As summer winds down, rec use shifts
With Labor Day weekend upon us, a tremendous change is about to take place throughout Northern California.
It affects anybody who loves to camp, hike, bike, fish, boat or watch wildlife.
Campgrounds reservations are about to get much easier to secure — if, that is, you can make them for something other than a Saturday night.
Of the 60 campgrounds in the greater Bay Area, three stellar destinations make the points most definitively: the trail camps at Point Reyes National Seashore, Angel Island State Park and in the Santa Cruz Mountains at Big Basin Redwoods and Portola Redwoods.
You can look through the reservation system for those three and not find a Saturday night available until mid-October. But if you’re not a Saturday-only camper, you can find sites available in the coming week starting Monday night.
Here are the details, provided by experts and rangers I worked with this past week at three reservation services and parks:
Point Reyes National Seashore:
No Saturday nights are available for camping through October. Four trail camps, Wildcat, Sky, Coast and Glen, listed in order of desirability, are booked full on weekends except for a handful of Friday nights (Sept. 22 at Glen, Oct. 20 at Glen, Nov. 10 at Sky). But this week, campsites are available Monday nights through Thursday nights, pretty much your choice. Info: Bear Valley Visitor Center, (415) 464-5100, www. nps.gov/pore; reserve campsites at www.recreation.gov.
Angel Island State Park: The North Ridge trail camps are near Fort McDowell, face the Golden Gate Bridge, and — while gorgeous at night — can have exposure to wind out of the west. Campsite 5 is open on Monday, Sept. 18, and Tuesday, Oct. 10; and site 6 is open Oct. 31-Nov. 1 (Tuesday-Wednesday). No Saturday night dates are available through Feb. 24. On the other side of the island, at the East Bay sites near Fort McDowell, no Saturday nights are available until Feb. 10 at Site 2. But starting next week, sites are available Sept. 11, 13, 14, 18-20, all of which are weekdays. These sites are protected from the west wind and are closest to Mount Livermore for a flashlight romp to the summit for a 360-degree view of the nightlights of surrounding cities and the Golden Gate Bridge. Info: Angel Island, (415) 4355390, www.parks.ca.gov; reserve campsites at www. reservecalifornia.com. Santa Cruz Mountain Trail Camps: When the clock strikes midnight Sunday, the calendar opens wide at the six trail camps in the Santa Cruz Mountains. At Big Basin Redwoods State Park, it’s a takeyour-pick deal, with nine sites available at Sunset (6 miles in, near top of Berry Creek Canyon), four sites at Jay (near park headquarters), six at Lane (near Rancho del Oso on the coast) and Slate Creek (at Portola Redwoods on route to Peters Creek Grove), eight at Butano (at west-facing ridge near Butano Rim). Saturday nights? Nope. Every site is taken through mid-October. Info: Big Basin Redwoods State Park, trail camp info, (831) 338-8861, www.parks. ca.gov; see lists of reserved/ available campsites at www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id =26658, then fill out Backcountry Trail Camp Request. Note: Entire reservation process is in live time. What’s going on?
The reservation pattern is confirmation that once school and the NFL season start, recreation changes. Monday through Friday mornings, it’s a paradise out there, with few people, no matter what drives their outdoor passions. Saturdays offer filled parking lots; Sundays, too, when the 49ers and Raiders have late games.
Ahead are two months of stellar weather, for the most part, before winter temperatures take hold in the high country. Hundreds of parks, campgrounds, lakes and streams across the West are in great condition with the best September and October lake levels in more than 10 years.
For those who have been patiently waiting, it can be the best time of the year to take off and make you feel like you might never come back.
Buying a road bike
Over the years, I’ve tried to take part in every type of outdoor recreation, roughly 25 sports. But the one hole in the resume has been long-distance road biking. I buy my gear just like anybody, so when it came to a road bike, I wanted to get the “best bike for the money.” When I asked experienced road riders what they felt was the “best bike for the money,” the first thing I found out is that everybody, and I mean everybody, thinks their bike is the best — and they will tell you why in great detail. So I also talked to the owners and mechanics at several bike shops, and while they said many bikes are great, for price/ value, they recommended the Giant Contend SL Disc 2 ($1,080). It weighs 18 pounds (steel bikes weigh 10 pounds more), has disc brakes (which work in rain, allow larger tires), graphite composite forks (for dampening jolts on the bumps), Tiagra components (same as on higher-end bikes), Shimano crank and shifters (same as higher-end), comfortable seat and ergonomics. The end result is a 20-mile ride being a breeze. And yes, I paid full price at a local bike shop — and lucked out Friday with $200 off for a Labor Day weekend sale.