Back when I first visited Butano a year or two ago, I noticed that Big Basin was only a short distance to the east and wondered if there was a route connecting them.  It turns out that there are actually two- the Butano Fire road and the Gazos Creek Road.  The Butano Fire Road is an extension of China Grade Road (This is the right turn you pass while driving to Big Basin from the north)  Gazos Creek Road runs from Big Basin HQ to the sea passing the site of the historical Sandy Point Guard Station.  Both of these roads are popular with the mountain biking crowd. 

With a few additional roads added, it was possible to combine the two into a lengthy 25 mile loop dayhike.

Small waterfall along Gazos Creek Road.

In my last entry, I noted the backcountry crime scene that I found on the skyline trail.  This week, I think I found the culprit- this Middle Ridge redwood tagged as a "killer tree" with skull and crossbones flagging tape.

 
Killer Tree

The full set of pictures, map, and commentary are here.

I headed down to Big Basin on Thursday morning to squeeze in a quick hike before the massive storm system hit. 

Today's route passed the McAbee Overlook and Berry Creek falls and covered a number of trails that were new ground for me.  I came prepared for a downpour, but managed to get most of the loop completed before it started raining steadily.

Always Picturesque Berry Creek Falls

I stumbled across one of the more odd things I've seen in the backcountry about a half mile upstream from Berry Creek Falls.  A single shoe rested in the middle of the Skyline to Sea trail.  Next to the shoe was a fallen "widowmaker" tree branch marked with yellow police tape.  Strange. 

Pictures, map, commentary, and the full set of pictures are here.

It was in the mid 40's as I headed south from Mountain View for my first outing of 2008.  By the time I reached Hollister it was sub 40 and it broke freezing around the time I turned off of Hwy 146 onto the park access road.   The thermometer bottomed at 24 degrees near the Chalone Creek bridge and then rose a bit to 27 up at the parking lot.  Good to be back in warm sunny California. 

Today's route was a loop around the remote Northern Wilderness trail returning via the Juniper Canyon & High Peak trails. 

The morning chill did end up quickly wearing off and it turned out to be quite a nice day. 

Machete Ridge from the Northern Wilderness Trail.

Pictures and commentary are here.
Earlier Pinnacles trips are here:  2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002.

In no particular order, here are some outings I'm considering for this winter and spring.
Additional suggestions welcome, particularly for any place I've yet to hike.

1. Pinnacles NM, Couterclockwise loop around the Northern Wilderness and High Peaks trail.  (Done clockwise a few years back, doing this to kick off the year on Tuesday)
2. Big Basin HQ to Butano SP via Gazos Creek Road
3. Pine Ridge Trail thru-hike w/ overnight at Big Sur lodge
4. Ventana Double Cone from Bottchers Gap (do this about once a year)
5. Skyline to Sea (looking for a car swap partner for this, I'll take the uphill variant)
6. Lost Coast trail (been there twice, but never been south of Jackass Creek)
7. Henry Coe,  Hunting Hollow to Burra Burra Peak (repeat of the very first hike on the website)
   Will do Bear Mountain instead if they reopen the northern section of the park in the spring
8. Dick Smith Wilderness, Malduce Mountain and Samon Peak (2 of the HPS Big 4)
9. Mt. Diablo 4 peaks, Clockwise (Done this counterclockwise)
10. Ventana Wilderness, Cone Peak from Highway 1

I've been working on the Ventana 15 Peaks list off and on for about half a decade. 
One of the more difficult summits on that list is Pinyon Peak, a remote highpoint situated in the deep wilderness a few miles behind Junipero Serra.

Junipero Serra Peak

Junipero Serra itself is a 12 mile outing with a reasonably hefty elevation gain.  From the JSP summit, one then follows an old abandoned roadbed until it gradually dissapears as it decends into Bear Canyon.  The descent into the canyon and subsequent climb to the Pinyon/Bear ridgetop are a brutal chapparal bushwack along the faded remains of an ancient roadbed.  Once the ridge is gained, one must then plow through 2 miles of overgrown trail to reach the Pinyon summit.

2 years (and 1 day) ago, I made my first attempt at the traverse from JPS to Pinyon.  I had no real expectations of making the peak that day, but was planning on scouting out the route and determining the feasibility of a summit bid.  Much to my suprise and by complete coincidence, I ran into another party deep in the wilderness.  This group, led by Dave McMillan, had taken several trips over several seasons to scout, tag, and prune the old route to Pinyon.  I tagged along with them as far as Bear Mountain, but turned back as it was too late for a summit bid.  (Dave and company, who had camped midway, continued onto the peak and were thus the first known party to summit Pinyon since the road was reclaimed by the wilderness)

Now armed with first hand knowledge of the route and taking advantage of this weekend's full moon, I headed out for a second attempt.

Pinyon Peak

This ended up being one of the longest and nist exhausting outings I'd ever undertaken- 24 total miles (12 on established trails, ~8 on forest roads/firebreaks of varying conditions, and probably 3-4 miles of chapparal bushwack), 8500 feet of elevation gain, and 20 total hours on the trail.

Pics and trip report are here

2 more Ventana peaks to go- Kandlebinder and Black Cone.  (I've attempted Kandlebinder twice prior and not yet taken a stab at Black Cone.  Hope to get to both of those this year)

Hard to believe that its been a year since I broke my ankle and its hard to describe how much of a defining moment a serious leg injury is on ones life.

While nowhere near back to 100%, the ankle is more or less back to normal for day to day activities.  On the trail, it will start to ache after about 10 miles and will tend to swell for a couple days after an outing. 

For an anniversary, I went back to Yosemite Valley for the first time since the injury and did the hike that got interrupted when I got hurt.  Here I am sitting on the same rock that I occupied for 2 hours while waiting for the SAR team a year ago.  (Wearing the same shirt even- the pants got cut off prior to the surgery).  I opted to avoid the specific route down the rock that caused the mishap.

It was an absolutely beautiful day to be in Yosemite and good to be back.  The waterfalls were in full flow and my travels today took me past most of them.  I did the basic Nevada Falls loop (Up the Mist trail and down the JMT) with side trips to visit Sierra Point and to summit Liberty Cap.

The full set of pics (took a ton today) are here.

I've been looking around for some new "Spring Training" hikes and decided (almost on a whim) to go finally take a look at Mt Diablo.  Somehow I've lived in the Bay Area for a decade and have never even driven up to the Diablo Summit.

Matthew Holliman had posted a route on summitpost (here) that looked intriguing- a loop hike that tagged Mt Diablo itself and 3 surrounding high points- Eagle Peak, North Peak, and Mt Olympia.  (I opted to skip the class 3 scramble that he included in his route and took the slightly longer and slightly saner trail from North Peak to Mt Olympia)

Here's the elevation profile of the route:

I got the workout I was looking for- This may be the most brutally graded hike I've seen outside of the Sierras.
There's stuff in Henry Coe and the Ventanas that comes close, but you'll not see anything like 7 miles of sustained uphill with this grade.

The weather was near perfect for hiking (though unfortunately whats good for hiking isn't good for visibility) and we are near the peak (of an admittedly miserable) wildflower season.

Pics and trip report are here.

I was looking for a lengthy conditioning hike to start off 2007 so I decided to revisit one of my favorite routes in the Ventana Wilderness. 

My ankle held up remarkably well. I did this one sans-ankle brace and didn't have any significant pain (other than blisters on my non injured foot)  This was my first 25+ mile outing since my injury.

("La Ventana" as seen from the Ventana Double Cone summit)

Pics and commentary are here.

The Hundred Peaks Section of the Sierra Club refers to the McKinley/San Rafael/Santa Cruz trio as the "HPS Big 3".  All three can be reached out of the Cachuma Saddle trailhead near Los Olivos, CA.  They are doable as a long (~30+ mile) day hike but usually summited as part of a 2 or 3 day backpack trip.

This was my 5th trip to the area and I've had some unfortunate luck with the weather over the years.  On my 1st trip, trailhead access was blocked by the closure of Happy Canyon Road.  (I found out later that there is a back entrance to the trailhead via Figuroa Mountain Road).  No hiking that day.

My second trip was my only summertime visit and my successful summit of Santa Cruz Peak- the most remote of the 3 peaks.

On my third trip it started raining after about an hour and conditions gradually worsened as the day progressed, getting to the point were I was having a difficult time seeing through the rain.  I ended up turning back about halfway to McKinley Springs. (No pics from that trip, the camera I had at the time got wet and never functioned again).   To top off the miserable day, I returned to the trailhead to find that I had left my car's sunroof wide open.

My most recent attempt was earlier this year when I ran into snow starting near McKinley Spring. 

Yesterday was a bit better than the last two trips.  No snow and it held off raining until the last couple of hours.  Unfortunately, The ridge was once again completely enveloped in clouds and visibility was about 20 feet for most of the day.  Despite the weather I was finally able to summit the remaining two HPS Big 3 peaks.  This turned out to be somewhat of a disappointing accomplishment as both peaks were completely whited out.  I think I used up my luck on my Post Summit trip when the clouds miraculously cleared for the 1/2 hour I was on the peak.

Pics and more commentary: here

Got a packet of photos in the mail today from my brother from last month's Southen California trip.
He apparently had taken a picture every time I stopped to take a leak.