Beltane Campout Festival with Maypole Ceremony

Fellow Pagans:

Grant Park will be gorgeous in April, very green and perhaps with the first wildflower blooms. Our campsite is surrounded by a circle of seven oaks and overlooks a valley with the East foothills above.

Here is the link to the Park site for detailed information about the park.

http://www.sccgov.org...

Joseph D. Grant County Park's landscape is characteristic of the east foothills of the Santa Clara Valley, with grasslands and majestic oak trees. Our ritual, to be led by Valerie, will include a traditional Maypole dance.

How to Get There

Joseph D. Grant County Park is located at 18405 Mt. Hamilton Rd., San Jose, CA 95140, in the east of Santa Clara Valley. Travel to the park by taking Highway 101 or Highway 680 to Alum Rock Avenue eastbound in San Jose. Turn right onto Mt. Hamilton Road and travel eight miles to reach the park entrance. Please take note that Quimby Road is very narrow and is not suitable for RV's and large trailers.

Park Office: (408) 274-6121

Activities

Hikers and equestrians have access to an extensive 52 mile trail system. Mountain bikes are permitted on nearly half of the park's trails as designated.

We already have a site reserved, but if our site fills up, you may need to reserve separately. Check with Shannon and Richard if you have questions: RichardShimek@msn.com

Shaded picnic areas are available on a first-come first-served basis, and there are 40 reservable family campsites. Hot showers are available. One large lake and several smaller ponds are accessible for warm water fishing. Wood fires will be banned during fire season and during high fire conditions. For further questions please call the park office at: 408-274-6121.

Fees for the Meetup and Parking

Please note, the fee for the Meetup is $5 per person to pay for the campsite and ritual supplies. As soon as you RSVP, please mail the $5 fee to Richard Shimek, 3980 Blue Gum Drive, San Jose, CA. 95127 or if you are RSVPing from the San Jose Pagan Meetup site, you can pay by PayPal. When you RSVP for the event, please also state if you will be camping out or just coming up for the day so we know if we need to reserve another campsite. The park also charges a $6 a day fee per car for parking. However, cars with DMV handicapped placards or handicapped license plates are not charged a parking fee and two cars associated with the campsite get free parking at the campsite. We hope to avoid most of the daily parking fees by running shuttles with the two cars getting in free with the campsite and the two cars with handicapped placards. Contact us at RichardShimek@msn.com to arrange carpooling. People can park their cars at our house, 3980 Blue Gum Drive, San Jose and then car pool together for the drive up to the park.

When entering the park, if you are planning on camping out, you will need to state you are with the Richard Shimek camping party at site #16, Halls Valley campground. Cars coming up for the day can just proceed up to site #16, however, you may need to park in the daily use fee area if there is no room to park directly up at the site. We can run a shuttle if you can not walk the quarter mile from the daily use parking lot to the camping site.

Equipment Requirements and Safety Tips

Night time temperatures could still be in the low forties, so bring a warm sleeping bag if you are camping out. Also, this park closes at sunset and you can leave the park after sunset but you can not enter or reenter it after sunset, even if you are camping out. If, however, people do decide to have dinner on Alum Rock Ave. on Friday night, we can ask the ranger if they can hold the gate upon until 9 p.m. There is an excellent Thai restaurant on Alum Rock Avenue you may all want to try. Bring something to barbeque and a side dish, beverage or desert for the potluck on Saturday night. There is no meal plan for the Meetup other than the Saturday potluck so bring your own food for the other meals.

Please note that hiking, camping and other activities are at your own risk. It is extremely rare for mountain lions in the park to get near humans but it is nevertheless advisable to read the signs regarding what to do if one approaches. Rattlesnakes on the trails are also very rare and when encountered, they are usually very sleepy and non-threatening unless you step on them so be alert for them on trails so you can give them a wide berth. Fire extinguishers and water buckets filled with water are available at the campsite in case a ritual candle does cause a small fire.

Nature is wild and wonderful at Grant Ranch so I hope to see you all there!