Monday, April 29, 2013

Rim to Rim to Rim & Phantom Creek 2013

I'm standing in a pool in Phantom Creek in water up to my arm pits.  Jerry says, "How deep is it?"  I say, "How would I know?"  He knows very well, I dove in and swam across, without touching botom.  But he says, "How deep is it?"  I realize what he means is, "Walk back across the pool and let me see how far the water goes over your head."  I take a couple steps and the water quickly gets "over my mouth."  I bob back to my prior spot.  That's as much information as I'm going to give him.  He wants to step off the ledge with his pack on.  He hopes he can touch bottom and walk out.  It didn't work in 2001.  I don't know why it would work now...

Overview - April 18 – April 24, 2013
• Hike down South Kaibab Trail to Bright Angel Campground,
• Then up to Cottonwood,
• Day hike to North Rim with day packs, stay at Cottonwood,
• Hike down to Bright Angel again, wait until there is shade on the hill, hike up to Utah Flats,
• Hike west and down into Phantom Creek
• Hike east, right down Phantom Creek to Bright Angel Creek and back to BA Campground
• Hike out Bright Angel Trail
Weather – not a hint of rain, lows between 48 and 55, highs between 75 and 85. Perfect! Hooded sweatshirts were bulky to pack but made the lows quite tolerable.
Pictures – The love/hate relationship with his camera continued for Norm. Disregard all 1/1/2008 dates.
We had done all of this on two other trips
• Rim to Rim to Rim and over to Phantom Creek but flow was too high to hike down Phantom creek. We hiked back through Utah Flats. 1998
• Clear Creek and Phantom Creek, when we actually hiked down Phantom creek. 2001 Both hikes are described in this blog

Day 1 – South Kaibab Trail – Awoke 5AM at Red Feather Hotel. Big Breakfast at McDonalds. Parked at Visitor Center. Caught first ‘orange route’ bus in about 5 minutes. Walking by 6:30. Lots of people descending with just day packs. Assumed they were day hikers but none turned around. Must have cabins at Phantom Ranch or they had their duffels carried by mules for about $69.00 each. We passed no one. We met out first up hiker at 9:17, near the top of the Redwall, just two minutes after Jerry’s amazing prediction. We took off our packs and rested at Cedar Ridge and again at the Tipoff with a few shorter pauses along the way.

After we crossed the Colorado River on the Black Bridge we met a familiar pair, who we saw coming down. Now they seemed to be going back up. We asked if they were going for the South Rim. They said, “We’re going to give it a try.” The Park Service has signs at the trail heads strongly recommending that you do not attempt this. There is no alternative, once you start back up. The only questions are when you might finish, and can you do it without being “rescued” by the Park Service. We were to soon learn that Rim to River and Back in a day is not considered much of a feat any more.

Bright Angel Campground was only about one third full when we arrived at 12:20. We were happy to find that the third site looked like it would be shady most of the day, and we dropped our packs there. Had lunch, napped, read, went up to Phantom Ranch for a cup of coffee. There we chatted with a geologist who was on a 14 day boat trip with a group of geologists, solving the geological puzzles of the Canyon. We found four other parties of Michigan people at BA Campground, some from Royal Oak. Nice talk with a father/son duo from Flint. Son on leave from Army. Had come to the Grand Canyon hoping to get a back country permit, since they had struck out by mail. Lucked into a four day trip. First day, Indian Gardens, which they arrived at via South Kaibab and Tonto Trails, for good measure. Had been to Cottonwood and were hiking out Bright Angel next day. Entertaining and informative ranger talk on Failures in the Grand Canyon, including the Spaniards, Ives, Stanton, the NPS “deer drive”, NPS burro removal by boat, and more. The ranger also took questions on about any subject of the Grand Canyon. At our site we read a story from the Vinyl CafĂ© book, and went to sleep about 9:00 (midnight Michigan time). Lots of stars once the moon set.


Day 2 – On to Cottonwood with stop at Ribbon Falls – This walk is a very gradual climb on the North Kaibab Trial. The trail is constructed on top of and to protect the waterline that runs from Roaring Springs below the North rim down to Phantom Ranch, crosses the Colorado River below the Silver Bridge, and then goes up to Indian Garden where the water is pumped up to holding tanks on the South Rim. This waterline had been disrupted by flash floods of the Bright Angel Creek, and so they have really reinforced the walls and dikes that protect it. It is all buried beneath the relatively smooth trail, which runs along the Bright Angel Creek, through the very narrow inner gorge rock and then opens up as it runs north. When you reach, Cottonwood, you are at the Tapeats Sandstone level.

We started at 6:50. Jerry’s pack crossbar was quite askew. He attempted to “adjust” it with a large rock, but couldn’t get it to budge. We were in the welcome shade until about 10:30. We were passed by some Michigan people who had hiked down Grandview and over to S. Kaibab on the Tonto. Norm had considered that hike a few times but never pursued it due to concern about dependable water sources. These folks said water was available at 2-3 locations and was not an issue. This lead Norm to conjecture about a Grandview to maybe Hermit trip. (Later consideration lead to visions of full days in the sun on the debilitating and pretty boring Tonto trail, and abandonment of this potential trip.) As we were resting in the shade we were caught by a young fellow, who had only a Camelback/daypack. He had come all the way from the South Rim, was going to the North Rim, and then planned to go back to the South Rim, ALL IN ONE DAY. He had started at about 4:30AM with a headlamp. He passed us at about 9:00AM and then passed Cottonwood going the other direction at about 2:00PM, so was maybe on pace to finish by 8 or 9PM, with his headlamp and the moon. We were impressed.

We reached the Ribbon Falls bridge about 11:30, so dropped our packs and went over for lunch. Always beautiful and cool. No one was at the falls while we were eating. A lone woman hiker arrived as we were leaving. There was a single woman hiker at Cottonwood when we arrived at 1:00PM. A few other parties joined us, but the campground was only about half full. We rinsed clothes and cleaned up in the creek by the ranger’s house. The flies at Cottonwood are relentless, so we were back in long sleeves, and long pants. Norm even completely (almost) zipped up his bivy sack to keep the flies out. After dinner we played trivia on the benches down by the creek. Norm slept poorly and frequently read his Kindle in the middle of the night. He inadvertently learned that he could magnify the font to be large enough to read without his glasses, this because he forgot to put them on.

Day 3 – To the North Rim and Back – day packs only. The whole idea behind this route in 1998 was to see if we could be the first to the North Rim before it opened for the season. In ’98, there was about 40 inches of snow with snow extending at least a mile down the trail. There were two sets of foot prints ahead of us, so we were confident we were numbers 3, 4, and 5 to the North Rim in 1998. This year, the trail was full of trail runners going South Rim to North Rim to South Rim in a day. By our count, at least 38 people beat us to the North Rim just on the day we climbed up. We, of course, don’t know how many made it on prior days. By our count, a total of 60 people got to the North rim on April 20 alone, all except the two of us started on the South Rim. All but 6 made it back, as far as we know. They started as early as midnight the night before and as late as 7:00AM that morning. One of the best trail runners in the country was among them. He had no shirt, and carried about 1 liter of water, no food that we could see. We were, of course, impressed by the endurance of these runners. We were amazed that no one took a header off one of these rugged and narrow trails.

We left Cottonwood at 6:20. We met National Park Ranger, D. Yorick, somewhere in the Muav Limestone. When we said we were coming up from Cottonwood, she said, “Oh, you are normal people.” She was also amazed by the runners. We discussed the issues they raise for the Park Service, and commiserated on the lack of means to manage or control their use of the park. No one yet knows how many rescues are required for these folks, but one can guess at the additional resources they use, along the corridor trails. Ranger Yorick was carrying an automatic pistol and a tazer pistol, and an umbrella for the sun. An interesting combination. She had ferried a car over to the North Rim and was walking back to her job on the South Rim. What a life. She told us about the “Cattle Trail” over to Phantom Creek. It comes off the North Kaibab Trail at the first bridge going south from Cottonwood. We paused there the next day and saw what looked like some “action” at a creek crossing and maybe a bit of a trail. She said it was tedious, and we knew it would be exposed to the sun, so we stuck with our plan to go via Utah Flats. On our way from Utah Flats to Phantom Creek, we looked for a trail on the North side of the creek. We couldn’t see one, but at that distance it wasn’t surprising. There might be one.

There were approximately 10 points where noticeable damage had been done to the North Kaibab trail by falling rocks. At one point a rock had impacted and dislodged a great deal of reinforcing rock and left the trail about 10 inches wide. No mules down that section for a while. The most obvious impact was at the Supai Tunnel. The rock above the North entrance to the tunnel had collapsed leaving about two thirds of the tunnel mouth filled with rock. It is easy to scramble over, but once again, no mules through there for a while. There was no water at Supai Tunnel or at the North Rim trail head. Norm melted some snow in a zip lock bag.




There were a few runners at the trail head when we arrived at 11:40 and a steady stream followed. Eventually a fellow in a 50 Mile race shirt came up and made a big deal about an injured young man who would be up soon. We were to tell him to wait, and Mr. 50 Miles would be getting help. Eventually a ranger car and a ranger ambulance arrived. We had seen the young man in question on the way up and doubted that he could get back to the South Rim, but he did not look injured, just very tired. The ranger discussed his condition and all potential options. It seemed that the “best” option for the young man was an ambulance ride to Kanab Utah. Mr. 50 Miles also got permission to bring the other 4 of his party along. I guess this would be considered a preventive rescue. The young man was going to need some sort of assistance, somewhere. Better on the rim than at the bottom of the canyon.

While all of these considerations were being pursued, one of the rangers took a few people over to a water source. Those people filled bottles for the rest of us. Jerry and I would have made it back to the pump operator’s house but it was more pleasant with ample water. Most of this hike was in the shade due to the narrowness of the canyon. The temp at the Supai Tunnel thermometer was a wonderful 65 degrees. We left the North Rim at about 12:40 and arrived back at Cottonwood at 5:00PM. 5 hours going up and 4:20 going down. 15 miles round trip.

Day 4 – Back to BA Campground and then up to Utah Flats – Left at 6:40. Arrived BAC #17 at 10:40. Only 3 runners. Met about 12 day hikers on their way to Ribbon Falls. One was a lone fellow in all black, with no water, who was disappointed when we said he had a couple hours to go. He was doing this day hike before he had to climb out S. Kaibab to the rim. Wise? Probably not.

 Rinsed out clothes, and shaved at the rest room. Took our lunches up to Phantom Ranch intending to have them with a beer under the shade trees. The rules required us to keep the beers inside the air conditioned building. OK, we want to be within the rules. We lounged around, shifting locations to stay in the shade. Jerry made a friend, a fellow who was staying at BAC for 3 days while his companions hiked out Clear Creek and back. He had run out of books and was quite bored. He was discussing GPS map coordinates with Jerry when Norm walked up.  

There was shade on the hill by 4:00PM, so we quickly packed up and headed up to Utah Flats. This is a huge transition from the wide, well travelled, well maintained trails of the corridor, to very rugged, vertical, demanding trails in the “wilderness”. These trails only exist because people have walked them, and they are marked by infrequent cairns, stacks of rocks.

The trail leaves right from the northern most site at BAC. It goes horizontal for about 30 feet and then heads up the slope. There are few cairns but plenty of “action”, i.e. it is easy to see where many other people have gone. We practiced the “rest step”, resting for a second after about every step. The sticks were very helpful on this climb. There are several large rock outcroppings. Jerry was sure we were supposed to go towards one on the left, but the trail clearly went down a bit and around the right most outcropping. We followed the trail. It leads up to a couple of flat spots and follows the spine upwards. Eventually the trail is right at the bottom of the Tapeats, and follows the Tapeats to the left and towards the opening in the Tapeats. It crosses the opening and goes up the far left of the opening through and over the limestone “pianos” of Piano Alley. In 1998 and 2001, there was no trail here, and we had to find our own way. It’s worth the work to stay on the trail. We lost the trail in the Dox Sandstone of Utah Flats. We found a way and then found a reasonably flat spot to camp at 6:50. As the water was heating, Jerry wandered off and found a cairn that would lead us up and out in the morning. Probably would have saved us some time to stay on the trail the whole way.

  The freeze dried chicken with potatoes and gravy was like potato soup with gnarly vegetables; not good. Too much water, too little time? After dinner we played Trivia, by head lamp. Jerry asked, “What are we doing?” “Sitting here in the Grand Canyon, playing trivia.” “How cool is that?” We were probably only a mile from Bright Angel Campground but we were totally alone. Norm saw two satellites and five shooting stars while not sleeping.




Day 5 – Utah Flats to Phantom Creek – The cairn got us out of the Dox of Utah Flats. We lost the trail again and found our own way through Cactus Flats for a while until we stumbled onto the trail again. We should have worked harder at following the trail, but we just assumed there was no trail, as there had been no trail in 1998 or 2001. The trail now gets you through Cactus Flats, over the limestone break and all the way to the descent into Phantom Creek. We stopped in the same shady spots we had used in the other years. We missed a junction in the trail at the descent. The trail is going up and continues up to a destination we could not guess. There is also a trail that goes to the right and down to the creek. There are two cairns at this point but we misinterpreted them to mean the upward trail was THE trail. We went up about 50 yards before Jerry said he thought this was probably wrong. Norm agreed. Eventually, Norm went back down, without his pack, to look for a cutoff. He found it and we backtracked and then took the cutoff down to the creek. This is quite steep and somewhat loose. Again, the sticks were very helpful. The trail comes down about 100 yards above the falls, to a nice shady spot with sandstone shelves right at the creek. We rested and rehydrated there. We started at 6:50 and were to the creek by 10:20.


  Norm had vivid memories of the camping spot under the big overhang, where it would be shady all day. We had to cross the creek twice to get upstream, but then the overhang was not where Norm remembered it, i.e. just past the second stream crossing. We found some big cottonwoods that we thought would shade us all day. We read and napped but Jerry got bored, so we walked upstream a little, then found a pretty decent trail, followed it until, eventually we found the overhang about 30 minutes further up than Norm had remembered. While walking upstream, look for the huge chimenia shaped rock on the left. When you reach it, you are almost to the overhang. We went back, ate lunch under the cottonwoods and then moved to the shady overhang site.

 For dinner we had beef stew. It called for even more water. Based on the how the chicken had turned out, we cut the water and let it soak for another two minutes. The vegetables were soft but it looked awful and didn’t taste very good. We ate it all, though. Soda crackers helped. The overhang kept us out of the sun all day and out of the direct bright moon light at night. Both were appreciated.

Day 6 – Down Phantom Creek – We left the overhang at 6:50 and arrived at the foot of the climb at 7:30. The climb starts on river left just above the falls. There was quite a bit of “action” but no cairn at the foot of the trail. There are cairns up above. The trail up is not too hard to follow but it is pretty vertical; that is, Norm was hitting the back of his head on his pack frame frequently. At the top, the trail continues to the right, over the top to the down climb, which has cairns and quite a bit of “action”, but is harder to follow. We had to stop a three or four times and really search for the next cairn. This is no place to free lance though, so we worked at staying on the trail. Near the bottom, there is a pretty vertical pitch. Norm lost his hand hold and most of his weight went down onto his aluminum pole. When he saw it flex, he thought he was in for big trouble. It sprung back, and he managed to get a bit of a grip, enough to recover. We seemed to be the only ones in the use area, so a rescue would have been long in coming. We were down into the creek at about 9:00AM. We rested in a shady spot.

A Phantom Creek descent is sort of a scratchy puzzle. Scratchy because there are few sections of any real trail, so you are forcing your way through Tammies and squeezing by cactus and agave plants. A puzzle, because you are constantly asking, “Is it better walking on the other side of the creek?”, “Is this side going to cliff out?”, “Is it better to just wade the creek, or better to “go high””? At three points, we were faced with a very narrow canyon, with a pour off going into a pool that seems to be (and actually is) over your head. Then the puzzle is how to get you and your packs across. Norm went first, by climbing along the wall, or just diving. Jerry threw each pack as far as he could. Norm pulled them via rope or just grabbed them and pulled them out of the water as fast as possible to minimize the water they would take on. We had wrapped much of our stuff in plastic bags so damaging our stuff was not much of a worry. The extra water weight we would have to carry was more of an issue.

We avoided the first “over your head” pool by going high to the right.

At the second O.Y.H. pool, we went high but were stymied by an absolutely vertical descent, which was not worth the risk. We used the process described above for pools number two and three.

We knew we had one more O.Y.H. pool. We arrived at a row of three pools, the first two looked deep but maybe not O.Y.H. deep, but the big shock, was that there were three men swimming in the final pool. One climbed up to talk to us. Alec is a guide for REI trips. He had brought his most adventurous guests up to this pool from Bright Angel Creek. Alec lead us through the first two of these three pools so we could see they were not O.Y.H. Then the other two fellows carried our packs across the O.Y.H. pool for us. Problem solved! Thanks! From that point we were still about 30 minutes from BA Creek. Just above BA Creek, is a high waterfall with 2-3 levels. There is an easy trail around the falls. We stopped for pictures at the falls. We arrived back at BA Campground at 4:00PM, or 9 hours “door to door”. We opened up all of our stuff to let it dry.

Because of the O.Y.H. pools and the pour offs, we cannot figure out a means to hike UP Phantom Creek. We met two fellows who were going to attempt it after we were past the final O.Y.H. pool. We wonder if they found a way or turned around. Maybe you could swim a pool and then crawl up the pour off? Then pull the packs across like we did? The other problem with going UP Phantom Creek, is it would seem to mean you would descend the “trail” from Utah Flats. It is steep enough that the footing is pretty loose when going down. We receommend UP to Utah Flats and Down the Creek.

Norm had made reservations at Phantom Ranch for our final meal below the rim. We had beef stew, vegetarian chili, salad, corn bread and chocolate cake. It was all very good food and you could have as much as you could eat. The people at our table were all hikers, some from the campground, and some from Phantom Ranch dorms or cabins. We swapped stories. The lady next to Jerry said that we were an inspiration. We have heard that on almost every trip and hearing it again makes a trip complete.

Day 7 – Bright Angel Trail – We left about 5:30 without eating breakfast. We had packed everything the night before except our sleeping stuff, so we could leave quickly and quietly. (Squirrels can climb those poles in camp, so zip all your zippers completely closed. Norm shared a little granola with an ambitious squirrel in the middle of the night.) We stopped to make breakfast at the stone building just as the trail leaves the Colorado, near the new rest rooms. Later we were told we looked like the Lords of the Manor. Alec and the REI crew passed us while we ate breakfast. We played tag with them and a few other parties all day. It feels pretty good to beat a few younger people with smaller packs to the top. We didn’t go very fast, but we didn’t stop very long either. Alec gave us some chocolate covered espresso beans at Mile and a Half house. We reached the bus stop in 7:10 hours. We took the shuttle bus back to the car, showered at Mather Campground, ate dinner at Sizzler in Flagstaff, and drove on down to Phoenix, for the night.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Big Basin Redwoods State Park, California


Big Basin Redwoods State Park, California

May 20-22, 2012

This trip was divided into two sections; Point Reyes first and Big Basin Redwoods State Park second.  I have described the Point Reyes days as a separate Blog Entry.

We had enjoyed the Lost Coast trips in Northern California so much that we wanted to see if there was another location that had similar attributes.  This combination of parks provided both time on lonely beaches and time amongst redwood trees.

Relevant links

 May 20 – Up to Lane Camp

We arrived at Big Basin Redwoods at about 3:30.  We knew we were amongst the red woods even before we got out of the car.  We got our permit and moved the car to Jay parking lot which has a rest room and SHOWERS.  We repacked our packs adding the food we had held out for Part 2 of our trip and omitting a few things that didn’t seem necessary.  We filled our water containers behind the park store.  We were told the water sources near our destination, Lane Camp, were not dependable.  We expected to have plenty to get us to the waterfalls below Sunset camp about mid day, the next day.  We were walking on the Skyline to the Sea Trail by 4:50.  Why does all the miscellaneous stuff take so long?  We knew sundown would be about 8:20 and three hours seemed just enough time to cover the 5.5 miles.  At about 6:45, we got quite concerned.  With sundown over 90 minutes away, we could hardly see the trail.  We guessed that we were just so far down in the forest that the sun could not penetrate to us.  It was only after we finished the trip that we were reminded that there was a total solar eclipse!  What are the odds?  As we climbed higher, (and the eclipse ebbed) it got much lighter again, and we were relieved.  The last half of the hike was on the Hollow Tree Trail.  We walked a pretty fast pace, rested little and made camp about 8:00.  We got set up, hung our food and changed clothes before dark, but didn’t bother with Trivia before bed.
The campgrounds at BBRW have pit toilets and garbage cans.  These are conveniences we usually have to do without, but we had been spoiled at Point Reyes.

Note – We were on the Skyline to the Sea trail for portions of all three of our days.  Per Wikipedia “The Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail is a 29.5-mile (47.2-kilometre) hiking trail that descends from the ridge of the Santa Cruz Mountains in Northern California to the Pacific Ocean, passing through Castle Rock State Park and Big Basin Redwoods State Park. Big Basin is California's first state park. It contains beautiful waterfalls and some of the largest, tallest, and oldest Redwood forests left in existence.  The trail usually takes two to three days to complete, with nearly all thru-hikers traveling from East to West (towards the ocean). It is possible to walk the entire trail in one day, though this is unusual and very difficult. Many hikers like to take a detour up Berry Creek Trail to see the waterfalls or to camp at Sunset Trail Camp, adding an additional 2.7 mi (4.3 km) to the hike.”

May 21 – Down to the Waterfalls and Twin Redwoods

As Norm ate his oatmeal, he noticed Jerry laying everything out on his ground cloth and opening every bag, repeatedly.  His spoon was missing.  You know you must be good friends if you take turns with the same spoon for three days. 

As we had discussed with the ranger when we obtained our permit, our plan was to take the Hollow Tree Trail back a mile or so and them go onto the Johansen Road.  We took the trail back to where we believed we could find the roads, i.e. at Johansen’s shingle mill site.  There are some sizable relics at the mill site.  We saw no trail leading to any road as the map seems to show.  We wondered if the remnants of a road leading away from the mill site could be Johansen’s Road.  The names matched.  There were many fallen trees across this old road.  It didn’t seem like it would be on the map in this unmaintained condition.  Norm said, “The only other explanation, is that the roads are up there somewhere,” pointing northwest.  Jerry climbed up the hill and found a road.  It seemed most likely to be Middle Ridge Road and we couldn’t be sure where we could find Johansen’s Road, so Norm went north and Jerry went south.  Jerry found it, complete with clear signs.  And life was good.

Johansen Road took us to an amazing bit of human creation.  The first thing we saw was a long pipe fence with no trespassing signs.  Not commercial signs but artistic metal signs “carved” with a cutting torch.  Each sign depicts different aspects of this interesting place.  There are Native American style Teepees, a huge tree house under construction, play structures, zip lines, and full sized rail cars!  In the middle of the wilderness. 

 After walking more roads in both directions we determined our location and our next turns.  We followed Anderson Landing Road down to Sunset Camp and Berry Creek Falls Trail to the waterfalls.  We ate lunch at the foot of the Golden Cascade.   

The trail gets very wet at the top of the Silver Falls but there are posts and cables to hold onto and to keep one on the trail.   
 
Finally we arrived at the platform to view Berry Creek Falls where we rested and shared an orange.  All were beautiful.  They can be reached by day hike from BBRW HQ or as a short side hike from the Skyline to the Sea trail.

Just south of the waterfalls the SttS trail widens as it seems to have been a fire road at some earlier time.  Due to erosion at a few points, it will probably not function as a vehicular road now, but it is easy walking.  We completed nine plus miles by 4PM.  Norm originally thought we might want to drop the packs and go down to Waddel beach.  It is another 2.4 miles and we were in no mood to add 5 miles to our day, pack or no pack. 
 
There was only one other person at Twin Redwoods.  We filtered our only water on this 7 day trip at the campground.  We ate Backpacker’s Pantry Pad Thai.  Didn’t taste much like Pad Thai Norm had eaten, and both of us got hungry earlier than usual.  Won’t buy again.  Wouldn’t recommend.  This camp was inhabited by another pretty bird, the Steller’s Jay.  It is a crested bird with a black head and back and blue wings and tail.  Again, Jerry didn’t trust their intentions and tossed pebbles at them.  We tried trivia but had poor results with questions about presidents.  Wow, we just didn’t know much about anyone between Adams and Woodrow Wilson, except for Lincoln, Johnson and Grant.  This was our warmest night.  Single pair of socks, no gloves or hat required.

May 22 – Back to Park HQ

Backtracked up SttS trail as far as McCrary Ridge Trail.  The warning at the trail intersection is sobering.  There is a no bikes sign and the words say something like “Recommended for horses only, due to steepness of the trail.”  From the map, we could tell there was a whole bunch of up before we reached the ridge, but we didn’t appreciate how much up there would be.  Oh, and it is as steep as the sign warns.  

 As near as Norm could tell, it was like 20 of our training hills put together with no downs in between.  Every time the slope would decrease, Jerry would say we must be at the top.  We’d go around some little bend and find the next pitch.  Norm finally asked Jerry to stop talking. To distract ourselves we tried to think of a song with a girl’s name for every letter in the alphabet.  We got about 16.  We finally reached the road at the top and it did level out.  There is a redwood bench at Mr. McAbee Overlook where you have a clear look down to Waddell Beach. 

 The Howard King Trail crosses and recrosses the road.  We could not reconcile the map to the signs but luckily jumped on the HKT at the right exit to the left to get us to the SttS trail with only .8 miles left to the Park HQ.  We were back to Jay Parking by noon.  Talked to the ranger about our difficulty finding Johansen Road.  He said he’d go up there and see if a trail got obscured or a sign removed.  It was during this conversation that the mystery of Sunday’s early darkness was solved, when the ranger asked where we were when the eclipse occurred. 

We were so happy to see that there were showers, and not only showers but inexpensive showers.  If you hurry, you can get completely clean for 25 cents!  We’ve used pay showers that cost $2.00.  The amount is really not an issue, it’s having that many quarters.  Anyway, it was great to get cleaned up at the park and not have to wear our grungy clothes all the way to the motel.  Jerry found his spoon with the things he actually didn’t need for part two of the trip.  We had breakfast for lunch at Alice’s Restaurant. 

Point Reyes National Seashore, California


Point Reyes National Seashore, California

May 16-20, 2012

This trip was divided into two sections; Point Reyes first and Big Basin Redwoods State Park second.  I will describe the BBRW days as a separate Blog Entry.

We had enjoyed the Lost Coast trips in Northern California so much that we wanted to see if there was another location that had similar attributes.  This combination of parks provided both time on lonely beaches and time amongst redwood trees.

Relevant links


Basic Plan

Arrive mid afternoon of the day we fly from Michigan.  Hike a “respectable” distance that day.  Day 2 – Hike to a camp site near the water and hike on the beach if possible.  Day 3 – Hike to a campsite across the park.  Day 4 – Hike without packs to the water again and walk on a beach.


May 16 – In to Glen Camp

We left Detroit at 9:00, arrived SFO early at 10:40, left SFO about noon, arrived at REI, just off Highway 1, north of the bridge in Corte Madera about 12:45.  Bought gas for the stove, freeze dried meals, drink mixes and snacks.  Good lunch next door at Counter where you build your own burgers from an exhaustive list of options.  Exit to Point Reyes, i.e. Sir Francis Drake Blvd was about the very next exit. We almost missed it.  The first part of SFD Blvd is very congested but then it opens up into farm land.  Found Bear Valley Visitor Center by following the signs with little difficulty.  Got our official permit tag, packed final items, changed clothes and started walking about 3:30 with 4.4 miles to go to get to Glen Camp. 

Norm remembered he had forgotten to transfer his only reading material, his Kindle, into his pack, so he retraced many steps to get it and his hooded sweatshirt which would be essential for warm sleeping and morning hiking.  The Bear Valley Trail is wide and level for 3 miles of this walk.  Once you move on to the Glen Trail, the trails climb into the hills.  We didn’t anticipate the extra .9 miles of the Glen Camp Loop.  All trail intersections in Point Reyes are well marked with arrows and destinations with distances.  We were always confident that we knew which trail to take.  We were eating dinner at Glen Camp by about 7:30. Sun set about 8:15.  We read a bit and fell asleep.  Fog came in so none of the items we hung out dried at all.  Jerry stayed pretty dry under a tree.  Norm pulled his rain fly over to keep moisture off the exposed part of his sleeping bag.  All the sites at Point Reyes come with picnic tables, grills for charcoal fires and metal boxes to protect food from animals.  At each camp, there is a well maintained pit toilet, a trash can and a water faucet.  We have never had such great accommodations in our backpacking camp sites before.


May 17 – Wildcat and the Beach

Knowing we would have potable water at Wildcat, we were able to carry only a couple of pints.  That was wonderful compared to “tanking up” for hiking in the dessert.  Only 2.5 miles to Wildcat.  We’d get to drop our packs and “day hike” the rest of the day.  There is a very long descent into Wildcat and we could see two very large parties in camp.  We could only hope they were leaving.  One group was probably college age.  The others seemed to be middle schoolers.  Wildcat is just above the beach, so we just carried our packs down to the beach and had a second cup of coffee.  We then went as far north as we could, about a mile.  After walking back, we had lunch, read a little, maybe napped, and then went as far south as possible (1.2 miles?).  We had a great time in the tide pools at low tide on the Lost Coast hikes so we hoped to repeat that at Point Reyes.  It looked like the south end of the beach might be an interesting place based on lots of big rocks in the water.  The lowest tide of the day was during the night, but the other low tide was at 3:45 in the afternoon.  Unfortunately, we saw only one sea anemone, but no crabs, no star fish, etc.  Near the south end of the beach, we found Alamere waterfall which has a strong flow.  When we arrived, we met a young couple who had come down from the Ocean Lake Loop.  They recommended we climb up at that point.  It didn’t look like fun to us.  It was very windy on the beach in the afternoon.  Walking back to camp was a chore.  Probably 8 total miles counting the trails and the beach.
 
We were glad to see that both of the large groups had left.  Three other sites were occupied.  We had Mountain House Stroganoff, an annual favorite.  So far we had seen slugs, quail, plover, tracks of raccoon on the beach, and dozens of empty crab shells.  We had a beach fire permit but we had no way to learn if the fire danger had changed (which is a requirement) and it was much too windy for a fire.  It was so windy, Norm couldn’t get warm, so he went on a long walk along the Ocean Lake Loop.  Indeed there is a lake overlooking the ocean.  He saw deer on the trail and met a group of equestrians.  We played a little trivia and went to bed.  The wind abated about midnight, but the temp went down to about 40 degrees.

May 18 – Up to Sky Camp

Up at 5:45.  Walking by 7:30.  Long climb out of Wildcat.  It was so cool we had two shirts and our hoodies on, and were not getting hot on that climb.  We started with a plan to go directly up to Sky camp via Baldy and Sky trails.  We could see that this was going to get us to camp about noon with little to do, so we went back down to Coast trail and followed the ridge and the great views.  It would be a shame to visit Point Reyes and not take the Coast Trail.  Great sweeping views.  We took a break at Kelham Beach, one of the two places one can get down to the ocean.  There are about 140 steps built into the hillside.  We had lunch on the beach and a walk as far north as we could go.  The hillsides are wet and there are thriving hanging gardens.  Due to haze on the prior two days, this was our first view of the headlands that extend west out to the point of Point Reyes.  When we came back up to our packs above Kelham Beach there were two fellows sitting in the shade near our packs.  One said, with a European accent, “We took a call while you were down.  The Smithsonian wants your packs.”  Pretty funny.  We explained how hard we had to work to find and purchase these external frame packs.  Jerry told of his experience with his internal frame pack.  Counting the capacity of the stuff you can so easily tie on the top and bottom, and all the handy zippered compartments on the outside, you can carry about 20% more stuff in these old packs.  This is one of the reasons we can take the 7 day trips we usually take.
After lunch we met some horses on the trail.  We asked what we should do.  Norm had a prior experience when his backpack spooked a horse and the rider was thrown.  The lead rider asked us to keep talking.  She said her horse would be fine if we just kept talking.  We jabbered until all four horses were past us.  Later we met a single rider.  He gave us no instructions, so we probably made the worst possible choices.  Norm went left and Jerry went right.  The rider went between us. 
We left the Coast Trail at Woodward Valley Trail.  We called it Woodward Avenue, which is a main highway in Detroit where there is a huge hot rod meet each summer.  Woodward was more like a Grand Canyon trail than the others at Point Reyes, in that it is quite narrow, rocky and steep.  Norm was concerned about meeting horses on that trail, be we didn’t meet any.  We came upon a deer on the trail.  He watched us and even stepped toward us, before meandering off the trail. 
We seemed to be the only humans at Sky Camp when we arrived but we found a huge cabin tent and some personal effects at site 10, which was our site.  We cleaned up and then hung our stuff out to dry all over site 10.  We had Backpacker’s Pantry Fettuccini Alfredo.  It was quite tasty; would buy again, would recommend.  Eventually a young couple came in to the site and of course said, “You’re in our site.”  Norm of course said, “You’re in our site.”  They said they definitely had reserved the site for two nights and this was their second night.  Their permit was in their car, so we couldn’t check it.  They offered to go back to the car and show us.  It seemed possible that when the NPS converted to computer reservations, Norm’s human registered reservation might have gotten lost.  We moved our stuff down to site one, which looked like it might not actually be assigned to anyone.  It is small and has no real flat spot for a tent or a bivy sack.  Jerry had found a flat spot not far away where we planned to roll out our “beds”.  The party from site two came into camp and offered to let us sleep in their site.  It was a group site and so we thought we could find a couple of flat spots there.  We stayed in site one until dark to minimize our intrusion into their privacy.  Most, maybe all Sky camp sites were occupied, but this was Friday night.

May 19 – “Day hike” to Limantour Spit

We awoke and moved our beds back to site one.  After breakfast we moved our packs up to site 10 and left our food in the box.  We bid adieu to the young couple.  Walking by 7:50.  No packs today.  We walked north to pick up Fire Lane trail, which is very steep down.  We quickly took off our hoodies and detached the bottoms of our zip-off trousers. We covered the 3.6 miles to Coast camp in about two hours.  We stayed on the trail/road above the bluffs for another mile or so and then went down to the beach at our first opportunity.  We rested, snacked, and took our boots off.  We enjoyed seeing the pelicans flying in formation right along the tops of the waves.  The beach is littered with empty crab shells.  The gulls must be well fed.  We walked another mile or so west in bare feet, had lunch, and then walked back to our boots and then to Coast camp.  There were about 15 people near a point where the Limatour Road ends, but basically we felt we had the beach to ourselves.  Near Coast Camp there was an excavator on the beach amongst some metal debris.  We couldn’t figure out what was being dismantled, but later learned from a Ranger that a boat had run aground recently and after draining the diesel fuel, they were taking the boat apart to remove it.   We had some water left but expected to get more at Coast, but we learned there is no water at Coast.  The Park Service had just brought in a huge water tank that they would be hooking up to provide water again. 
We hiked back from Coast camp to number 10 at Sky camp in about two hours.  We met a woman riding a horse and leading another.  Her only request was, “Please don’t give them a carrot or an apple.”  Later, we were taking a break, and were startled by a “death wish” runner coming at full speed down a very steep part of the trail past us.  It seemed he would eventually take a serious fall, if he kept running out of control like that.  10-11 miles, no packs.
No one was in site 10 and no one came for site 10.  We heard of no other reservation issues, so it seems that couple were scamming us or they just got their dates wrong.  The camp was inhabited by some beautiful birds we don’t see at home or in the Grand Canyon; Western Scrub Jays.  Blue wings and tail and head with a black back.  They seemed harmless enough but Jerry believes any bird at our camp site is after his food so he kept shooing them off.  We had Mountain House Chili Mac.  It was OK.   Might again, Might recommend.  After dinner two twenty-something girls came into site 10 sipping wine from plastic cups.  They said they were looking for the site with the best view.  Norm invited them to step up on the picnic table to get a great view of Limantour Beach and the “point”.  They asked about our other backpacking trips and eventually told us we were an inspiration.  We love to hear that at least once per trip.

May 20 – Back to the Car and on to Big Basin Redwoods

We hiked back down to the visitor’s center in about two hours via the Wittenberg Trail.  It is about 3 miles and we couldn’t imagine that couple carrying in that cabin tent or the “wine girls” their cooler up these trails.  We deduced that there must be a shorter, perhaps leveler trail to Sky camp.  Later we confirmed via map and car that the closest trail head is on the Sky trail from the Limantour Road.  That’s about 1.3 miles and surely more level.  Parking at the visitor center worked just fine for our whole itinerary, but not for those who are just camping at Sky. 
How could it get any better than… almost no food, 1 pint of water, cool of the morning, downhill?  We shaved and washed up at the car.  Rinsed out some clothes.  We then went into the visitor center.  They have some nice displays of the park.  We should have probably spent the time first instead of last.  We were reminded that Point Reyes is West of the San Andreas Fault.  It seems to be the only part of Marin County that is west of the Fault, and in fact has no geologic similarity to the rest of the county.  To find its “origin”, one must travel down to Monterey Bay, where the “point” was about five million years ago. 
Just to avoid backtracking, Norm chose Route 1 to get back to the bridge.  This would probably have been a fine idea on a week day, but on Sunday, Route 1 is narrow, windy and full of bikes and even more full of cars.  How the bikers survive is a mystery.  After crossing the bridge there was a crazy backup through Golden Gate Park.  After that the traffic flowed more normally.  Once on I280, we got hungry so Jerry picked a random exit to find food.  All we found was homes, miles and miles of homes.  A friendly young man gave us directions back onto I280 and we didn’t get off again until our exit #24 at Sand Lake Road.  Eventually we got to the busiest intersection (35 meets 84) between San Francisco and L.A. where we found Alice’s Restaurant.  It was evidently a destination for bikers (bicyclists), bikers (motorcycles), and cars of all varieties.  “Whether it's garlic fries, a Jalopy burger, or a Mexican scramble, you can get anything you want ... at Alice's Restaurant.”  We called home.
The remainder of our trip is posted on this Blog under Big Basin Redwoods.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Where to go next?

If any of you have done 5-7 day backpacking trips, I would be interested in where and when. We are always looking for a new place to hike.
Criteria
1. Trip should be about 55-65 miles long with little to no road walking.
2. Weather needs to be dry 5 out of 7 days (on average)
3. We take our trip in April, May or June every year. Evenings need to be above 45 degrees.
4. We've done the Ozark Highlands Trail and 3 connecting trails in Georgia. We enjoyed both trips, but to be honest, about all we saw was trees. We enjoy some vistas or rock formations or something different and interesting.
5. If you can also get to the camp grounds or vistas by car, its not what we're looking for.
6. It needs to be in the United States.
7. Currently considering  Paria River in Arizona, and something along a shore in Washington state.
We'd appreciate any suggestions you may have.