disobedience, civilly
When I arrived at my pilgrimage destination, I saw there was a 6-ft. high chain-link fence with 3 strands of barbed wire on top, between the old Fleishhacker Arch and the SF Zoo parking lot.
As San Francisco oldtimers know, the parking lot area was once the site of the Fleishhacker pool which, when it opened exactly a century ago was touted as the largest outdoor swimming pool in the country. The arch is the only thing remaining of the old bathhouse, as the whole thing was finally torn down in 2012, even as the pool itself was paved over in 1999, after decades of neglect and misuse from the early 1970s on.
I'd always wanted to visit the site, and decided to do so yesterday, and to sit zazen underneath the archway ruins. Only to find there was no way into it due to that unfriendly fencing. So, I walked around to the ocean side of the site, and saw that the sand had piled up high enough at one point along the length of the fence such that I could simply step over the top of it, and walk down to the Arch (the ocean side of the fence didn't have barbed wire, thankfully). There were no maintenance or security folks around, so I walked unnoticed down the iceplant-covered dunes to the Arch.
Started snapping pics with my phone, when a couple of security guys on bicycles on the Zoo Parking side rode up and said I was in a private area and had to leave; they asked me how I got in there, and I told them about the dune buildup on the other side, and was just here to take photos of the arch ruins. They said I could do so, and then leave, after which they rode off. Of course I did the first part, and then sat by the sea-facing side of the arch, my back to the Parking lot. From that vantage point I was invisible to any observer, and so peacefully sat a while, the scree and calls of segulls and ravens mixing with the sound of the surf across the highway.
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I've added the spot to my Zazen Loci in SF map.