2023/2024 Point Reyes Wildcat Campground - New Year's Eve Backpack

 Ever since we visited Alamere Falls in 2022, I'd been so impressed by Wildcat Campground that I tried  over and over again, succeeding only in September this year for the New Year's Eve slot. Boen wanted to go, and the weather looked reasonable --- right in between two rain storms. I posited that the easiest way to do the backpack was to actually bike down the Bear Valley trail until we weren't allowed to bike any more, then hike to the campground. We'd ridden the whole thing from Five Brooks, but the horse poop at the trailhead and the ruggedness of the ride meant that I'd be pushing the bike most of the way on the return anyway, so I might as well carry a backpack and wear it.

On New Year's Eve, we packed everything we needed into the car, and then drove to Bear Valley Visitor Center. There, I confirmed that leaving our bikes at the bottom of Bear Valley trail overnight wouldn't be a problem, and that I couldn't swap out my Site #7 ticket for a Site #6 as some other person had grabbed it and hadn't relinquished it.

The ride was no big deal but I had to take it extra gingerly because I'd forgotten to bring a hammer to snap close the retaining pin on my ancient Yakima trailer. If I'm going to do more bikepacking in this configuration in the future I'm going to have to buy a new trailer. I stacked the two backpacks together on the trailer and tied it all together with bungee cords. The stability wasn't great but on the other hand it's such a tame trail that my biggest concern was getting the backpacks muddy, hence I wrapped both packs with garbage bags.

The easiest way to Wildcat from Bear Valley was up Glen Camp. We'd bought sandwiches at Point Reyes Station earlier, and half way up the trail was a good place to stop and eat --- I've learned never to let kids eat unless they're hungry. Otherwise, it's a waste of food. Even so, Boen only ate 3/4 of his sandwich.

We met other backpackers exiting the route and they told us to get onto the fire road and just stay on it --- there were alternate routes, but this was the easiest way with a kid in tow. At the junction with the Coast Trail we noticed a bunch of backpackers coming down the trail. I asked for a picture of the two of us and they obliged. Daniel, the group leader had Pixel 8 Pro, and was a pretty friendly guy. They told us that the Coast Trail was pretty, and would take us back to our bikes.

Boen's reaction to the first view of Wildcat Campground this trip was "WOW! That's an amazing campground." He didn't remember our previous trip by bike! We got to the campground and found site #7 perched over the beach, but with only a slight view of the ocean. We pitched our tent and made some hot beverages, and then visited the beach but realized that the tide was still high --- low tide was at 8pm, so we went back and explored. We took a look at Site #6, which was indeed occupied by an Asian couple with a huge antenna setup for AM radio, which looked like it would take a good hour to setup.

The views were incredible. We could see all the way to the Farallons, which surprised me because it was cloudy and once in a while I could see rain showers offshore.

We decided to try our luck again, and went to the beach to discover Daniel's group in the midst of starting a fire. I'd brought a fire permit and fire starter, but they had way more people and were way more motivated. They had a guy finding twigs, other people gathering fire wood for drying, and we could spectate. Daniel was a hard worker, frequently getting onto his hands and knees to nurture the fire.

At 4:15, I'd had enough of waiting and decided that this was our last chance to see Alamere falls before sunset. I set off with Boen and Daniels' group decided that I knew what I was doing, which was a mistake.

I cannot fault the views from the beach. The Golden Hour didn't disappoint. Sandpipers on the beach flittered back and forth, looking for grub, only to take flight when the waves came crashing down. 

We steadily got closer to the Alamere Falls, hut were thwarted at the last segment, where big waves kept crashing against the one rock guarding the actual falls. Two of Daniel's party members just resigned themselves to getting wet and soaked through, but Boen and I settled for an ephemeral fall fairly close to the actual falls themselves.

Those falls didn't exist when we last visited the area, so must have been produced by the most recent series of rains.

By the time we got back to our tent site, it was dark, so we made dinner and ate it by lantern light. I'd forgotten to bring headlamps for both of us, so the whole meal was awkward, with lots of spillage, but Boen really enjoyed his Mountain House Beef Stew. He got cold after dinner, so we hurriedly brushed our teeth and joined Daniel's party for the fire, which was nice and hot!

The stars were out, indicating that our cloud cover was gone. But the tides were still crashing down hard on the beaches, so nobody felt like venturing forth to the waterfall in the moonlight. Boen was too tired to do so anyway, and asked for an early night at 8:00pm.

When morning came, we were both refreshed enough to contemplate taking the long way back to the bike, along the coast trail. We ate a hurried breakfast and packed up and hiked up with wet tents and fly for despite the cloudless sky the humidity was high enough to induce a lot of condensation on the tent.

It didn't even take a quarter mile climbing out of the campground for us to have to shed clothing for we had warmed up plenty despite being in the shade.

Turning off on the Coast trail at 0.8 miles we saw signs for the Bear Valley trail intersection at 2.5 miles. The views became very nice, with the spray off the coast visible even at our distance.

The route took us into forests with mists rising around us, lending the area an ethereal look for us to greet the new year. It being early we saw no one else until we got close to the Bear Valley trailhead, where the views started to become spectacular.

California's distinctive sea stacks, along with a clear blue sky and a calm looking Ocean belying the crashing roar that was our soundtrack the night before reminded me again of how nice it was to live where we lived.

Finally, crossing a bridge, up a tiny hill and we were back on the Bear Valley trail. Just a mile later we were at the bikes, loading them up and headed for home.

There's nothing like the relief of pedaling a nice bike after 5 miles of walking. Even a little pump of the pedals and you're flying up a hill at twice your walking speed.  We had quite a bit of splatter on our clothing and bike by the time we got to the car. But it being New Year's Day, traffic home was non existent and we got home in plenty of time to dry the tent and put it away!