Michael We have been living in San Francisco for the past 22 years, and during that time, we have always been on the lookout for secluded neighborhoods that no tourist has yet discovered. Apparently, there are more people like us, because a few months ago, the "Crosstown Trail Coalition," a committee of hiking enthusiasts, published the description of the San Francisco Crosstown Trails", a 20 mile long footpath through the city that passes by little-known attractions, even by local standards.

It begins at Candlestick Park in the far southeast of the city, winds his way through the somewhat more rustic neighborhoods of Bayview and Visitation Valley up to Bernal Heights, the home of our hippie millionaires. From there, hikers then trek through the middle class Glen Park and the affluent neighborhood of Forest Hill, to then pass through the Chinese Sunset District, to Golden Gate Park, and subsequently through the Presidio Park to the "Lands End" viewpoint at the far northwest of the city, to reach the ocean.

In doing so, the city explorer wanders through "Old Money" neighborhoods like Forrest Hill, where old mansions with a good 20 rooms stand on properties with generous driveways, and a Rolls Royce is parked out front. The path also leads over a no less than 30-feet-wide staircases between residential houses, but no one climbs the stairs because in this hilly area, no one walks. These staircases probably date back to times when city planners thought that within 50 years, a crazy hustle and bustle would ensue in Forest Hill, but instead, the area developed into a sleepy residential neighborhood for the super-rich.

Although these stairs often look like they belong to adjacent private residences, they are all public and curious individuals are allowed to use them as they please. They often connect rows of houses in hilly areas where city planners could not construct a direct connecting road due to the steepness of the slopes. The Crosstown Trail is designed to cover as many of these hidden stairs as possible, it seems to me.

The path offers beautiful views continuously, but of course, only if everything isn't fogged up again, which in San Francisco northwest of Twin Peaks is often hit or miss. As always, it is advisable to bring a warm jacket, just in case, because tourists frozen into icicles are repeatedly found along the way. We walked the Crosstown Trail in stages, and either took public transportation to the starting points or parked the car there and took an Uber back to the car after the stage.

Since there are no signs to outline the path, the hiker either uses the trail's smartphone app or prints out so-called cue sheets, which indicate at which street intersections to turn left or right, to follow the route. Nowadays, the Crosstown Trail is very popular, so you often see people sneaking through tiny residential streets with printed sheets of paper in hand, nodding knowingly when they see that you are also reading from a sheet of paper while walking.

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• More topics you might be interested in:

  	DIY Tire Repair
  	Summer Vacation
  	Key Duplication Machine
  	Trends: Driving old Hondas
  	Polamarin Hiking Trail in Point Reyes
  	Electoral College
  	Top product: JB-Weld