February 21, 2013 - Balconies Trail

Trail head: Old Pinnacles Parking Lot

Hike Info:
Trail: Balconies Trail
Destination: Balconies Caves
Distance: 6.0
Travel Time: 3:10 (1.89 mph)
Moving Time:  2:25 (2.48 mph)
Elevation Rise: 826'
Maximum Elevation: 1.523'

Campsite #59

 Description:

I woke up first and read a few minutes from the Imitation of Christ. Then worked on this blog. Andrea got up about 45 minutes later, followed by Sherri. It is oatmeal for breakfast again. Yummy. Then we all pack up camp. Andrea leaves us around 10:30 and we head off to the trail head, after breaking camp.

Chalone Canyon

The trail head which we started at is called The Old Pinnacles Road. Way back when I was in Boy Scouts, we would camp there. Now, it is paved, instead of a dirt road. Also, there is nothing at the end of the road instead of an undeveloped campground. I think the campground was closer to the cave than where the parking lot is.

Balconies

We get out of the car and hit the road around 11. The Balconies Trail is pretty level, with some small ups and downs. Part way it follows the old road. It is hard packed, sandy soil, mostly in the shade. Chalone Creek creeps past us, sometimes flowing, other times disappearing. But what really strikes you is the huge rock cliffs which start to loom above us as we get closer to the caves. The area narrows down until we get to the base of a rock fall. These are the caves.

Sherri Climbing

Pondering the Climb

We don our headlamps and enter the boulder field. The boulders are stacked 40-80' high. Right from the get-go, these are not the caves I remember. The public could pretty much walk through them then. But now, we have to crawl up places, being careful not to bump our heads-Sherri did a few times, ouch! We also climbed up some steep , small steps in places-glad we had boots on. The headlamps came in use many times. There are no large caverns on this trip. But the clutter of rock make the caves interesting. Towards the end of the cave section, we come across several chockstones wedged straight above us-in some places causing us to duck. After going through there, I felt like Aron Ralston, but with two arms, thankfully.

Above the Caves

Yours truly, forgot to bring, or even pack, our lunch. So we had to be content to eat a Clif bar at the end of the trail, just after crossing the creek. We then decided to use a trail which bypasses the caves, but goes up towards the base of the Balconies. This ascent, reminded me, more in texture and temperature, than duration and rise of Refrigerator Canyon in Zion. The redness of the rock and the rising up to see the lay of the land. But the ascent only took about 20 minutes.

California Condor

Condors at their Next

When we got close to the base, we saw some black looking birds circling high up. One of them landed in a hole in the rock wall. The rest circled around. We looked at them for a good 15 minutes. Looked like some California Condors to us. As we traveled the base of the cliffs, we were able to look down on the boulder field which created the Balconies caves. It is still pretty impressive. We got back to the car around 2pm and took off.

Instead of coming back via Hollister, like we came, we went south down highway 25, towards Coalinga. There is some. Beautiful spring scenery in that area. Also, pretty isolated territory. Enjoyable drive. Had a Subway sandwich in Coalinga, then headed home. Got back to the house around 5.:30. Unpacked and had dinner at Casa. Pretty satisfying trip.

References:
Feb 19th Hike
Feb 20th Hike

February 20, 2013 - High Peaks Trail, Pinnacles

Trail head: Bear Gulch Parking Lot

Hike Info:
Trail: Condor, High Peaks, Rim, Bear Gulch Trails, also the Bench Trail
Distance: 8.8
Travel Time: 7:00 (1.26 mph)
Moving Time: 4:03  (2.17 mph)
Elevation Rise: 2,450'
Maximum Elevation: 2,623'


Description:
When I got up, a bit late, went out for a short walk up the Bench Trail to a fire access road. Cold. How cold was it? The rain drops on the bushes from last night's rain were frozen to them; frost was layered on the cars. But it was beautiful and clear.

Sherri and Andrea taking a break

Once everyone else got up, we fixed oatmeal for breakfast. Then got ready for our hike with the meet up group. We were there shortly after 9, at the appointed time. After waiting awhile, we were talking about what our plans should be since we were not seeing them. But about the time we were going to leave, we heard a caravan of cars coming up the road-our wonderful companions from Fresno, all 18 of them.

Condor-look close--it is tagged as #59, same as our campsite

After getting some instruction, we hit the trail. It is a pretty good incline. One person in the group asks parenthentically, is this an easy to moderate hike? But the morning is cool and the group is good, so the adventure is fun. We sort of split into two groups-those have the ability to go fast, and those of us with the ability to observe the small things on the trail. I have been noticing that I fall much more into the later group these days. There is still hail on the ground from yesterday. One of the things which makes us forget any incline is watching the condors gliding overhead. Such grace!

High Peaks

As we hit the top of the ridge, we have the chance to enjoy the view of the park. We descend a short ways on the west side of the ridge, and that is when the trail becomes interesting. You get to climb up steps cut into the rock, not regulation type of steps, but just a little bit more than toe holds. There is a rail to help steady us. But this only makes it a bit better to climb. Some in our group have thoughts of turning back, but to their credit, they continued on and overcame their fears. That is courage. The worse part was coming down steps on the other side. I went down facing the rock, seemed much more like coming down a ladder that way.

Sherri and Andrea on our rock

Close to the top, we meet a guy who is monitoring the condors. He is very informative. We stopped for a lunch-mine was the other half of the Subway sandwich we bought yesterday. Tasted even better the second day. We came to the junction of the High Peaks and Rim Trails. This is where Andrea and I went down to Moss Springs yesterday. We go the opposite direction today. Still nice, maybe even better in the sun.

Moss and Sherri

At the reservoir, Andrea takes off down the Cholane Peak Trail. she still has a lot of energy. Sherri and I go down the trail back to Moss Springs. Some of us, go through the caves, others go around it. Sherri, John and I are the last people. We back-track a few times, but nothing too serious. We get to the Bear Gulch parking lot a few minutes after everyone else does. We all enjoyed ourselves, I think. The meetup group takes off for dinner in San Juan Baptista.

Creek through cave

Sherri and I decide to walk back to camp, about two miles. Mostly flat, but a little downhill in one place. We start getting dinner ready and Andrea comes in shortly after us. It has been a pretty good day. Andrea starts a fire, and we enjoy our spaghetti, chicken, white sauce concoction.by the time the fire burns out, it is close to ten and I am ready for the comforts of my sleeping bag.

Sherri caught in the smoke

References:
Feb 19th Hike
Feb 21st Hike

February 19, 2013 - Bear Gulch Caves Pinnacles

Trail head: Moss Springs Parking Lot

Hike Info:
Trail: Bear Gulch Cave, Rim Trail
Destination: Bear Gulch Reservoir
Distance: about 2 miles


Description:

Start of Hike

This is a three day camping trip, with Andrea at the new Pinnacles National Park. Sherri and I leave from Fresno a little after 8am and stop only in Hollister to get a Subway sandwich for us all. The weather has been warm for February, but the weather forecast says there will be a change. The weather does not disappoint. We find a campsite, #59 in the Pinnacles Campground. We get the tent pitched and go for a walk to pay our fee while waiting for Andrea. The rains start and it turns cold. But Andrea arrives round this time. She has a table rain cover which works out good (probably would work better pitched a little different.)

Andrea

While the rains came, we ate or sandwich. Then crawled into our tent and played Ticket to Ride on Sherri's iPad. Andrea won-pretty good for a first timer. The rain started slacking a little before four. So Andrea and I decided to go for a short walk around Bear Gulch. First opportunity to wear a pair of rain pants David got me a couple years go.

Falls in Caves

We went up to the Moss Springs parking lot and started from there. Up the trail-I am puffing some trying to keep up with Andrea's slow pace. But we get to the caves, which are more like giant rocks thrown into piles, forming tunnel ways through the rock. But there is a small creek going through the rocks with some nice little places where water drops down 20-30 feet. We enjoy our time walking among the rock. We even chose a route in on place which led us astray, but not badly. I needed to crawl through one or two places. Fun stuff.

Bear Gulch Reservoir

We come up on the reservoir and gawk at the sun being gloomed upon by some mending rain clouds. But the over all picture is one of beauty with the reflection on the reservoir. We met a couple of guys surveying old mines for NPS. They had been caught out in the storm. Said hat it even snowed a bit on them. Later on we would figure they were a little above 2000' up. We move on, going up the Rim Trail. Nice views from this trail, looking down into the ravine where Bear Gulch resides. At the junction with the High Peaks Trail, we decide to head back. It had been sprinkling on and off, and then it turned into hail. Just enough hail to turn the ground white in places. Got back to the car a little after five and headed back to camp in a jolly good mood.

Hail in Hand

When we got back to the car, we came upon the two people we met at the reservoir. Andrea discovered the pack's rain cover had slipped off. So she went up the trail to retrieve it. Turned out to be about a mile plus. While she was doing that, I talked with the guys. Turned out they were up Frog Canyon. They ultimately report their findings to Denver NPS.

Enterance into Bear Gulch Cave

The rain has started up again. But dinner needs to be cooked. It is Sherri's left over drunken chicken with brown rice. We eat and enjoy, albeit a bit cold. After cleaning up, we retreat into the tent for a rematch of Ticket to Ride. Then it is off to our sleeping bags, and the warmth in them. Andrea is sleeping in her tent.


References:
Feb 20th Hike
Feb 21st Hike