We had a great weekend at the Pinnacles trip. There were 6 people riding (me, Fran & Jeff Bryan, Paul Finkel, Doug Gillison, and Ron Tsuromoto), and then Kim Carr and her brother Pat and Pat's dog Mardi came down in her car.

Everyone was riding self-contained except for Ron who put his load in the car. But we made him promise to not go off the front because he was traveling lighter. All 6 of us stayed together the whole way. Doug did just fine and was able to keep up. We got started at 7:30.

We stopped in Tres Pinos for breakfast or lunch (since it was 11:30) at Flap Jacks Cafe. Good food, friendly people. We all got in to camp at 2:30. I got 78 miles from my house and most people rode from home to get to my house. Kim and Pat didn't leave San Jose until later but it was perfect timing as they passed us with just about 4 miles to go.

We set up our tents then everyone went over to the pool to hang out. All very nice. Afterwards, I stopped in at the store and bought 2 more Pinnacles tanktops. I now have 6 or 8 in my collection.

Kim arranged a good dinner of chicken, corn, beans, bread, and a salad, with cookies for dessert. We all helped. That evening we went over to the campfire program and saw a slide show on the geology of the Pinnacles. Then it was back to camp and sitting around the campfire until the fire was all gone.

The next morning we had a good breakfast of oatmeal and fruit. We weren't in a hurry, so we didn't get out of camp until almost 9:00. People hadn't seen the Pinnacles before so we decided to first go into the park and check it out. We didn't stay too long, as the ranger wanted to charge us $2 each for a bicycle if we stayed longer than 15 minutes. We didn't pay.

We stopped again at Flap Jacks in Tres Pinos for another good meal. Then next stop was at the Bolsa Chevron in Gilroy. It was very hot by this time, and I was feeling it. We decided to take the scenic route back along Uvas Reservoir, instead of staying on Santa Teresa. This was a good choice, as it had much more shade and less headwind.

It was much nicer riding in the shade, and after awhile I started to feel good again. But I think I was still the slow one for all of this section. I was pulling a burley trailer, so it was a bit more effort going into the headwind. But I managed, although slowly. We got home just after 6 PM, with people splitting off along the way. Totals of 92 miles for the return trip, because we went on into the park first.

Next year we will do this campout again but make it for 2 nights camping, with a day for hiking in the middle. Maybe have it on Labor Day weekend. They say that the Bear Gulch caves should be open to the public again by next spring. The campsites were good. The pool was good. There were many deer just wandering around in the campground. Fran wants to bring a trailer next year so that she can bring along her (big 75 lb) dog, as there were not too many hills along the route.

-Donny