she had a big gash on her head."

While no suspect or person of interest has been identified or arrested in the case, the group of hikers say they encountered a man in the area who claimed to be the dead woman's friend, and who appeared "cold and shaking."

According to hiker John Heerema, the man appeared "scared, nervous, like shocked, his face just, like, numb and dull."

Heerema's brother, Luke Heerema, explained to KSBW, "On one hand, we didn’t know if he was just having the worst day of his life or, on the other, like he had just killed someone, so I just went in with, like, all right, just be ultra-cautious, slow things down and make sure everyone’s safe."

Luke Heerema further relayed what the man reportedly told the group about how Shields died. "She went to the bathroom. She was cleaning herself off in the river around 10:30 am, and he went looking for her and then just saw her face down in the water, naked."

A GoFundMe campaign posted by Shields's friend Jessica Fessler describes what happened as a "backpacking accident" that has left her family and friends "heartbroken."

"Joanna moved through this world with brightness and spontaneity — in love with nature, her family, her friends, and her constant journey of self development," Fessler writes. "There was something so free about her… like she belonged to the wind and the sunshine."

Anyone with information that may be related to the investigation into Shields's death is asked to contact Monterey County Sheriff's Detective Geng at 831-755-3700.

This week: The real story behind the Winchester Mystery House, a historic artist’s studio-turned-artwork, a gifted local teenage violinist, and entrepreneurial high schoolers. Plus, hiking via public transit, the Presidio’s native plants, all things ube, and tasty holiday latkes.

Trail lines and transit stakes

Content creator Bike Curious hiked the De La Veaga Trail in Orinda to draw attention to looming transit budget cuts while demonstrating how residents can reach Bay Area trails without a car.

The moderate route sits on municipal land, with permits available online, and was found through Hiking by Transit’s public database. — Bike Curious

Restoring the dunes

About 100 volunteers gathered at the Presidio’s Sunset Scrub near Lincoln Boulevard last weekend to plant native species as part of an ongoing habitat restoration effort. The Presidio Trust planted roughly 2,000 natives, including coastal buckwheat and dune tansy, to help rebuild sections of the city’s historic dunescape.

The work supports insects, birds, lizards, and rare plants such as San Francisco lessingia and spineflower. The newly restored area now connects Sunset Scrub with the north dunes, creating a continuous habitat corridor between Washington and Lincoln boulevards. — KPIX

Blue conversation

Artist Catherine Wagner’s Blue Reverie at 500 Capp Street fills the late conceptual artist David Ireland’s iconic Mission District home with layers of blue. Ireland spent decades transforming the house itself into a sculptural work, altering floors, walls, and objects to explore space and domestic life as art.

Wagner builds on that legacy, adding photography, projections, and subtle installations that play with light, color, and architecture while keeping a conversation with Ireland’s ideas alive. Hidden blue moons, filtered windows, and glowing furniture turn corners of the home into unexpected moments of discovery. Blue Reverie runs through January 10 at 500 Capp Street, with a catalogue launch on December 16. — 48 Hills

Labyrinth of memory

The Winchester Mystery House has long been surrounded by salacious ghost stories, but most of them were urban legends created by locals and later promoters, not Sarah Winchester herself. These tales helped turn her eccentric home into a tourist draw, which in turn preserved it from demolition.

Beyond the myths, the house is a rare glimpse into late-19th-century San Jose architecture, built in popular Queen Anne Victorian styles and shaped further by the 1906 earthquake. — Bay Area News Group

Oven work and open doors

At Miramonte High School in Orinda, special education students are running a small dog treat business as part of their school day. In Asia Pavicich’s essential skills class, students research what’s safe for dogs, design the packaging, bake pumpkin–peanut butter treats, and sell them under the name Matadogs.

Pavicich started the project to give younger students real, on-campus work experience, beyond practice exercises. It’s also created easy points of contact between the students and the rest of the school community. — NBC Bay Area

Quiet strings, wide reach

Sausalito violinist Sydney Li-Jenkins, 15, has been named a winner of the 2026 YoungArts Competition, which recognizes young artists across visual, literary, and performing fields.

A sophomore at the Branson School in Ross, Li-Jenkins joins a national group of artists whose work reflects a rare level of focus and ambition at this stage. — Marin Independent Journal

Crispy threads

Delfina chef Craig Stoll has put a lighter, gluten-free spin on the holiday latke, balancing crisp potato strands with just the right touch of onion and potato starch. His careful prep — starting the potatoes the night before and pressing out every drop of moisture — keeps each patty tender inside and golden outside.

The latkes are perfect for the Festival of Lights, which kicks off December 14, bringing a fresh take to Hanukkah tables. For those skipping the kitchen, the restaurant offers a to-go option with a dozen flash-frozen latkes, plus add-ons like apple-quince conserva, crème fraîche, or Gingrass smoked steelhead lox. — 7 x 7

Purple by way of Alameda

Alameda baker Henry Awayan has leaned fully into ube, the Filipino purple yam he grew up with and now builds an entire cookbook around. Known for custom cakes at Whisk Cake Creations, Awayan’s The Ube Baking Book gathers more than 50 recipes — from classic halaya to ube focaccia, chiffon cakes, and breakfast pastries — tracing both flavor and family history shaped by his Filipino upbringing and years running a bakery a block from his childhood home.

Awayan plans to teach classes from the book at Whisk in 2026, with details to be announced through the bakery’s website and Instagram. — The Oaklandside

Top image: Winchester Mystery House

Previously: Field Notes: The Cockettes’ Tahara, Christmas Bar, and SCRAP Jewelry Pop-Up

• Leading up to their show at the Warfield Saturday, drag queen and environmentalist Patty Gonia hiked 100 miles to San Francisco. The Nebraska-based drag queen’s meandering, week-long hike — in full drag — began at Point Reyes National Seashore and raised $1 million for eight nonprofits. [GoodGoodGood]

• European Union regulators fined Elon Musk’s social media platform X $140 million for breaching transparency laws. The European Commission says now that X allows anyone to pay for a blue checkmark, users can no longer verify the authenticity of accounts. [CBS News]
• Actress Halle Berry criticized California Governor Gavin Newsom during a talk this week for previously vetoing a bill that would expand the Menopause Care Equity Act, and Newsom responded that his administration will actually be funding the expansion next year. [Chronicle]

National:

• Famed architect Frank Gehry, notable for high profile projects such as the Guggenheim Museum, as well as a portion of Meta’s headquarters in Menlo Park, has died at 96. [Associated Press]
• A New York City teen who lit a sleeping subway passenger on fire, severely burning them, was jailed Friday on a federal arson charge. [ABC News]
• Australian influencer Sam Weidenhofer, who uses his platform to spread kindness, awarded an 88-year-old grocery worker in Michigan $1.7 million during his visit to the US. [Associated Press]

Video of the Day:

Watch the massive waves produced by the kings tide this week, which flooded the streets of Pacifica.

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

With the Bay Area now firmly in summer's grip — and still very much held hostage by the pandemic, as well — taking some time to go on a walk on the wild side is one of the safest, least risky activities one can partake in currently.  

And it’s an outdoor activity you can do no matter where you're situated in our slice of Northern California. So, here are 21 hikes you can take to comulgar with Mother Nature in the Bay Area — face coverings and social distancing in tow.

San Francisco

Mount Sutro Hill Open Space Reserve Historic Trail

So quiet, so still (and so dense with trees), a hike through Mount Sutro Hill Open Space Reserve Historic Trial is best done without time limits or expectations. It’s all too easy to get lost, figuratively speaking, in the sweeping greenery, vocal birdlife, and expansive viewsheds that wrap the 61-acre green space. Though, take note: the trail is quite narrow and parts are lined with loose gravel. But given the pathway's slightly secretive existence, fellow hikers are few and far between. Move onto Nike Road to find some open spaces to let the dog run about… or to snap a still of the treeline. (Near sunset, it’s particularly haunting when fog envelopes the high-reaching branches.)

Tank Hill

Tank hill stays true to its name; it’s an absolute unit to hike. With unforgiving inclines and blurred trails, it’s a small urban park that’s perfect to take a swift walk on. The north-facing views of San Francisco, are truly a sight to behold — especially around Golden Hour. But don’t feel emboldened enough to leave the kind of marked pathways. The cliff-side rocks here are as stable as our President’s genius and thorny weeds carpet much of the ground.

Glen Canyon Park

A 1.7-mile trek that snakes through Glen Canyon Park, the unnamed hiking trail that encircles the parks isn’t only dog-friendly but puts you smack dab in sight of Bay Tree groves and a host of native fauna: coyotes, hawks, garter snakes, and lizards. (If you are planning on taking the fur-child, make sure he or she stays on a leash at all times; coyote sightings around the park are common — and increasing.) Melodic bird songs bounce off rock faces and help muffle the busy city soundtrack. Because of its sheer vastness and subjectively wide passages, a stroll around and through the Glen Canyon Park is a welcomed bit of escapism for those who choose to visit.

Heron's Head Park

Wide enough to drive an F-150 trailering a horse trailer along, the generous hiking paths at Heron’s Head Park offer ample size to properly socially distance. Parking is easy to come by either inside the connecting parking lot or at shouldering nearby roads. And because the main hiking trail is almost flush with the shoreline, this is a very durable, very novice (and quite easy) stroll to undertake — no matter your skill level. If you’re keen on expanding your soiree with Mother Nature, you can venture onto an unmarked, forking narrow walkway that’ll afford you more views of India Basin.

Bernal Heights Park Trail

Known for its panoramas of San Francisco and open grasslands, you’ll be able to spot an encroaching, likely masked individual ten yards away before they’re six feet from presence. Both a beloved rope swing and community garden — which, depending on the season, may or may not be populated with blooming flowers and maturing herbs — sit within the park’s confines. The trail, itself, is a one-mile winding pathway, perfect for a half-hour escape into the outdoors. Wildflowers are common around late-summertime, though it’s best to practice the Leave No Trace principles; hold back on plucking those pastel petals.

Twin Peaks

Noe Peak and Eureka Peak make up the spectacularly scenic, dizzying 31-acre hiking area that, though popular among locals and transients alike, has abundant open space to keep your personal bubble unpopped — all while meandering around its tall crests. Thin, sandy soil mounding Twin Peaks is susceptible to erosion, so best to say on any and all marked paths as to not speed its losing war with Newton’s Third Law. The downtown-facing side of Twin Peaks Boulevard is reserved for bikes and pedestrians, and a walk to Christmas Tree Point will yield a scene frequently used in stock photographs of the 925-foot tall apex.

Batteries to Bluffs Trail

By no means a secretive passageway, Battery to Bluffs Trail, nevertheless, provides plenty of space to hike — and to not find yourself inadvertently inundating someone's personal space. The two trailheads at Lincoln Boulevard offer a perched view of the Pacific, with the Golden Gate Bridge and Marin Headlands to the northwest; the dramatic bluffs tumbling to the rocky shore below. Also, remember: no dogs are allowed on the trail, so leave the fur-baby at home.

Fort Funston

It's an easy, breezy, beautiful (socially distant) stroll traveling along Fort Funston. Despite the fog that usually blankets the otherwise endless view of the Pacific to the west, this slab a green — featuring 200-foot-high bluffs and horseback trails — serves more than enough scenic escapism to be enjoyed for the masses. And unlike Batteries to Bluffs Trail, you can take your pup here, as well as let them off the leash; park in the lot off Skyline Boulevard for easiest access to the trailheads.

La Grande Community Garden

Shouldering the much-larger John McLaren park,, this quaint hub of beautiful blossoms and utilitarian vegetables is ringed with spacious walking trails, perfect for a quick escape from your bedroom's maddening confines. The paths around La Grande Community Garden, too, are fairly level and don't ebb and flow in elevation, making them easy to tackle. Nextdoor Crocker Amazon Playground offers great socially distanced green spaces to either indulge in a picnic or to get your heartbeat racing with some in-place workouts.

Start of Crosstown Trail

You don't need to take the Crosstown Trail in its 17-mile entirely to experience its scenic glory, and sometimes testing hill climbs (and situational urban frustrations.) A good chunk of that same breathtaking landscape can be had in the first three miles walking the Start of Crosstown Trail — where you'll have no problem socially distancing. Parking is easy and abundant near Hunters Point Expressway. But, beware: If you park inside the Candlestick Point Recreation Area's parking lot, make sure you get back around 7 p.m., or the gates will trape your automobile on the other side of it.

Philosopher's Way

The aptly named walkway through John McLaren's Park is noted for helping squeeze-out those contemplative juices. A bit under three miles long, the quite flat hike circles the latter mentioned park, putting hikers and runners in the way of wildflowers and wildlife, as well as sinking them into a level stillness rare in this seven-by-seven mile slice of NorCal.

Yosemite Slough

The Yosemite Slough Wetland is nestled in the Candlestick Point State Recreation Area and, more or less, not well known amongst hikers. (Read: the trailheads and pathways are usually empty, no matter the time of day you choose to go explore it.) The estuary is also a prime spot for bird watching — great egrets, double-crested cormorants, brown pelicans! — smackdab on the Pacific Flyway and also offers some nice, quiet respite from the otherwise loud car traffic nearby. As tempting as it may be, opt to stick to the marked trails; the Yosemite Slough Wetland is in restoration; many of the shore areas and green spaces are still recovering from erroneous human intrusion.

Douglass Stairs to Kite Hill

Sure: it's shouldering sister apexes, Twin Peaks, get a lot of hype — but the smaller, less-trafficked Kite Hill is a hiking touchstone that shouldn't go unturned. Less than a mile long, it's a no-brainer quick jot to take if you're in the area. The Douglas stairs are latticed with vines, and there's always some sort of avian or mammalian neighbor sitting (or perching) somewhere on the trail, too; orange and purple wildflowers are bountiful even toward the tail end of July. Stop along the way at the Corwin Street Community Gardens before ascending to the peak to see 360-degree views of the city.

Edgehill Mountain Open Space Park Trail

This open space is an albatross to most San Franciscans, mostly in part because it exists between both Twin Peaks and Mt. Davidson — and is often overlooked, figuratively speaking. (If you're at the top of those previously mentioned summits, you'll for sure see Edgehill Mountain.) The trail to its summit is a simple out-and-back trek that won't take more than 35 minutes if you're going at a reasonable click. Take a pause at the top to appreciate the view of the Pacific to the west.

East Bay

Piedmont Park's Prospect-Mountain Trail

Without needing to drive a good way from downtown, Oaklandians can find some urban respite at the surprisingly quiet Piedmont Park. The Prospect-Mountain Trail, a wide walking and hiking passage that crosses the area, leads you to a few picnic spots and open spaces where you can plop down, read a book, or... just do nothing at but relax. And to hit two metaphorical birds with one stone, pick up produce at the nearby farmer's market, Green Market, which is held every Saturday behind the Park Tavern parking lot.

Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline

Part of the East Bay Regional Parks system, the park covers 741 acres of land leased from the Oakland Airport that features a bevy of accessible green spaces and gorgeous, shore-hugging trails. Bird watching is phenomenal here; the areas near the Arrowhead Marsh are frequented by birds traveling on the Pacific Flyway. All the hiking trails are both wide and level, and you can sunbathe at Doolittle Beach off Hegenberger Road.

Claremont Canyon Regional Preserve

The 208-acre preserve — nestled right between Oakland and Berkely — is snaked with hiking and equestrian trails that serve up glorious panoramas of Bay Area cities. The Stonewall-Panoramic Trail is a 0.75-mile climb, offering the main access to the preserve via from Stonewall Road to the ridgetop is steep and, as the name suggests, gives hikers a grand view of the SF Bay. Similarly, the nearby Gwin Canyon Trail, located south of Claremont Avenue, sits on the descent from the north end of Norfolk Road; expect to come shoe-first to a myriad of native vegetation and wildlife.

Anthony Chabot Regional Park

Shouldering the Oakland Zoo — which, alas, has finally reopened to sold-out crowds — the Anthony Chabot Regional Park includes not only some of the Bay Area's best local campgrounds but phenomenal hiking as well. For an all-in-one experience that spans the gamut, take the park's 8-plus-mile Redtail Trail Loop which puts walkers in the way of grasslands, chaparral, and groves of towering eucalyptus; hikers will also bud up against Lake Chabort's northern shorelines. To just take advantage of the viewshed atop the San Leandro Hills, traverse the part of the trail that sits between the intersection of Redwood and Marciel roads, and Public Gun Range and Mariciel roads.

McLaughlin Eastshore State Seashore

This shoreline refuge is crossed by a small chunk of the San Francisco Bay Trail that also includes swaths of grass to revel in some socially distant picnicking atop of or do other recreational merriments at — conducted six-feet-away from another human, of course. The tidelands ing the area include tidal marshes and mudflats that extend from the shoreline; a lot of the existing upland area is the result of "fill placement" in the Bay west of the historic shoreline. The shoreline's wide hiking trails offer a glimpse into the Bay Area's unique, often cumbersome, relationship with both natural systems and human interventions to help preserve it (and erase our prior environmental mistakes).

North Bay

SCA Trail

Though the Marin Headlands are notorious for being popular with the outdoor ilk, the SCA Trail north of Kirby Cove is a welcoming, less-trafficked pathway through the area. The trail cuts into the side of the mountain and faces westward, giving you picturesque views of the all-consuming greenery. To take the two-mile(ish) back-and-out trail a bit further, veer onto the Coastal Trail — a hike that'll also put you within walking distance of Slack Hill — to extend it out another mile or so each way.

Green Gulch Trail

A 4.1-mile loop trail with a moderate degree of difficulty (read: you'll ebb and flow in elevation quite a bit), the Green Gulch Trail offers great views of the ocean and groves of tree life. It's not only well maintained year-round, but hikers can choose to go through the organic community farm to start their journey, should they choose to pull the e-brake at the Muir Beach Parking lot. People have noted that fellow hikers are respectful of social distancing and almost everyone had a mask, too boot. And though the Green Gulch Farm, the shouldering Buddhist practice center that the trail itself is named after, consider viewing one of their free Sunday live streams on a nearby patch of green to find some needed zen amidst a very uncentering time in human history.

Related: The 11 Best Hikes: East & North Bay Edition

New Bay Trail Expansion Offers Glorious SF Bay Views and Connects Oakland to Richmond

The 9 Best Urban Hikes In SF

Image: Taken at an overlook at Tank Hill, courtesy of SFist/ Matt Charnock

A hiker was killed and another injured after a cliff collapsed in Point Reyes National Seashore.

The Arch Rock overlook, popular with hikers, crumbled into the sea sometime before 6 p.m. on Saturday afternoon. The collapse sent the two hikers down a 70-foot drop, with the surviving individual suffering non-life threatening but serious injuries. "Obviously there is a tragedy and one person didn't survive, but one person did and hopefully this won't happen again, a spokesman with the National Park Service told the Chronicle.

Park rangers had placed warning signs advising visitors to stay off the crumbling bluff just three days before the collapse, after giant fissures began forming in the ground.

The area remains closed with the due to the possibility of further erosion or collapse. The overlook is accessible via the 8.2-mile Bear Valley Trail, and is a well known spot for its spectacular views of the ocean. Hours before the incident, another hiker spotted dozens of people on the overlook, ignoring the warnings from the signs. "It was clear no one should be on that rock with the huge fissure," said Karen Blasing.

by Matt Baume

Well, it would have been nice, but it's not going to happen. A delightful upgrade to a waterfront trail in the Presidio has officially been given the gong.

Back in October, the US Access Board (which establishes guidelines for accommodating the disabled) and the National Park Service zeroed in on the Battery Marcus Miller Covered Way, which we've never heard of and can't find any pictures of but it's apparently beautiful but not as accessible as it should be.

The plan for fixing it up sure sounds pretty: build a nice bridge, replace a route that was destroyed in 2006 by a landslide, improve bike access, and remove the Sand Ladder.

Alas, it is not to be. Everyone loved the bike improvements, but paving roads through the wilderness and removing the Sand Ladder caused consternation. Citing a "lack of community consensus" and "limited resources," the Park Service is basically just giving up on the trickiest elements of the coastal trail improvements.

While taking in the (allegedly) gorgeous weather yesterday, a 20-year-old Marin hiker fell from the cliffs above Rodeo Beach in the Marin Headlands, and died. The unidentified woman, while walking with her hiking partner who was hurt during a "rescue attempt," was, according to SFGate, "hiking ahead of her partner when he heard her scream and saw rocks falling. The man hiked down the hillside to help her. It was unclear how he was injured."

Between yesterday's bizarre tree-related death at Stern Grove and this fatal hike in the Marin Headlands, nature is scaring us now more than ever before.

Update: The hiker has been identified as Phoebe Washer.

Everybody get and Fancy Free: A Field Survey of Walkable Urban Places in the Top 30 U.S. Metropolitan Areas here in .pdf.

But why are we talking about Portland? And what about the claim we are the most walkable city in the entire U.S.? See you after the jump.

According to plaintiff's attorney Greg Walston, this hourly minimum (derived from the rate at the worker-owned and operated Lusty Lady), is meant to protect dancers from having to resort to prostitution or face going home without much to show for their work. According to the journal, Deja Vu threatened a countersuit based on the allegations of hooking at their clubs:

A lawyer who defended some of the clubs in the lawsuit said his clients did not admit any wrongdoing in the settlement, and he denied the claims of prostitution.

"It's a ridiculous allegation," said Douglas Melton of Long & Levit LLP. "We deny there was any illegal activity going on in the clubs we represented."

Walston, who had filed detailed reports in court from police officers, private investigators and others about offers for sexual acts, said, "The record speaks for itself."

The only thing missing from this full-blown summer are the extra hours we lost to Daylight Takings Away a couple weeks back. (Did you know the federal government has already legislated extending Daylight Savings? Of course it's a phase-in thing that will not begin for 2 years, but it's already been approved ;) On top of the perfect weather perhaps you've noticed the moon lately. At the horizon it's been appearing bigger than a basketball and over head it's been so bright you could read an ironic mission bohemian's t-shirt from 25 feet. Of course all this dry warm fall weather also means it's fire weather - especially in the east bay hills where temperatures have reached in the 80s the last 7 days - so watch those cherries.

If you're in town next week and have some time off, take advantage of the quiet roads and consider getting outside as the weather should be great. It would be a great time to hike, bike or kayak in Point Reyes and Tomales Bay. Big Basin on the way to Santa Cruz and Henry Coe just past Gilroy both have nice late season camping and hiking. Of course our favorite November camping/hiking locale is Pinnacles National Monument. The eastern campground rarely ever fills up, the central valley air is warm and the hikes around the ancient epic extinct volcano are always astounding. Watch where you place your hand, however as tarantulas like it there too, though they are completely harmless in these parts. Locally, if you want to stay in Ess Eff and enjoy the ample parking and uncrowded roads, the Conservatory of Flowers is always transporting geographically as the nearby Japanese Tea Garden is spiritually. Baker, China and Chrissy Field offer great in-city beaches and quick trips down or up Highway 1 will cure what ails you ... every time. Enjoy!