The Breakfast Club: 2017 Kings Canyon

Thursday–Sunday, 14–17 Sep 2017

Marc writes

I didn’t take many pictures and am not going to write all that many words. Tom, Harry, and I met with Carl at the Cozy Cup in Hollister for breakfast Thursday morning. After breakfast Carl headed back home. The rest of us headed down SR 25 to Panoche Rd before turning onto Little Panoche and eventually hitting SR 180 which took us into Kings Canyon National Park.

The plan was to camp in the Sentinel Campground but it was full. It is also now a reservation only campground. I don’t think it was that way 6 months ago. The Sheeps Creek campground is adjacent to Sentinel. We found two sites there and set up camp. The campground is large but the National Park Service, in their wisdom, decided no one camps after Labor Day. 2/3 of the sites in the campground were closed. We understad that led to many unhappy non-campers who drove down into the canyon and weren’t able to find a place to stay.

Friday Tom and I took what was supposed to be a dual sport ride of about 90 miles. Turns out that half of the forest service roads I picked were paved. We both survived the too short dirt sections (maybe 10 miles) with only minor self-induced mishaps.

Sunday we took Harry on a 160 mile loop that introduced him to Dry Creek road and the tight twisties of SR 245. The ride started with the climb out of the canyon followed by the ride down the Generals Highway (still under construction in parts) into Three Rivers for lunch. We passed a line of cars waiting to get into Sequoia National Park least 2 miles long. Good thing we were going the other direction.

Sunday we broke camp and made our final climb out of the canyon for breakfast at the newly remodeled restaurant in Grant’s Grove. After breakfast we took SR 180 to its end then SR 33 to SR 152. On 152 a few miles before Los Banos Chris caught up with us. He was coming back from not staying in Kings Canyon. I’ll let him tell that story.

Chris and Tom took I5 north. Their plan was to take Corral Hollow (and I assume SR 84) to return to the east bay. Harry and I stayed on SR 152 into Gilroy were we picked up US 101 and found our way home.

Good trip. Not too hot. Not too cold. Good camp neighbors, especially Ed, Sandy and Peggy Sue. Harry borrowed Ed’s guitar to play a few tunes for Tom and me.