THURSDAY
Thursday morning at Sarah's house in Brooktrails, a mountain community above Willits, CA. I washed the car, while Sarah trained the woman who will take over her accounts while she is on vacation. Then we both worked at getting our camping gear in order and shopping for food for our Yosemite vacation. We shopped at Mariposa, the Organic Food Market where Sarah is employed as business manager and does the payroll.
For me, this was to be the Cadillac of camping experiences—aero beds for the tents, two huge tents (compared to my little Hubba Hubba), the big canopy I’d borrowed back from my bike group—the Red Dirt Pedalers—tablecloth, chairs, lantern, and a brand new, two-burner Coleman camp stove. While my little one-burner Coleman saw me through many bike touring camps, it burns white gas and requires pumping. Balancing a pot atop it is tricky, too, particularly if there is wind or if the flame needs pumping. Also, like public telephones, cans of Coleman fuel are rapidly disappearing to be replaced by non-refillable propane canisters.
Thursday afternoon we also erected the tents trial-run in the driveway. It was a good thing we did as they were new and quite complicated. One is a Coleman and the other a Cabelas. Also, Sarah made arrangements for her cat, Tiger’s, care.
FRIDAY
On Friday morning, we stashed all of our gear in the Prius, and off we went: CA-101S to CA-20E to I-5S to CA-120E to our campgrounds outside Yosemite in Groveland about 275 miles from Willits. I had just driven most of this route in reverse. We chose a campgrounds outside of Yosemite. Our Yosemite Pines campsite was nothing special, but it was one of the few that had campers on only two sides, and it was not too far from the washroom. Once I drove the Prius up and then down to the campsite—past the general store, swimming pool, laundry, place where one could pan for gold, petting zoo, RV sites, and washroom—on dusty rutted CG roads, the car was parked for the night.
That evening Chef Sarah prepared a delicious dinner of wild-caught salmon and a tossed salad of organic baby mixed greens and baby spinach. We shared a bottle of wine and memories of our childhoods which were actually quite different as Sarah is nearly eight years younger than I. However, I dropped out of SUNY Oneonta to help when our parents were dying, and then Sarah and I returned to Oneonta where we lived together while Sarah finished her H.S. and I my undergraduate college courses, so . . . we had those years of shared times and memories.
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| I hold my breath just looking at these photos; imagine stumble foot me trying to navigate this "trail," chain be damned |
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| Bear Bait |
Wonderful showers in the washhouse and then bed about 9 PM.
SATURDAY
Saturday morning we had breakfast of scrambled eggs in sprouted wheat tortillas and then tidied the campsite, erected the canopy, and went to town for several supplies before finally leaving for Yosemite about 9:15. Mistake. We had “Googled” Groveland, and learned that the park entrance was only two miles from the CG . . . but we must have misread. It was actually about 45 miles! No problem. That 45 miles climbed up through beautiful mountains and through the Stanislaus National Forest before arriving at the Yosemite entrance gates. At the bottom of one of the steep, s-turn climbs was a sign: “Turn off your air-conditioner.” Midway up there was a junked car lot tucked back into a canyon. We figured it held the bodies of all the cars whose owners failed to turn off the AC, overheated, and didn’t make it.
About 10 miles from the park we encountered bumper-to-bumper, slow-moving traffic, which continued all the way into Yosemite Village and Visitor’s Center. There were many viewpoints with falls and gorgeous views, but absolutely no place to pull the car into them. It was the weekend, and the park was overflowing with visitors, many of them international and dressed in beautiful saris; the bright, tight clothing popular in S.A.; up-to-the-minute German alpine gear & walking poles; or white gloves, face masks, and sun hats favored by Asian visitors. As we were walking away from the parking lot, a tram full of tourists passed, the ranger in it giving his spiel. Just as they passed the ranger said: “See that big stump over there? It was once a big tree.” This statement of the obvious became our trip joke: “See that flower over there? It was once a seed,” etc.
We finally found a parking spot—after many frustrating tours of parking lots and inching traffic—so walked to Bridalveil Falls (0.5 mile), Lower Yosemite Falls (1.1 mile) and toured the Visitor’s Center, walked the Cook’s Meadow Loop (1 mile). In Cook’s meadow a young girl had inched up to within a few feet from a grazing mule deer. All the people on the trail called to her to get back as deer have very sharp hooves. We also walked part of the Valley Floor Loop (ca. 3 miles), ate lunch of chicken club sandwiches at Yosemite Lodge, and took a zillion pix of each other, El Capitan, Half Dome, and waterfalls, real gushers because of the heavy snowpack this year. Actually most of my pix from this trip west will be of rocks, waterfalls, or sand. We decided that we’d gotten in about 5.6 miles of walking. (Pix below are in no order)
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| Bridal Veil Falls |
That night we had buffalo cheeseburgers and another delectable tossed salad for dinner, finished off with marshmallows toasted over the camp stove. (Our site was so small and the tents so large that the fire ring was too close to the tents to be of any use.) We also downed another bottle of wine, which saw us howling with laughter over the smallest thing—and which also saw us staggering in the dark to the washroom and then our tents.
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| Sarah's in orange and I'm in blue. My air mattress just fills the tent floor making for squishy entrances and exits but a comfortable sleep |
On Sunday, we were up and on the road before 8 AM. This day we easily found a parking spot, so hiked up the trail to Vernal Falls (3 miles RT with 1000 feet of elevation gain by the time one reaches the top of the falls).
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| Vernal Falls (Internet photo) |
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| Vernal Falls through the trees |
After Vernal we shuttled back to the car, resupplied our water and snacks, and then caught a shuttle to Happy Isle where we had a hotdog and toured the Nature Center before finding the trail around Mirror Lake.
The Mirror lake Trail along the Merced River was rocky and uneven, deeply muddy in spots, and was also a horse trail. We had hiked back about a mile and a half when we met another group coming toward us. They told us that there was an impassable rock slide ahead and no bridge. Only thing to do was to turn around and hike back. At one point on the way back, Sarah exclaimed, “Look, a snake!” I came to a quick halt, but she was referring to a branch that looked like a snake.
Shortly after we did our about-face, we met two young guys, one with a big camera and tripod and the other shirtless. We told them that the trail was blocked and that one could not complete the loop on this side of the river. These were nice guys, the shirtless, well-cut one a cutup from Greece. They walked behind us, the Greek saying that he would like to see a “burr.” “A burr?” the other said. “Do you mean a bear?” “No a beer,” the Greek replied. We ran into them later on the trail and at the shuttle, the Greek joking that we were following them and perhaps we women were interested in getting together, no? I told him jokingly that we were too old for them, but still liked to look . . . which in this instance was true.
Anyhow, back to the hike around the lake: We had to settle for walking the road on the other side of the river to the lake, really a wide, calm spot in the river. Once there, we took some pix of the sheared off side of half dome which towered above, and again rested and snacked. Then we walked back. We figured that we had walked about 5 miles here and knew we had walked 2 to Vernal Falls and 1 at Happy Isles, so decided we had in about 8+ trail miles for the day. On the way back to the campground, we drove the speed limit because there were ample signs saying: “Speeding Kills Bears.” We saw no bears.
Another family had moved into the spot the Aussies had vacated. They were from Ohio and had four young boys (one in diapers) and a girl of about 10 or 11 with them. They were quiet, religious (holding hands and praying before meals), and good with their kids, playing games and keeping them interested in the outdoor experience rather than electronic gadgets. We decided that maybe they were Mormon. They told us that the husband had camped at Yosemite Pines as a kid and wanted to bring his family back for the experience and for Yosemite.
On the way back to the campsite from the washhouse, Sarah exclaimed: “Look! Rattlesnake . . . grass!” Another abrupt halt. I told Sarah that she’d better stop crying wolf. The seeds on this grass (Briza maxima), when dried, somewhat resemble and also rattle like a rattlesnake’s tail.
MONDAY
Monday morning, our last full day in the Park, we drove CA-140 to the southwest corner of the park (ca. 100 miles) and its Mariposa Grove of about 500 mature giant sequoia trees, perhaps the largest living things on earth. Before we got to the grove, we stopped in Wawona, home of the lovely historic Wawona Hotel with wrap around balconies (reminded me of a miniature Mohonk) and a Pioneer History Center with a covered bridge, carriage house full of carriages, and some original and re-created log buildings . . . even a small jail.
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| Internet photo |
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| The deck and truss portion of this bridge across the South fork of the Merced River was built about 1857 by a settler named Galen Clark, who established a tourist facility here. The road from Wawona to Yosemite Valley was built in 1875, just after the Washburn brothers purchased Clark's holdings. The brothers, who were from Vermont, covered the bridge soon after. All this from the interpretive sign near the bridge. |
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| This cabin was built in the Yosemite valley around 1900, on the bank of the Merced River near Sentinel Bridge. It was the home of artist Chris Jorgensen (below) who had a studio nearby and specialized in scenics. He was one of the many artists who popularized Yosemite. (Interpretive sign) |
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| The black powder and dynamite used in the routine State work in Yosemite Valley were kept in the "Tool House" before John Degnan build a stone magazine in the 1890s. In addition to thick stone walls, the powder house also had six inches of sand in the ceiling as protection from fire. Later the powder house was converted to a jail. (Interpretive sign) |
After this stop we drove on to the Mariposa Grove but were stopped at the entrance and sent back to the Pioneer History Center where we were told to catch a shuttle to the grove of sequoias. The parking lot at the Grove was full.
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| Grizzly Giant |
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| Bachelor and the Three Graces (Internet) |
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| Clothespin |
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| Faithful Couple |
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| The Wawona Tunnel Tree as it appeared in the early 1900s. today it is no more than a giant upturned mass of roots. |
TUESDAYY
We tore down, packed up, and were on the road home by 9. We thought we wanted to take CA-49—an area familiar to Sarah because she and her then husband had logged near parts of it but got tired of all the twists and turns, so picked up I-5 south of Sacramento and zipped up it to CA-20 and thence west to CA-101 and home.
Just before we headed for I-5, we stopped at a fabulous fruit farm and bought strawberries, apricots, and cherries. Also a huge beautiful onion. I took a photo of the basket of onions they were so beautiful. More about the amazing Giant Sequoia
It has been said that in their character and in their rarity, no other living thing compares with a Giant Sequoia. Below are some fascinating facts about these incredible trees gleaned from our tour of the Yosemite Mariposa Grove and the Internet.
- The most massive living thing on our planet, the Giant Sequoia has the largest number of cells interconnected in a single, discrete whole. No other form of life even approaches the massive bulk of the largest of these giants.
- The Giant Sequoia named The General Sherman Tree in Sequoia National Park (not Yosemite) reigns supreme as the largest of the living things on Earth. It’s annual growth rate yields a yearly average of new wood equal to a tree one foot wide and 50 feet tall! Some branches of this tree are by themselves larger than typical trees east of the Mississippi River.
- Giant Sequoias are also one of the most enduring living things on the planet with many living over 2,000 years and some living past 3,000 years, or 40 human lifetimes.
- The world’s largest trees are also the world’s fastest growing trees. To fully comprehend how large the General Sherman stands, it is equivalent to a 30-story building in height and a 3-story building in width (trunk only).
- Giant Sequoias can survive in less than 3 feet of soil by spreading their roots far from the tree, up to 300 feet. That such mammoth trees have such shallow root depth is astonishing.
- How do such trees remain upright without a deep anchoring system? Giant Sequoias are extremely well-balanced and can generally maintain their equilibrium regardless of difficult conditions. The complex intertwining of roots and the protection offered in groves help support these huge trees.
- Sequoias help each other. Giant Sequoias do not compete with each other for resources, rather their huge root systems fuse together and they share resources.
- Giant Sequoias are sun worshippers, yet annually each tree must absorb vast amounts of water. When a Giant Sequoia falls in the forest, witnesses say that a river of ice water pours out.
- Giant Sequoias triumph over the natural challenges that often kill other forest trees. For example, Giant Sequoias are drought resistant, disease resistant, insect resistant, and fire resistant.
- The cinnamon-colored bark of a Giant Sequoia contains one of its greatest secrets to success. The cinnamon color comes from “tannic acid” which is found in the bark and the wood of a Sequoia, and this is why Sequoias are often called “Redwoods.” Although many trees contain some tannin, the high content in Sequoias is largely responsible for the tree’s resistance to disease, insect infestation, and fire.
- The bark of the Giant Sequoia is generally thicker than that of any other species of tree on earth, and this heavy bark is a major factor contributing to the tree’s longevity. Sections of the bark will exceed two feet in thickness.
- Giant Sequoias, like most other trees, grow as long as they live. Although upward growth usually is completed within the first 800 years of life, Sequoias continue to grow thicker throughout their long lives.
- Sequoias are extremely fruitful. The average mature Giant Sequoia produces approximately 2,000 cones each year. Since there is an average of 200 seeds per cone, 400,000 seeds could be released from each tree each year. With an average of three mature trees per acre, over a million seeds are produced per acre per year in most Sequoia groves.
- Giant Sequoias can provide food for themselves and others. The constant rain of bark, twigs, cones, and their decomposition by soil organisms maintains a dynamic balance by constantly returning nutrients to the soil.
- Giant Sequoias are dependent on fire for survival. Studies revealed that fire could be used as a management tool, at least in small areas, and that it would not only reduce fire hazard, but would stimulate the regeneration of Giant Sequoias in many ways. Scientists confirmed that Giant Sequoia reproduction effectively dropped to zero in groves where fires were not allowed to burn.
- Not only is the Giant Sequoia adapted to live with fire, it gains benefit from the association. For example, rapid growth occurs after a fire. Rising heat from a fire dries out the hanging Sequoia cones which open up, allowing seeds to rain by the millions. These seeds land on cleared soil fertilized by ash. On soil left bare by fire, they can take root. Giant Sequoia seed germination naturally occurs best in fire-burned, mineral-rich soils.
- Sequoia seedlings are much more likely to survive where fire burned hottest. Clusters of Giant Sequoias may be found where fire once burned very hot, called a Hot Spot. Because the shade canopy is destroyed, those remaining plants, such as athe Giant Sequoia, that can tolerate high light intensities will be favored.
- Giant Sequoias are fire-resistant, but not fireproof. The thicker bark will not hold a flame, but the bark can be seared through when accumulations of fuel beneath the tree burn for a long time. The deep and long fire scars that can be seen on many Giant Sequoia trunks are often due to the heat of the burning, less fire-resistant adjacent trees.
- Giant Sequoias have an amazing ability to heal when injured. Often despite severe fire damage (some burned completely hollow) Giant Sequoias can survive for centuries. New wood continually grows from either side of a fire scar, covering a little more each year until the injury is healed over like new skin on a body. Cross-sections of logged Sequoias disclose cases where fire scars have completely healed after the damage was incurred.
- Sequoias naturally form partnerships. Like most living organisms, the Giant Sequoia does not live alone; it is but one member of a complex association of plants and animals whose continued existence depends on interdependence of physical and living components. For example, the Giant Sequoia lacks the ability to drop its own cones; a mature Sequoia tree carries thousands of cones. These cones hang on a tree with its seeds sealed up for up to 20 years until something opens them. Two very small forest residents act as seed dispersing agents for the Giant Sequoia: the tiny, Long-horned Wood-boring Beetle and the Chickaree or Douglas Squirrel.
- Sequoias are interdependent, their well-being dependant on a reciprocal arrangement of services. Both the beetle and the Chickaree for example receive nourishment from the Giant Sequoia cones, and in exchange they assist the seeds to be released, greatly increasing the chances of Giant Sequoia reproduction. What is also interesting to learn is that the Chickarees seem to prefer cones between two and five years old, while the beetle apparently prefers cones four years or older.
- Giant Sequoias can live a long time, but they are not immortal. Soft soils, heavy snows and root damage can unbalance a tree and cause it to fall.
- Giant Sequoias provide for future generations. After the death of a Giant Sequoia, the tannin acts as a natural preservative which slows the decay process tremendously resulting in a slow-release of nutrients for literally thousands of years. In one case, scientists found a Giant Sequoia lying buried under sediment, undecayed for almost 10,000 years!
- You can find Giant Sequoias growing all over the world, yet today they are only native and reproducing in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California where dozens of natural Sequoia groves proudly stand. With the Giant Sequoia’s discovery, it was to be expected that people would want to grow these trees. Today there is scarcely a hilltop in Great Britain from which a Sequoia cannot be seen. It is estimated that in Europe there are perhaps as many as 10,000 Giant Sequoias. Giant Sequoias are also known to be growing presently in Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon, Israel, Cyprus, Japan, South America, Australia, New Zealand, and British Columbia. In the Southern Hemisphere, they seem to be indifferent to the reversal of the seasons and grow vigorously, particularly in New Zealand.
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