Manresa State Beach Campout

Sept 27-28, 2008, Report by Donny Axtell

This was the 2nd Manresa campout, the first one being two years prior. The first campout was great. This one might have been even better. At least it was enjoyed by more people, with more campsites and a bigger budget. About 28 adults and 4 kids were present for this campout. Another 6 or so had paid their money but then had to cancel too late for a refund. Their loss, as they missed a good one.

Preparation started back in early July, with the reservation of 4 campsites; 2 by me, and 2 by Fran. Early signups were so many that we then obtained 2 more campsites by Megan and 1 campsite by Chris Larson, for 7 campsites total. ACTC has a policy to assist with campsites, up to a max of $100, so we took them up on this offer. The total income was $770, including the $100 from ACTC.

Our budget came out to $20 each, and from prior experience it was decided to request payment beforehand. This policy worked out great, as it let us plan things with much more certainty and very little stress. I held onto the checks until about 2 weeks before, and anyone that had to cancel before this time, I just tore up their check. Once the checks were deposited, then any refund would be just $10, and after the food was purchased there would be no refund. As it turned out a few people did need to cancel closer than a week prior, and I told them that they could get a partial refund only if we had some money left over. The object of the budget is to at least break even, but not to make a big profit.

The day before the campout I checked with Fran, who was in charge of all of the food planning and purchase. We went over what had been spent so far and found that we still had $140 or so to figure out what to do with. This was a good problem to have. The campground showers needed quarters and so we decided to give 2 quarters to every camper, for a total of $15. Then we decided to buy some spare gas canisters for all of the stoves and lanterns - that came out to $17. Then we decided to maybe provide some beer and wine - people would like that - that used up almost $100. In the end, our profit for this campout was $4, which Fran let me keep instead of us splitting it.

If people had been left to pay on the morning of the ride, then there never would have been any beer or wine purchased, nor any of the other extras. So having people paying in advance is a win-win situation. The organizers are not left eatting any expenses which would have been left uncovered by those last-minute no-shows, and the others are getting the full benefit from their payment.

We used 2 official SAGs for this campout, plus had 2 more cars attending, one for the Larson family and one for Nicolete and her 3 small children. Fran's van was one SAG, used to haul the food, the cooking equipment, Solana the dog, plus Jeff and Andrew's surfboards. My van was the other SAG. On the rear I had the bike rack with 2 bikes and my trailer, plus 4 hula hoops. Inside, we had first 3 boxes of firewood then one cooler that couldn't fit in Fran's van, and then we filled up the rest of the room with everybody's gear that they didn't want to haul on their bikes. I counted 18 people that my van was hauling gear for. I think Megan won the contest for having the biggest bag.

My mother-in-law died a few weeks prior to the campout, and the funeral was scheduled on Saturday, right in the middle of my campout time. It was only after much compromise that was I able to still attend the campout, and still manage to go to most of the funeral. So the morning of the ride, I came to Fran's house and we loaded up my van, signed in all of the riders, gave them ride sheets, and then sent them off. "See you all in camp at 3:00 PM." Then I drove my van, loaded with everybody's gear, over to Oak Hill Cemetary, and went to the funeral. My deal with Diana was for me to leave by at least 2:00 PM, but a good opportunity came at 1:30 during communion, for me to slip away. I was happy for the opportunity to get away early. I figured that it would take an hour to drive straight to Manresa, and was only slightly surprised when I got there exactly 60 minutes later.

At the entrance booth, I noticed Fran's van was 2 cars ahead. This was great timing. I met Jill at the parking lot and together we walked the loop, putting an ACTC sign at each of the 7 campsites. Jill had requested the campsite nearest to the restroom for her and all of the kids, also because it was at the edge and so would be less likely to disturb the rest of the group. I had told her this would depend on where we wanted to put the group central site for the food and the campfire.

The campground has lots of shrubbery and lots of little trails going in different directions, and so I took some pink hula hoop tape and placed arrows on the ground, starting from the parking lot and pointing the way to our campsites. Then at each campsite I taped up a sign that said ACTC. This way nobody would get lost. Even I was needing to look for the arrows on my many trips back and forth.

I brought along a heavy-duty handtruck, and was able to haul all 3 boxes of firewood on one trip and then all 3 coolers on one more trip. As I was returning to the parking lot, all of the bike riders began coming in, right at 3:00 PM and right on schedule. I was happy to have had that half hour early arrival, as everything was now all ready for them.

It turned out that all of our campsites were perfect, and that everybody was able to camp where they wanted. Jill got her choice to be next to the restroom with all the kids. And this was also next to the Larson family campsite that had 2 more kids. Our other sites were further up around the loop, and I chose campsite #50 for the central site. It had lots of space around the table and fire-ring plus it had lots of area extending back from the camp site that could hold numerous tents. Site #49 was also able to hold lots of tents, so between these 2 we could have held almost everybody, but it was good to have the other sites to keep within the limit of 8 people per site. Jim Woo had one campsite all to his self, and Tina and Nancy had another campsite all to their selfs, which worked out great as they won the contest for having the biggest tent. Their tent had 2 rooms with a wall down the middle and could have probably slept about 12 people. "Yeah. 49 & 50 were great because they back up to that unimproved natural area. I don't know if you had any time to explore, but Soli & I hiked around back there. It was neat, no people, no rules." - Fran (Note for next time - get sites #49 and #50 first)

This would be Joan's first campout ever, and she confided in me that she was a bit scared about being with a group of strangers, and so she was a bit worried about how it would all go. I had promised Joan that I would look out for her and that I would put up her tent close to mine. My plan was to let everybody put up their tents first and only then would I decide where to put my own tent. This worked out great.

So after hauling all our gear into the campsites, then moving the van up to long term parking, Joan and I took our hula hoops and walked down to the beach. we hooped for awhile. Marvin and Jeff and Brian all joined us after awhile. I finally went into the ocean to test the water - not too cold. Brian had brought a boogey board and so he let me borrow it. I was able to catch a few good waves.

After awhile we all came back up to camp. We met alot of people standing in line for the shower. I let them know that we would be giving out 2 quarters each, and I later got Megan to hand them out for me. I quickly took my shower at the free outside one, just long enough to wash off the salt water and the sand. Then we went on into camp. All of the tents were now set up, except for mine and Joan's. We found a nice big flat area up above camp central, with Megan on one side and Joanne on the other. This location worked out well.

It was now time to start thinking about dinner. Fran had plans for make-your-own-burritos, which worked out good. This was preceded by large portions of salad. Everybody pitched in. All the food was good. We also started the campfire going during dinner, and that worked out well also. Dessert was a big chocolate-chocolate cake and/or a big apple pie. Both very good. Sorry, no ice cream. The beer and the wine was also a big hit.

The next morning about 6:30, I got up just as Joan was getting up to go use the restroom. I suggested that we continue on down to the beach and do some early morning hula hooping. Joan agreed. As we were passing by camp-central, we met Brian already up and setting the table. Placemats all around, with napkin, spoon and fork, paper cups - all laid out neat and orderly and very professional looking. Brain said that he was getting things ready for his conference presentation, and I believed him.

Joan and I continued on down to the restroom, and then from there on down to the beach. We walked along the shore for a bit and then stopped to hula hoop. Joan is just starting to learn how to hoop this past month or so, and so I have lots of tricks to try to teach her. But Joan has also been studying some good instructional videos and so she knows a few tricks that I am trying to learn from her. We had fun hooping for an hour or so.

Next up was breakfast. Oatmeal, bagels, juices, all the fixings. I experimented and had a bagel with cream cheese, then chocolate pieces and banana slices inside, then closed back up like a sandwich. We put the grill on over the campfire and I put my bagel on to warm. It was delicious. Everybody then also wanted their bagel warmed over the fire, although nobody else put chocolate inside theirs. Mine looked just like a giant smore.

After breakfast and cleanup, it was finally time to start breaking down the tents and packing things away. I then brought the car back down and people started loading up. Tina and Nancy said that they were slow and were going to get a head start, but I suggested that they could drive the SAG on up to Corralitos and get a headstart that way. This worked good.

After we all finally got started riding I noticed the time on my cyclometer. I almost couldn't believe it, as it was already 11:00 AM. Now that was a very liesurely start for the day. Very nice. I was riding with Joan and we soon caught Joanne so we all rode together. I told Joan that we will stick with Joanne, as Joanne stayed with Joan the day before. we made a good group.

One of the early points of interest was the "bicycle ranch", which is along Buena Vista Road between the city dump and the city airport. It is this one yard totally filled with old junky bicycles. We stopped in but didn't meet the nice old guy. Instead, a very friendly kitty cat came down to meet us and to get petted.

After 10 miles we arrived in Corralitos, for our lunch stop at the small park and country store. Chocolate milk and ham sandwich for me. Kryia met us all there. Kryia had to cancel out on the camping, but he did come do much of the ride yesterday and then he rode over the hill again this morning to meet the group for the ride back. With Kryia, we were now a foursome for the ride up Eureka Canyon.

Megan drove my SAG for this next section. Cars couldn't get through, due to the construction up on Highland Way, and so Megan had to detour around, taking Freedom Blvd, then Hwy 1, then Soquel-San Jose Road, parking up at Summit Store.

After lunch and ready to go again, we met a few riders just coming in. Seems that they took a scenic detour in beautiful Watsonville, having missed a turn.

During the climb, Joanne mentioned to Joan that I usually like to stop at streams along the way. Since they were insisting, we decided to stop at the stream further up Eureka Canyon. I first showed them a small pond with fish more than a foot long. But there was no easy access down to this pond, so we backtracked a bit and found a smaller pond to check out. I went in the water, of course, but Joanne was the only other one, and that was just her feet for a short time. Very cold water.

As we got going again, our last riders caught up, asking if we were Ok. "Just stopped to play in the water", we said. It was a nice liesurely climb, stopping once for Joanne to have a nice friendly chat with the local driver of a car passing by. we finally got up to the construction site. This place was truely unpassable by a car, so I was glad that we knew this ahead of time. Two places here I needed an assist with pushing my trailer while I pulled my bike from the front.

I told the others that I might be driving the next section, as all of the other people were probably long gone by now. But then I added, "or we might find them all still there". I was actually surprised when we finally did reach the Summit Store and yes many people were actually still there. I told Megan my plan to drive, but then she and Robert volunteered to drive this last section, so we packed them up and sent them on to the finish.

Again it was me, Kryia, Joan, and Joanne at the back of the ride. No hurry now, as the SAG was all taken care of. I think it was now after 4:30 leaving the Summit Store. Back in Los Gatos, we finally split up, as both Joanne and Kryia were riding directly home while Joan and I were going to Fran's house. It was close to 6:30 at the finish.

In packing up what was left of the gear, I discovered that Joan's hula hoop wasn't there. Maybe we left it up at Summit Store, as they had them off the van to play with. I told Joan that I would just make her another one. But then when we finally drove off, I decided that we could easily drive back up to Summit Store and find the hoop, so we did. But no hoop, and the store was just closing up so we asked some of the workers also. I later talked to Megan and she said that the green hoop was never among the other hoops at Summit Store. So we must have actually left the hoop back at Manresa Beach, and I don't remember it being among the hoops that I loaded up that morning. So I will be making Joan another hoop.

While up at Summit Store, I checked in with my wife, Diana. She told me that she was now returning from Sacramento with a car load full of people, but that the car was having problems and might stop at any moment, and if I could come rescue them. They had taken our spare car that we keep just sitting out in front of our house, the one with the battery that always dies. I told them to be sure not to turn off the engine, and that it would be at least 2 hours before I could get to them, and for them to try to make it home on their own.

It was 8:30 PM when I finally got home after dropping Joan at her house. I was just starting to quickly unload the car, getting ready to go after Diana, when Diana called. They were now passing through Livermore and for me not to come out after them and that they should be home soon. This was good news, so now I was more through in my unpacking, taking time to clean things up and to put them away properly. I was still putting stuff away when Diana and her other 5 people drove up to the house. They made it home safe. Later on I tried to start the car again, as I wanted to more it over a few feet. It would not start, low battery. Diana was very lucky to have made it all the way home.

Well, that's it for another Manresa Campout report. Great campout. Great group of people.