Tricia's school was out yesterday (they get both Presidents' Days off). So she used Saturday to catch up on homework and sleep. Then we did a Daddy/daughter Sunday/Monday trip to Pinns. Yesterday we came home by way of the San Benito County highpoint.
This highpoint (San Benito Mountain) is well down in the southeast corner of the county, between Highways 25 and 5. It's over 5,000 feet in elevation. I'd done it 12 years ago while driving to Pinns. But I'd gone from Highway 5, through New Idria on a terrible road that was barely passable. We certainly weren't going that way this time!
I thought we'd do about 5 1/2 hours of driving, going south from Pinnacles, out by way of Coalinga Road and eventually coming out by way of Coalinga itself and then north to home. Well, from Highway 25 it's a long way in and then out - including almost 40 miles of dirt roads (in and out). It took us 8 1/2 hours.
But the drive (and the repeat) were well worth it. Tricia did half the driving, and it was a kick to see how well she enjoyed it.
San Benito Mountain from the drive in:
The pines at the top of the mountain were ice-covered:
This one is a drive all the way. Here we are parked in front of the highpoint itself:
A happy (but chilly) girl on the highpoint:
I went up still wearing my climbing clothes (we'd spent the morning checking topos and route descriptions);
Looking northeast over the Central Valley:
Tricia's now got all of the county highpoints in the southern half of the state done, except Mount Whitney (which is the highpoint of two counties). Guess what that means (in between PCT trips)?