Thirty years ago Jack Holmgren and I often parked by the West Entrance to Pinnacles well before dawn. We hiked up a brushy slope to a ridgeline that led ultimately to the High Peaks, turning off to the east a bit short of two miles out into
a lovely valley above Piedras Bonitas. Our focus was on fine climbing and adventure, but we weren’t immune to the beauty of the approach: Machete in shadow, dawn’s glow on Scout Peak and the provocative wilderness of remote East Side crags. Yesterday, Mike Russell and I parked at the new visitors center, took that hike and went all the way to the High Peaks. We followed the fence line initially and found it to be a wilderness highway - clear of brush and with easy footing. We turned left on a climbers’ trail ( or so I suppose) just past a prominent white boulder. This took us to a brush-clear ridge and finally to the summit of Goat Rock. We dropped down through the obscure slot in Goat and made it to the ridge west of Scout. Some moderate bush-whacking was required. Getting down tilted slabs and ramps from Scout to the outhouse saddle was far more dicey than I’d anticipated - recent rains made the rock slick and mossy - but we made it. Relaxing in the sunshine at the bench, we decided that reversing our route was more work than we wanted, so we headed down the trail to the parking lot. Once there, we decided that hiking up the new trail was also more work than we needed. We stopped a pick-up exiting the lot and hitched a ride to the top of the hill. The young driver likely thought that the two elderly gents begging for a ride were on their last legs. We hopped in the back of the truck and rode in luxury back to our car. An alert ranger caught us as we turned into the parking lot and warned us that we were breaking California law by lounging in the back of the truck. We assured him we’d never do it again and he let us go. More to the point, he let our good Samaritan go without a citation. Studying our sweaty, gray-bearded visages, he likely decided that the guy had performed a public service.
