OK so these accounts are from the Jurassic Era in Internet time, but I didn’t get a hike in this weekend so the least I could do is post to some other folk’s blog posts.
David reports on his Henry Coe overnighter at Random Curiosity:
As the sun set, the wind picked up and the temperature dipped. We packed away the chairs and prepped Kangaru for the night. With the rear seats folded down, the back of the car was big enough for the two of us to sleep comfortably — legs outstretched, elbows unimpeded. I slid the moon roof panel open so we could watch the stars until we drifted off.
Considering I was actually able to fall asleep for more than four hours straight (a record for a first night of any camping/backpacking trip), I’d say camping in the Outback was a good idea. I awoke (just before seven) with a stiff back, but I chalk that up to being prone for a solid eight hours.
Kangaru is his Subaru. (That’d be a cool band name: Subaru named Kangaroo).David has several cool pix of his hike to Pacheco Falls, which is of course dry.
For those who might’ve missed Calipidder’s post last week, here goes.
For those not familiar with Henry Coe SP, I should tell you that from the main entrance the park trails generally run in an East to West direction. The problem is that the ridges in the park run from North to South. So to get anywhere, it’s likely a rollercoaster of a hike up and over ridges. I don’t believe the trail builders ever heard the term ’switchback’ since most paths go steeply straight up and down.
I had noticed this phenomenon, come to think of it.
Here’s somebody’s EveryTrail gps-enabled account.
All in all a wonderful weekend with a couple of toe rubbing blisters and two tick bites but nothing terrible. Just wished I would have packed some more cool weather clothes, I’d been used to three very hot years in Coe in ’06, ’07 and ’08 so I was not fully prepared for the wind and cold during the evenings.
Gotta love the climate variety at Coe.
Henry Coe is one of those places that you can truly say, “I went uphill both ways.” We had a wonderful time backpacking. We set up base-camp at Mississippi Lake and planned great day hikes throughout the weekend.
Wow, I didn’t thing Pacheco Falls ever completely dried up.
> I had noticed this phenomenon, come to think of it.
Well, it was a working ranch before it was a park. And the roads were all set up as ranch jeep roads and the trails need to squeeze in amidst them.
The grading and route of the Poverty Flat road is just pure evil tho.
Another cool thing about starting a hike at Coe headquarters is that you are already at 2200 feet on Pine ridge. It used to be Henry Coe’s ranch house. You can’t get anywhere from there without first decending to one of the creeks. Which of course means, you have to climb back up there at the end.
Maybe things have changed since I experienced back country weekend 12 years ago – at the time the affair struck me as a gigantic jamboree of mom ‘n pops with their big RVs and truck campers instead of a oeaceful nature outing / get-away.
http://gambolinman.blogspot.com/2005/08/henry-coe-state-park-takin-it-to-edge.html
Your “somebody” is actually a real person who goes by the nickname Bullit. He has a number of well photographed hikes posted to the everytrail.com web site.
Yeah, I went to Backcountry Weekend for my first time ever this year and camped out over by the horses. There were plenty of campers out there but since I don’t have one I slept out in my little one man MSR Hubba backpacking tent. And yeah, it was sure nice and cold at night, which felt good in my down bag though so I was nice and cozy. I didn’t get any ticks though in spite of going off trail and into the grasses.