- This topic has 30 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 09/13/2021 | 19:00 by .
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Here is the ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW… Call, email, or text with questions: Eric, 949 636-4769
• Meet at Panera Bread in LaCanada at 8:00 am, Friday, Sept 10th.
• Camping: Pinnacles Campground group site (holds 20 pax, 5 vehicles (more motos?))
o Onsite camp store: hours 9 am – 5 pm
o Swimming pool
o Showers for a fee
o Onsite tent cabins. Make your own reservations
• Hotels: there are many hotels in King City, a 45 minute, 30 mile ride away. Make your own reservations.
• Friday Route (more or less). A long day: 350 miles, ~ 9 hours)
o We’ll jump on Angeles Forest Highway to Aliso Canyon Road then North to Lake Hughes.
o From there, cut northwest to Gorman continuing over Hudson Ranch Road.
o We’ll pick up Hwy 33 for a short distance linking up with Carrisa Highway and La Panza Road, taking us to 101 for just a short distance.
o Jumping off in Bradley, we’ll conclude the trip on Indian Valley and Peach Tree Roads
• Saturday route. 250 miles, 7 hours
o From the campground, north on Highway 25 through San Juan Bautista cutting across to Highway 1.
o Tracing the coast all the way up to San Gregorio where we will turn up the mountain for lunch at Alice’s Restaurant.
o Then south on Skyline Blvd to Hwy 9 (one of my absolute favorite roads!), to Santa Cruz where we reverse the route up ending back at the campground.
o Bonus: depending on time, it would be great to take the Big Basin Way loop. If you’ve never ridden this, well, you need to add it to your bucket!
• Sunday Route ??? TBD.
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You can reserve a tent cabin on Reservation.gov.
Ron, please let us know if they still have sites left. Thanks -
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The Big Basin Way Loop has 2 road closures on it that will last until June 2022. This, according to Google Maps and the Caltrans Road Information website.
It looks like the China Grade Road bypasses the closures and the GS riders would probably appreciate it, but maybe not the RT riders. It is paved, but not in very good shape according to Street View.
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Hi Eric – I’m trying to open my schedule to go on this (not 100% yet but trying). Couple of quick questions if you know??
a. What do they have in the store? Do we need to bring all food or do they sell food?
b. Any shared cooking fire or bbq? Or each brings their own?
c. You mention showers have a fee – is it coin operated? (need to bring change)?
d. What are food needs? Will we stop for food on the way up (Friday) – or eat at the campsite? I assume need breakfast and dinner on Sat, and breakfast on Sun?Thx.
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Wood and charcoal fires are currently PROHIBITED. This includes BBQ grills and portable wood stoves. Propane stoves are allowed in the campground and picnic areas only.
https://www.nps.gov/pinn/planyourvisit/conditions.htm
I’ll be bringing my Jetboil MiniMo.
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Thanks Rob & Pete. I’d bring a jetboil as well. Any idea if there is potable water there or we need to bring some? Thx.
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Hi Warren,
The following link gives info about the campground
https://www.nps.gov/pinn/planyourvisit/camp.htmBut yes, there is water at the camp and the showers are coin-operated.
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For those who are planning to stay in a motel rather than camp, Hollister might be a better choice than King City. The road-miles from the Pinnacles Campground to King City or Hollister is virtually the same, but the big difference is our Saturday route both going and coming goes right past Hollister.
Here’s something else to consider: Hollister is the home town of Corbin Saddles and Corbin Saddles is home to the Wizzard’s Cafe which is open to the public. I stopped there in 2018 to have a new seat made for my Triumph Bonneville and I had breakfast in their cafe while I waited. The food is good and the walls are covered with all kinds of motorcycle-related memorabilia. Their showroom has some interesting eye candy in it too.
They’re open Mon-Sat from 8:30-1:30 so this could be a good meet-up spot if anyone decides to stay in Hollister. For that matter, it could be a good breakfast stop on Saturday morning.
I’ve attached a couple photos of the Wizzard’s Cafe below.
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ATTENTION:
This evening the US Forestry Service announced that they are CLOSING ALL NATIONAL FORESTS IN THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA effective at 11:59 PM on August 31st (tomorrow @ noon). This closure is expected to last until “the end of the day on September 17th.
The Pinnacles campground is in the National Forest, so this probably means we don’t have a campground to go to (although I don’t know this for a fact).
Oof! I wonder if there’s a private canpground in that general area we can get a reservation at? I’d be willing to spend more than $20 to make this trip happen.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/r5/news-events/?cid=FSEPRD949139
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For those of you who don’t do Facebook:
It’s official: There’s a brand new recorded message when you call the Pinnacles National Park telephone number which states that the park and campground are open and not affected by the National Forest closures.
My apologies for beating the drum unnecessarily. Sounds like we can proceed as planned.
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Visited the Pinnacles NP westside with Howard B., Henry S., and Ray S. On Tuesday, it getting 100°F during that day. Be hydraded!
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At the risk of stealing Willis’s thunder (as resident weatherman), you’ll find the forecast for Pinnacles National Park for next Friday attached below. Saturday’s forecast is around 2° cooler and Sunday’s is 3° cooler than that. This is from the Dark Skies app which I have found to be as accurate as anything else I’ve used and I’ve long considered myself as a pretty good amateur meteorologist which goes hand-in-hand with being a long-time RC glider guider.
But bear in mind that any REAL meteorologist will tell you that trying to forecast weather more than a couple days out with any degree of accuracy is a fool’s game.
BTW, I’ve come up with an acceptable solution to the registration debacle I’m facing with my RT, so I will be joining the group for the ride after all. Yay!
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It has been 30 years since I’ve slept in a tent I cant think of a better bunch to give it a try once again than this crew. Its official. I’m in and I have the receipts on all this overprice junk from REI to prove it.
Wow, Sergio and my stories are almost identical. For me it’s been 31 years and there’s a little over $1000 invested in the drybag and contents below. Needless to say, it will be strapped to my RT, not the Camry. 😝
Looking forward to the ride.
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You guys are the best! But now I feel like the pressure is on me not to break any of you and to make sure this a “good” experience. 😁
You’ll do fine. Just go into it using my Marine Corps philosophy: expect it to be a test of your endurance and mostly a butt kicker, keep your eyes open to learn what you can, figure out what to change next time, enjoy the camaraderie, the BS, and let all of the annoyances slip away. 😁 -
As well as posting here, I’ll get a group text and email going this week with final instructions. For one thing, I pre-rode the southern portion of my planned Friday route this past weekend and decided it’s too gloomy and alien; rocks and dirt and oil rigs and husks of derelict buildings. So I’m changing that. MTF…
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Eric, can you please add me to the group text? I just got clearance to take Friday off work, so I will be going go Pinnacles! Super excited as this will be my first time on a SCBMWRC outing as a new member and also camping via motorcycle. Looking forward to learning more about motocamping from the experienced members.
/carl
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First, I want to say WELCOME to all of the first-time campers. Excellent! You’ll have lots of support along the way and I look forward to sharing this adventure with you.
Here are some final instructions for the trip.
Routes: I’m attaching gpx files which more or less show our Friday and Saturday routes. The Friday route is changed from what I posted earlier. It was way too long so I shortened it.
Food:
Dinners: I was trying to arrange a cooked, shared meal for Fri and Sat nights but that fell through so please bring your dehydrated food for those nights.
Breakfast: Pete has recommended that we eat breakfast together at Corbin Seats’ Wizzard Cafe in Hollister on Saturday morning. Let’s plan on doing that but it will mean an earlier start.
Lunch: We’ll stop at the Cider Creek Bakery in Paso Robles for lunch on Friday. Saturday lunch will be at Alices Restaurant.
Camping: bring $20 to pay your portion of the campsite.
Weather: the campground will be mild: 50s/60s in the morning and highs of 86 in the afternoon. But, the ride up on Fri will be hot so bring your cooling vest.If you have any questions please email, text or call, 949 636-4769.
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