A Hidden Gem and the C.C.C.

You may have noticed that we have spent a lot of time in the Great Outdoors on this little adventure. If you haven't noticed, you probably haven't been paying much attention. We love Mother Nature, our National Parks, and any kind of natural wonder that we can sink our teeth into. There is one thing that all of these things have in common...they take human powered propulsion to see them...in other words, a lot of hiking.

You may be surprised to hear that I don't really care to hike. You may not be surprised to hear that Brenda loves to hike. It is actually her favorite activity on Earth (other than spending time with me...24/7...just the 2 of us in an itty-bitty home on wheels...she loves it). I should clarify that my dislike of hiking is really an exaggeration. I love being outdoors and I love to see what is at the end of the hike. You know, the big finale. But sometimes it takes miles and miles of hiking to see some of this stuff and sometimes after miles and miles of hiking I say, “is that it?” What I'm getting at is that sometimes our hikes end up being long walks while carrying heavy packs while hoping to see something amazing and sometimes those amazing things aren't all that amazing. Now don't get me wrong, I would much rather be hiking in the boonies with my wife than sitting in traffic in my car. It's just that sometimes some of these hikes seem to be pointless walks for the sake of walking.

Then there are other times when the hike itself is amazing. There are times when I just can't get enough and I don't want the hike to end because everything we are seeing is incredible. Not only is the scenery amazing, but the way that the trail meanders through the landscape is beautiful, and more importantly, how the trail was constructed is seemingly impossible. We have just been on such a hike in my new favorite place, Pinnacles National Park.

Pinnacles was designated a National Park in 2013 which makes it our country's newest National Park. As of about a week ago, we had never heard of it. It's a pretty small park in comparison to just about every other one we've seen, but what it lacks in size, it makes up for in personality. It's tucked away in the middle of California and if you blink, you'll drive right on by. It really is a hidden gem.

This little park is actually half of a volcano that was active millions of years ago. Half of a volcano you say? Yep, half. The volcano was situated directly on top of the San Andreas fault and when the tectonic plates slid past each other, they tore the volcano in half. So half of the volcano is now Pinnacles National Park in it's current location and the other half is about 165 miles south east of the park thanks to the constantly moving plates. Interesting.

This tiny National Park is home to some pretty incredible stuff. It has caves that come complete with bats that even us weenies could manage to explore with the help of some headlamps, it has tons of wildflowers, more bee species in a protected area than anywhere else in the world (over 400 types of bees...and to this guy who is allergic to bees, that was not an appealing fact), it has amazing rock formations, and in it's boundaries resides the California Condor, which is North America's largest bird with a 9 ½' wingspan. This Condor is listed as endangered and was nearly wiped out not too long ago with only 22 remaining birds in existence. Thanks to a serious effort, a captive breeding program brought the birds back from the brink of oblivion which means they might actually survive. What I am getting at is that these birds are huge and rare. They are so rare that they are considered one of the world's rarest bird species. We saw three of them in the park. Pretty cool.

What this park also holds is what could be the coolest hike that we have been on so far. You may remember that just a few minutes ago I told you how I don't really care to hike. Well, this hike reminded me that I actually do enjoy hiking. I have to be honest and tell you that I don't enjoy it all the time, but sometimes, just sometimes, I love it...and this was one of those times that I loved it.

This is where the Civilian Conservation Corps, or C.C.C., comes into play. If you have never heard of the C.C.C., this is going to be a quick little history lesson for you. If you have heard of the C.C.C., sit back and relax, because this will be a quick refresher course while I tell why I love the C.C.C.

The C.C.C was started in 1933 as a part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's “New Deal” and was a way to get men back to work during the Great Depression. For a whopping $30 a month, a uniform, meals, and a place to live, men would work 40 hours per week on improving our country's public lands. This included everything from building irrigation canals, bridges, roads, dams, fighting forest fires, building parks and park buildings, planting over 3 billion trees (yes that is billion with a B), and most importantly to this story, building trails at just about every one of our national parks. And of the $30 a month that was earned, they had to send $25 of their hard earned money back home to help out their struggling families. Since I am a numbers and stupid stats kind of guy, I had to do the math and find out what that $30 would mean in today's dollars. It's $537.18 a month. Not much moolah, but the program was hugely successful and popular throughout the country and all told, 3 million men worked in the C.C.C. And the best part of all, we got some amazing hiking trails out of the deal that are still being used by Brenda and myself on a daily basis over 80 years later. Thanks C.C.C.

So again, we follow our normal routine, we get to the park and ask the Ranger what we need to see. She quickly asks us “are you OK hiking a bit?” Of course Brenda chimes in with a quick “Yes! The longer the hike the better!” The Ranger proceeds to tell us about 3 different hikes that will basically cover the entire National Park and show us all of the must sees. Brenda notices that with a little bit of effort, we can link all three trails together and see everything on one loooooong hike. Perfect. An entire National Park in one hike. Good Lord, can't I get a break?

So we load up our back packs with all of our needed junk. We are going trekking through valley, exploring the caves, and climbing the high peaks in this adventure so a lot of junk goes into the packs...they are heavy. Off we go on one loooooooong hike. At the start of this hike, I was not too excited. I had never heard of the park so I didn't know anything about what we were going to see. I was sure that this place was going to be another one of those walks for the sake of walking while carrying tons of junk. After about a mile, my attitude changed when we got to the caves.

Caves are pretty cool...and they are pretty scary. And when you make it out alive on the other side after lots of twisting and turning and crying and hoping your headlight batteries don't die, they are super fun. Brenda even enjoyed them. After the caves we continue hiking through the valley and end up at a reservoir built by the C.C.C that could be the most beautiful little body of water that we have ever seen. Thanks C.C.C.

After the reservoir, we continue through the valley and start working our way up to the high peaks. This is where things got really interesting. Not only was the scenery breathtaking, but the trail was a work of art (thanks yet again to the C.C.C.). This trail was built on the sides of cliffs, with steps chiseled into the stone by hand, and tunneled through massive boulders with nothing more than muscle and willpower.

You may know that I used to build junk for a living. Since I have a background as a professional junk builder, I notice when the construction of something is either highly skilled or incredibly difficult. These trails, and quite a few trails at other national parks fall into both of these categories. A lot of these trails are pretty difficult and dangerous to hike on so I can only imagine how difficult and dangerous they would have been to build. My guess is that most of these things wouldn't be build-able in our time because of either the danger involved or the cost. It turns out that the C.C.C was a pretty good deal for the country at the time and it keeps paying off for us 80 years later. So, I guess that I have 2 points in all of this rambling. We saw yet another amazing National Park and we are constantly amazed and grateful for all the Civilian Conservation Corps did for us. We wouldn't have been able to go on most of these hikes without their hard work. Thanks.