March 4, 2015 - High Peaks at Pinnacles

Title: March 4, 2015 - High Peaks at Pinnacles

 Trail head: Bear Gulch Visitor Center

 Hike Info:

Type:  Hiking

Trail: Bear Gulch, Condor Gulch, High Peaks, Rim, Moss Creek, Bear Gulch Cave Trails and others

Destination: Loop-High peaks

Distance: 6.08 miles ¹

Start Time: 9:45

End Time: 3:38

Travel Time: 5:53 (1.03 mph)

Moving Time: 4:28 (1.36 mph)

Elevation Rise: 1,963'

Maximum Elevation: 2,531'
¹Inside of the Bear Gulch caves the GPS lost its signal for a ways. There is many false readings. I modified the GPS track try to take out some of the extraneous signals. Also around the High Peaks area, there was a couple bad readings which may have exaggerated the distance.

Description:
Back to back hikes-I am getting too old for this, particularly with the long three hour drive both ways. Thankfully Sherri is driving this morning. DD and Betty are in our car and we have a good, wide ranging conversation on the way over.

We stop at the closed Visitor's Center to pick up a park pass. We also mill around for awhile. Then we pass by the entrance station, when one car, a blue RAV4 with bike racks on top, realizes that a park pass was not picked up. So back they go and get legal. We get to the Bear Gulch parking lot around 9:30 and hit the trail at 9:45.

Bear Gulch Trail

Our first trail is the real climb up: Bear Gulch Trail. Compared to some High Sierra passes, it is not much. But it does get your legs working and wondering what else are you in for, Our destination rises in front of us: the High Peaks. They do not look formidable, but they will provide their own challenges. So it is best to be on our way.

But to be on our way is easier said than done. We come across several good vistas which any good hiker will pause to ponder. Not only that, I stop and talk with a couple of NPS rangers who are tracking bird. Not just any birds, but one is finding raptors; the other is on California Condor watch. I think we talked with one of them a couple of years ago. But something which Sherri and I find more and more is that hiking is a social event as well.  A little while later we come across a couple from the city of Mt Shasta. Turns out he is retired from running a small airport. He also ran a business which supplied CalFire with aircraft for fire suppression. It was interesting talking with him from our limited experience up in a fire lookout tower.

Looking down a Bear Gulch

Machete Ridge

But now we are far behind, so we hurry up to catch up with the rest of the group. We do catch up with with the tail end as we came to a junction. They were resting under a tree, enjoying the view to the north. The two most prominent features are Machete Ridge and the Balconies. Between the two of them are a complex of boulders which create more cave like caverns. The Balconies provide refuge for birds, including condors.

On our wandering as we climb towards the spine of the Pinnacles, we see rock formations which fascinate us. I guess that is why we travel three hours to walk these trails. There just is not much like them anywhere else.

Climbing up towards High Peaks

But as we reach the pinnacle of our hike-sorry, could not resist the pun-we encounter the part of the trail which makes this whole hike fun. Well, at least for some of us. At the top, you climb these steep cement steps which have only a toe-hold and a grab bar to get you up. This is definitely not a place for those with vertigo. But we all make a go of it. It is really fun watching how people conquer their fears and move on. A good case in point is Maria. Two years ago, she was at the point of refusing this section of trail. This year she just went right up the stairs and down the other side. Sooo good! Still this section is either fun or scary, depending on your disposition.

The Big Squeeze

After doing a short descent from the high point, we have a break on top of the ridge which High Peaks reside on. Nothing special, just a time of rest before we start our return trip.

Lava Flow

The first part of the trip down is pretty steep and some do a butt drag maneuver. My preference is a crab crawl facing the slope rather than looking out. Each conquer their fears their own way. After this section, we head down and the trail becomes more trail like than an exercise in going down a slot.

Sample of trail

 Like the rest of the Pinnacles, we get to enjoy more formations and even some lava flows, and of course, many outcroppings. At a junction some people would like to go the more direct way back to the cars, but in doing so, they would miss a couple highlights of the trip. There are even some surprise highlights, like a field of purple flowers gracing a small water shed. Will the Pinnacles ever quit showing off its wonders? Annie Dillard talks about this in The Pilgrim at Tinker Creek:

If the landscape reveals one certainty, it is that the extravagant gesture is the very stuff of creation. After the one extravagant gesture of creation in the first place, the universe has continued to deal exclusively in extravagances, flinging intricacies and colossi down aeons of emptiness, heaping profligacies with ever
fresh vigor.

Bear Gulch Reservoir

It is by God's grace do we get to experience these gestures in this world. Maybe it is just me, but I am the last one down to Bear Gulch Reservoir, but I do enjoy my doodling along the trail. Once we all gather there, it is down into the caves. Much to explore, and there is excitement of what these caverns have to offer. Most of us go through the lower ones, but a group come out of the upper ones, trying to draw the rest of us back up. But those of us in the rear are ready for the car and can now rest on our enjoyment of what we have seen.

Cathey has organized a pot luck where there is enough food for all. Around 5 we break up. Some want to go south to explore the route through Coalinga. Sherri and I did that last time we were here, so we go north as it is the quickest back. Also it will be dark before we get back. So off we go, content with our day.

Machete Ridge