Wednesday 24 Mar 21 Pinnacle National Park
24 Mar 21
Wiggin woke me up around 2. He has his own way of getting my attention. Unlike Pete who just moans and groans when he needs something, Wiggin will get on top of me and start licking my nose. Wiggin's pooing routine, where he finds a perfect bush to back into to his business, can be a bit of a problem in that the bush has to meet certain specifications. He has yet to provide me what those specifications are however so we can spend several minutes walking around inspecting ALL the bushes until he finds on within limits. Sometimes there just isn't one so he doesn't go. I think this is what happened during last night's potty walk. So now he had to go so bad that he informed me that the criteria had changed and that any twig would do and I needed to get up and let him out immediately. After he had finished I let him back in and I got back in my sleeping bag. Pete had slept through all of this until I slammed the door shut. Now he was up and moaning and groaning. I ignored him, big mistake, until I heard him peeing on the floor. Of course I jumped out of bed and put him out while I cleaned up his mess. It was actually my fault since I had forgotten to give him his nightly insulin shot. Plus as soon as he started moaning I should have let him out. I let him back in and we all went back to sleep.
I got up at 7:30 and fed the dogs while water was heating up for coffee. I drank a couple cups of coffee while I finished yesterday's blog post. I then secured everything and got on the road for Pinnacle National Park.
Once there I went into the gift shop/visitor's center and paid for a campsite. It was the last site available. It didn't have any hook-ups but I didn't need any and it was right next to the forest.
Once parked I unloaded the bike and then made ham and eggs for breakfast. Since there was another camper close by I used a skillet for toast and cooked the grits on the stove as well.
After breakfast I rode the bike to the Old Pinnacle Parking Area and then hiked the Balconies Cave Trail to the Cave. It was an easy 2.5 mile hike. The cave entrance was blocked off, I assume due to the virus. I then hiked off trail up the side of the mountain thinking I could get to the top. I never made it to the top but I did get to a ledge with a nice view of the trail below.
Once I got back on the trail I walked back towards the parking area. I stopped after a bit and had some peanut butter crackers and raisins. The crackers were quite old.
I walked on back to the parking lot, got on the bike and rode back to the campground. When I got back to aRTy I found Pete had gotten on the driver's seat. It is blocked off and I have no idea how he managed to get up there.
I fixed a ham and cheese sandwich and ate not it with chips, avocado and sangria.
Later I took Wiggin on a bike ride touring the campground. He really likes to ride on the bike with the wind in his face. The campground was bigger than I thought.
Just before dark I happened to notice four large birds in a tree close to my campsite. I had read on the map hand out that the park was a release site for California Condors. Behind me I could see a couple condors way up high. When I first saw one I originally thought it was an airliner. The longer I watched the more condors landed in the tree. They would spiral down from way up high until they were at tree height. They never flapped their wings until they flared out to land. I watched them for at least 30 minutes. They would seem to come in two at a time from all directions. It was almost completely dark when the last two landed. There must have been at least two dozen in the tree when I went in.
When I got in aRTy I tried to put my daypack behind the driver's seat where I stow it. It was a little fuller than usual so I just assumed it wouldn't fit and threw it on the driver seat. A few minutes later I looked at the dog bed in the back expecting to see Pete laying in it but no Pete. I had let him out shortly before and I panicked thinking I never put him back in. I looked frantically for him but he was nowhere to be found. After a few minutes I heard his familiar annoying groan. Sure enough he had gotten himself stuck behind the driver's seat.
He is so stubborn and is always right where I need to be but he does make me chuckle at least once a day.
For dinner I made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I ate it while watching the 5th episode of Band of Brothers. After the movie I called it a day.