I spent a couple of days camping at Pinnacles National Park. It helped with the transition of Annemarie leaving to spend a few days outdoors. I have to say my first few hours in the campground were not the most relaxing. I had received an email a couple of weeks before letting me know that there was going to be some repaving work done on the roads in the park and there may be some delays due to that work. I wasn’t too bothered knowing that I wouldn’t be on the road much anyway. But when I arrived in the campground, I found that they were also working on the roads in the campground so for the next few hours I was treated to the decidedly unrelaxing sounds of construction equipment. After I got my camp set up and read for a little bit I went for a short hike to escape the noise. I saw several condors flying lazy loops in the sky and tons of lizards scooting along the trail. There were still plenty of wildflowers blooming, though not as much as a month ago when Julie and I had visited.
After dinner I built a fire and treated myself to s’mores. Since Pinnacles is far away from the lights of cities and towns it is a fantastic place to see the stars. It was mesmerizing to look up into the sky and see all the multitudes of stars. As I got ready for bed, I discovered the batteries in my air mattress pump were almost dead. I managed to get a few hours of sleep before I was lying straight on the ground, so I knew my first stop in the morning would be to the camp store to buy some new batteries!
I took it slow the next morning, though my hips were doing better than I expected after my hard night sleep. As I was reading, a little bunny ran past my chair, then two quails started peeping at a chipmunk who was scavenging nearby. It was quite a sight! The evening before I was visited by a curious crow and later a hungry raccoon. Crows investigated my site several times during my trip, but the I only saw a raccoon one other time (luckily!)
I hiked up Old Pinnacles Trail to the Balconies area. This was a section of the park I had not been to yet and allowed me to hike over to the West entrance, which was closed because of the roadwork being done. It was a much easier hike than the High Peaks Trail that Julie and I had done last month, and still afforded beautiful views. On my way over I took the Balconies Cliff Trail intending to then go through the Balconies Cave on my return trip. A ranger had let me know that it was a much more primitive path through that cave than through the Bear Gulch cave on the other side, but I did not realize how challenging it would be. The first part of the cave was fine, several areas to squeeze under and through and some steep flights of stone stairs and rocks to scramble over, but then I got to one section that was very, very steep and went into a completely black tunnel. There wasn’t anyone else going through the cave at that time and I was worried that I would get stuck or lost and not be able to get myself out, so I decided to backtrack and take the Cliff Trail back. I was disappointed that I wasn’t brave enough to go through the cave. I would definitely like to try it again, but with somebody next time.
I spent a lot of time in the evening reading a fantastic book called The Women by Kristin Hannah. It’s about the fictional experiences of a young woman who served as a nurse during the Vietnam War. I did not realize how difficult it was for women who served in Vietnam, not only did they deal with the horrors of war and then came home to people spitting on them and calling them names, but when they tried to get help for PTSD (as it came to be known), they were told that they weren’t ‘real’ vets because they hadn’t seen combat, and the VA refused to give them any assistance. Hearing the stories of their bravery and everything they did for the soldiers and the people of Vietnam made it even more heartbreaking to learn about how they were treated. I remember taking a class on the Religious Impact of the Vietnam War in college, and I’m pretty sure one of the speakers was a nurse who served in the war.
That night after my campfire and s’mores, I settled in on my newly inflated mattress, looking forward to a goodnights sleep. Unfortunately, I woke a couple of hours later back on the hard ground again. Apparently I had some holes in my air mattress, so even though the batteries were much better at blowing it up, it did not stay inflated for long. so much for a good nights sleep! One positive is that there was an owl in a tree near my campsite and I got to listen to it hooting until I fell asleep.
On my last day, I packed up camp, a bit worse for wear from two nights sleeping on the ground, then headed out to the Bear Gulch area to hike up to the reservoir. On the hike up I ran into some folks that I had seen on the trails the last couple of days, we all commented on how the campground was much more crowded than we expected. It didn’t seem like there was one empty campsite, despite it being the middle of the week. The day was already quite warm at 10 AM, so I was happy to move along the exposed trail and find a spot to sit and enjoy the beautiful views of the reservoir. There weren’t many people there which was such a treat. I settled in and alternated between reading my book and just enjoying being in that wonderful spot.
On the hike down I decided to take the Moses Spring Trail, bypassing the cave. I usually like splashing through the cave, but I had heard there was a group of kids and adults heading to the reservoir via the cave and I didn’t want to deal with a big group on the small cave path. At one point I was on the trail by myself savoring the beauty all around, when I heard a cacophony of sounds coming from the cave – lots of young, excited voices, and a few adults who sounded just as excited as the kids! I had made the right choice 😝
Soon enough, I was back in my car and headed home, trying to avoid the rush-hour commute. It didn’t seem to get any cooler going through San Francisco or Mill Valley. I could not wait to take a shower and sleep in my own bed!