June 28, 2017 - Crescent Meadow Wandering

Title: June 28, 2017 - Crescent Meadow Wandering
Hike Info : Description : Trail Lessons : Background :  Extra Photo's : Animals : Flowers and Plants

Trail head: Crescent Meadow Parking Lot

Hike Info:

Type: Hiking

Trail: Crescent Meadow, Log Meadow, High Sierra Trail, Trail of the Sequoia’s

Destination: Loop

Distance:  7.30 miles ¹

Start Time: 9:38

End Time:  3:25   

Travel Time:  5:48 (1.26 mph)

Moving Time:  3:54 (1.87 mph)

Elevation Rise:  1,312'

Maximum Elevation: 7,284'

GPS Tracks
 ¹Other people’s measurements were in the 9+ mile range. Most of these were based upon steps rather than distance.

Also the map and profile will be updated once my computer is revived.

Description:

Another meetup hike where we start at the Corner Bakery at 6:45. We have everybody accounted for and get off by 6:55. On our way up to Giant Forest, we stop to pick up Vicki  at Bear Mountain Pizza and continue on to Wuksachi Lodge near Lodgepole. A little disappointment-no coffee, but good restrooms. So we pull into the Crescent Meadows parking lot a few minutes after 9:30-the time I think we will get there. Ken, Rebecca and Betty are waiting for us.

Crescent Meadow

There is 16 of us in all. The loop is what Sherri and I have enjoyed and done several times. Several of our group has not been here before or at least not in a long time. They are in for a treat. Also our friends, Cathey and John, are with us. This is her maiden run on a trail since a surgery, so she is only doing a little bit of it-that is good. Wisdom in taking small steps now so she can do large steps later. Just a few paces down the trail, we stop to view Crescent Medows. At the end of the meadow is a nicely shaped Sequoia. Most people know what it is, but do guess. For some this is their first unobstructed view of one. This is always fun introducing people to their first views in the Sierra’s.

Tharp's Log

We go out along the east edge of Crescent Meadow. But there is a couple people who opted to go to Tharps Log in a more direct route. But then there is the third group who follow the herd mentality and follow the couple people who are taking the shorter route. Those of us who took the right route enjoyed the view of Crescent Meadow from all different perspectives. At the end of the meadow, we wait for the third group. Lee even goes back to find them with no success. So we take a branch of a trail and go over a short ridge and drop into Tharps Log, where we find both groups.

Log Meadow

We take a break here and I get another chance to talk. This one is about  who Tharp who was and how he hosted John Muir in 1875. This has been far enough for John and Cathey so they decide to go back how they came. Vicki and Jean decided to follow them as well. The rest of us go on the east side of Log Meadow for about a mile.

Moro Rock

There is a short path to bring us up to the High Sierra Trail and the junction with the Trail of the Sequoia. Later we'll do the Sequoia trail but now we follow the High Sierra Trail for a third of a mile to Eagle View. This is arguably the highlight of the trip. From Eagle View you can see down the Kaweah River to Lake Kaweah. Moro Rock rooms there to the west of us. Then we turn around and  look up the river to the east. There stands the divide between the Kern and Kaweah Rivers. Everyone wants to get their picture taken here. But somehow I forget to take pictures from here, and this is a clear view day. It still is a beautiful sight, and you can see the peaks in sharp distinction with the snow.

Several people have talked about going to Whitney-that would where the High Sierra Trail goes. I outline where the Trail goes and what it would take to go to Whitney. A bit of an undertaking. There are second thoughts in our group.  

Butt Ugly Tree

Burnt Tree and Lupine

After our High Sierra gawking, it is time to move on. We go back to the trail junction wait for everybody to catch up. I give people the option to go back to the parking lot-about half a mile away. But everybody decides to continue with the hike. Carol and John hike with us a little way, but need to leave, so they take a cut off.

The Trail of the Sequoias goes above  the lower groves, maybe about maybe 150 feet above them. Even though the trail does gently rise up another about 200 feet. We see younger Sequoias which people marvel at: they are surprised that these young Sequoia’s are  maybe a couple hundred years old and still  will live a couple thousand. There is a freshness to the trees in this area-the older, lower groves give you a feeling of ancientness. Sort of like in  The Lord of Rings, where the Ents talk about the younger, hasty ones. Ah to drink of the Ent-draught! Where can we find it on this walk?

Lunch time with Ken, Korina, and Gary

We look for a place to have lunch. The one which we find, I will say is not one of my great stopping places. But it is a suitable place where we could enjoy ourselves and rest our legs for about 20 or 30 minutes. And then is onward, as we are already taking more time than I thought we would. But that is OK, after all we are not into a rush mode but more into enjoyment of what we have around us.

Around one corner several people stop, and start pointing. I am experience enough to know that people just do not stop and point at nothing. Is it a deer? A squirrel? Maybe a cat? Nope it is a bear and her two cubs. But only those in the front were able to catch sight of them. Unfortunately I was maybe a hundred feet behind. So no bear sightings of me. It just so happens that about 5 years ago Sherri and I walked the same trail and saw a bear and her cub on top of this very ridge.

Ken and I then had a discussion about bears. I bring up a book I read called Speaking of Bears by Rachel Mazur with she which Ken is very interested in hearing about. Apparently he was her neighbor for a little while when she was a bear tech with SEKI.

Chief Sequoyah

A little while later, we reach the top of the trail and start are descent down into the older groves. I am thankful for this as I have now slip to the back of the line and I can feel that I am out of shape. But not terribly out of shape in that the legs are still strong, but the lungs is what's giving me problems.

When we reach the bottom, we come to the Chief Sequoyah tree. A short ways after that is a group of trees called The Senate. These trees are closely pack together inspiring all in our group, particular among those who have not seen Sequoia’s before today. I think a little political here and wonder how these trees can be so close together competing for resources but growing together, while our US Senate has a hard time deciding anything.

The Senate

Circle Meadow

From here are we have some choices about how to get back to Crescent Meadow. I think the group, not to mention myself,  is getting a little tired as a trail has been longer and harder than expected. So instead of going past the Cattle Cabin we will go directly around Circle Meadow and then cross over to Crescent Meadow.

The trail goes down the length of Crescent Meadow  and we finally see the cars. And then we see Cathey and John, Vicki and Jean waiting for us by a picnic bench. They are a good sight to see. We talk a bit and then load up in our cars for our trip back. Some go straight back to Fresno. We and another car stop in Squaw Valley for pizza at Bear Mountain Pizza. Then its back to Fresno. Sherri and I get back home around 8.

Great Western Divide

Trail Lesson: One person’s easy is another person’s hard.

Background

Chief Sequoyah. The Chief Sequoyah tree is the 27th largest sequoia in the world, about 228' tall and 90' around at location  36.5625, -118.751389.


The Senate. Part of the Congress Trail which includes another group of trees called The House.


Cattle Cabin. From the sign at the Cattle Cabin:  This cabin was built by cattlemen who had acquired much of the Giant Forest land for grazing purposes prior to the establishment of Sequoia National Park in 1890. After the park’s establishment, the land was leased to men who supplied meat and milk to visitors and to the soldiers who guarded the park from 1891 through 1913. Circle Meadow, adjacent to the cabin, was the site of the slaughtering corral. By 1917 the last private holdings in Giant Forest had been purchased and deeded back to the government.




Extra Photo's

Admiring Sequoia's

The Senate

Indian Paintbrush and Kaweah River

Sequoia Root System

 Animals

Leopard Lily and Tiger Swallowtail

 Flowers and Plants




 

Western Wallflower

Indian Paintbrush

 

Draperia