Thursday–Sunday, 11–14 Sep 2014
Marc writes:
Thursday
Three for breakfast
Tom on 25
Some farmers have water
The SMBC has been going to the Buckeye Flat campground in Sequoia National park since 2002. One night in Kings Canyon and a second night in Yosemite was tried in 2001. That didn’t work out too well as even in September Yosemite Valley is packed. In ‘02 and ‘03 we still split the trip in two with the first night spent in Kings Canyon and the second in Sequia. Breaking camp just to set it up again 70 miles later didn’t make a lot of sense. In ‘04 we started spending two nights in Sequoia. Buckeye Flat has always been a first come, first served campground. We started leaving the Bay Area at 6 AM to get a better choice of camp sites. This year we not only left at 6 AM, but added another day to the trip. Tom, Bob, and I met at the Cozy Cup in Hollister for breakfast at 7:15. Bob wasn’t joining us for the campout. He, along with several others who initially intended to go had friends or family visiting the weekend.
Tom and I had a short rest stop on 25 and a fuel stop in Coalinga. Neither was very long so we arrived at the campground about 12:30. Imagine our surprise as we rode through the camp only to find a reservered placard on every single site. It seems the National Park service changed the rules to allow reservations starting last May and every site was spoken for.
Every site except one. Site 28 (of 28 total sites) is reserved for the camp host. To our good fortune the camp host had already left for the season. That left the site open. We grabbed the site and registered… where the signs on the notice board said walk-in campers could only stay one night. See the ranger if your plans are different. I went in search of a ranger at the kiosk in the Potwisha campground about 3 miles down the road. The kiosk was empty with a sign in the window saying see the ranger in the kiosk. Is that a catch-22?
We set up camp not really knowing if we could stay there all three nights. Several hours later a ranger did a drive-through of Buckeye Flat. She said site 28 was not a reservable site and since we were first we could stay. I stuffed another two nights camping fee in the Iron Ranger.
Friday
Air down for dirt roads
Let’s go
Buck Rock
The road ahead
I asked about easy to moderate dirt roads in or around Sequoia/Kings Canyon park on advrider.com. The goal was a day trip of six hours more or less. A member came through with a proposed route that met our desires and I programmed the route into my GPS.
Tom and I left camp a little before 9 AM to follow this route. We road west out of the park to pick up one of my favorite paved roads, Ca 245. It starts out straight and slow as it makes its way through the town of Woodlake. Outside of Woodlake the road consists of 45- and 90-degree turns along what I assume are orchard property lines. Leaving the orchards and entering ranch land the road turns into gentle sweapers. As the elevation increases the turns tighten and soon the straight sections between turns disappear. Riding this road starts turning into work. We get a break as turns are less tight between Badger and Pinehurst. Then the road turns extra twisty to its end at CA 180. It’s a great way to start a day trip.
We jumped onto 180 for a half-a-mile or so to pick up the first of many dirt roads planned for the day. The goal was Hume Lake for lunch. The dirt sections were easy. There was one spot where I had to slow down for traffic: a bear wanted to cross the road in front of me and I let him have the right of way using the rule of “he’s bigger than me”. There was another section where I got half way up an incline and then got stuck in loose, deep dirt. I backed the bike down the hill thinking I needed more momentum to get to the top. But what was at the top? Maybe more loose, deep dirt? It was almost noon and there was pavement maybe 1/4 mile behind us that would take us the 4 miles to Hume Lake. We took the pavement after a slight detour into a campground that does not got all the way through to the lake in spite of what map and GPS said.
After lunch we continued following my GPS to loop around Burton Pass and Buck Rock. Some of the roads were paved, some not. Didn’t matter. We were at a high enough elevation that temperatures were in the 70s and low 80s, not the 103 degrees we hit in Three Rivers on the way back. The route looped back to 180 where we rode for about 3 miles to pick up Forest Rte 14S75. Somehow I missed a turn so we stayed on 14S75. It turns into Eshom Valley Dr (County Rd 469) which we followed to Dry Creek road. Dry Creek is another favorite. It is a good road for the end of the ride. It parallels 245, taking us back to 198 and the heat. We stopped in three rivers to replenish the ice and beer supplies. Once back in camp the swimming hole called our name.
Saturday
Rob has breakfast here
Dry CA
To Mineral King
Lane and a half roads
Lots of turns
Mineral King
Sequoia?
Monarch creek
Honeymoon cabin
Bikes at Mineral King
Rob left San Francisco Saturday morning to join us for the last night of the campout. While he was riding to Sequoia Tom and I rode to Mineral King. The road to the top is 25 miles and there is a sign at the bottom warning drivers it will take 90 minutes to get to the top. We did a bit better than that, averaging close to 25 MPH. We got to the top in about an hour.
After taking wandering around and taking a few pictures we rode down the hill the few miles to the Silver City Mountain Resort. It was close enough to lunch time that we ordered a hamburger. Research: how will it compare to the adequate Hume-ongous burger we had Friday. The hamburger at Silver City is better. The difference is a fresh, hand made patty, not something bought frozen by the gross. Good eats.
The ride down the mountain went a bit faster than the ride to the top. We detoured back to Three Rivers for ice and beer. Today the Three Rivers temperature was 104. The swimming hole near the campground in the Middle Fork of the Kaweah River was calling. We got back to camp about 2 PM and Rob arrived 20 minutes later. Once he got set up we introduced him to the swimming hole.
As seen in videos that are part of other Sequoia campout trip reports the swimming hole has a natural water slide. Tom introduced Rob to the slide, showing him how it was done. Rob’s turn. He slips. He starts going sideways. He recovers. We’re yelling “your glasses”. Rob enters the water. When he pops back up we yell again: “Your glasses?” He raises his hand holding his bandana. He never noticed that he was wearing his prescription sun glasses and that they are now somewhere at the bottom of the swimming hole that might be 20 feet deep. He did manage to save his $1.98 bandana, though.
Sunday
Breaking camp
More breaking camp
Rob on the way to breakfast
Selfie
Orchards near Visalia
The boring part of the ride
Old Coalinga Road
Highway 25
Very dry
Sunday we broke camp and headed to the Main Street Cafe in Visalia for breakfast. After breakfast we took 198 almost to Coalinga then wound our way through the oil fields and stock yards to pick up Los Gatos Creek Rd/Old Coalings Rd. It was not as hot as the previous two days by almost 10 degrees.
We stopped at the remains of a county park on Los Gatos Creek rd. The toilets are boarded up and there is not a drop of water in the creek. After drinking our fill of fluids we headed up to Hollister for a snack and fuel stop before heading home.
Good trip. Now that we can reserve sites I’ll try to reserve our favorite two sites for next year come March. Since we won’t have to try to beat others to get a site we’ll be able to move our departure time back to 7 AM. It will be nice to leave when the sun is up.
Assuming the National Park Service doesn’t change the rules, again.