Gary-Summer: October 25. 2024

Friday, October 25, 2024

October 25. 2024 - Giant Forest

Title: October 25. 2024 - Giant Forest
Hike Info : Description : Background : Extra Photo's : Flowers and Plants

Hike Info:

Type: Hiking

Trail head: Giant Forest Museum parking area

Trail: Moro Rock, Soldier, Bill Hill Trails

Destination: Lop

Distance: 4.27 miles

Start Time: 11:48

End Time: 3:42

Travel Time: 3:54 (1.10 mph)

Moving Time: 2;49 (1.52 mph)

Elevation Rise: 1,122'

Descent: 828‘

Maximum Elevation: 6,800'

GPS Tracks

Description:

Happy Birthday to Me! I got up at 5:30. Then I lumbered around for a while, then had breakfast. Sherri gets up at 7:45. Yesterday we got a letter saying that Liberty Mutual is dropping our home insurance. Why? Some outbuilding have either algae, mold, or mildew. I go up to make sure I do not find any of that-I do not. Then phone up Liberty and ordered a copy of the image they are using to make this determination. Guess we will see how this all turns out.

We leave our home at 9:30. Because it is my birthday, Sherri decides to drive. So I settled back and enjoyed the ride. We briefly stop when we get into the Park. Then on to Giant Forest. We arrived about 11:40. As we were getting ready, a man from Kyrgyzstan asked to have his picture taken. First time I have met someone from there. Then a couple from Toronto parked beside us. They asked where would be a good place to go around here/ I recommended Crescent Meadows, then the General Sherman tree. Both are really awesome.

About noon, we are ready to start. That is after using the restroom. Sherri needs to go back and change out her glasses, so I sit on a log and wait. The route which we are going to do today, we have done a couple of times before. This is our Fall hike in the area. I think we are about a week, maybe two early.While there are Fall colors, there is still much green showing.

The first part of our walk is the Moro Rock Trail. This takes us through a forest of burnt trees. I speculate this was caused by the KNP Complex Fire, about three years ago. The burnt forest is there with a backdrop of smoke. I think this smoke is from the Happy Fire, north of Kings Canyon.

As we progress along the trail, we leave the burnt forest behind and go through a couple ravines. We now encounter some of the colors we were hoping for. Mostly the yellowing of ferns with a few touches of red of the dogwoods. Of course, there is the reddish-orange of the bark of my Sequoias. And I say “my” Sequoias. Who really owns them but Him who created them. I am only able to appreciate and love that Creator through enjoying these trees.

Soldier Trail

Along this route I think of another time along here. John and Cathy come to mind by a particular Sequoia. A spot along the trail where Rose and I lightly discussed some of the current topics of our time. It was good to be able to share a trail, a place, a time with others. It is even better being able to share this time with my wife.

We get to the road to Moro Rock and this ends our time on the Moro Rock trail. We walked along the Crescent Meadow Road for a third of a mile, at the Buttress Tree, I took a picture for some Japanese youth-are almost all people younger than me now? Then we reach a favorite trail in the Park, the Soldier Trail-take a look below for why it is called that. We seldom find people on it. And I will not advertise it too much.

A couple hundred feet onto Soldiers Trail, we find a nice rock to sit on and have lunch. Maybe we did not go far enough. Most of what we see is a sea of green, red and yellow. This is why we came this way. But looking a bit to the east I see the glint of a reflection from cars going around the Tunnel Log Tree. But we do not hear them, instead we are able to enjoy a lunch in comparative isolation.

After lunch we continue our climb up and over an unnamed ridge which Bear Hill is on. This takes us out of the area of Fall colors and into an area which had fire a while back. There is one burnt tree which I have been fascinated with called the Burnt Arrow.

When we reach the top of the ridge, we go downhill rather steeply. It is surprising to me how much down we are going as it does not seem like we have gone up all that much. Sherri and I have a discussion about the steepness. I think the Lewis Creek trail in parts is steep; Sherri thinks this is steeper. When I lay down the tracks after we get home, I find out the Soldier Trail has a steeper down hill. I learn something new.

Burnt Arrow

At the bottom of the ridge, we come across a couple of trail junctions. One will lead us back up the ridge, another down to the highway and Round Meadow. But we chose the way to Bear Hill.

This gets us onto an uphill stretch, which seems more uphill than the 120’ it is. It is still one foot in front of the other. We get to the junction of the trail going to the Museum. But we travel a hundred feet further and come to Bear Hill. How do we know? A sign says so. Also there is a RAWS here as well-looks like a large, menacing robot. In the robot’s presence, we rest for a few minutes and greedily gulp down Sherri’s peanut butter cookie.

I had seen that a second trail leads down to the Museum area. This one being 0.5 miles. We decided to take this trail rather than the normal one. Why? Not because it is shorter, but because I could not remember going down it before. That is always a good reason for me to go down a trail.

This one did not disappoint either. It is completely one way-down. There is one place where we get on an overlook to the southwest which has the haze on it. We started off in a strictly pine forest. But then it gives way for a final display of color before emptying us out on the Crescent Meadows Road, a little ways from the Museum.

Even this did not disappoint on the excitement front. The road is narrow and even normally two cars facing each other would have to wait. And now you have two hikers also on the side. But the cars sorted things out and we walked down to the Museum, then across the General’s highway to our waiting car. We got back about 3:40.

It takes about 20 minutes for us and then we are off. Sherri offers to drive, but I could tell, she was not really into it. So I drove back. The discussion we have is do we stop at Bear Mountain Pizza or eat at home leftover chicken marsala and garlic potatoes which Steven made yesterday for my birthday? What kind of fool would turn down the chicken marsala, so that is what we did when we got back at 5:50. This is my kind of birthday

Background

Giant Forest RAWS station at Bear Hill

Soldiers Trail. I recently found out why this was called the Soldier’s Trail. Just beyond that, you’ll pass the site of Soldiers Camp, from which this trail derives its name. On this site in 1911, the army set up a camp from which they patrolled the forest to protect the Sequoias. Since most visitors at the time camped near Round Meadow, the army was frequently passing between the camp and what is now the Giant Forest Museum. At first, the soldiers followed the road, but they soon cut their own trail, shaving nearly a mile off of the route. This trail is the one you’ve been following since leaving the Alta Trail. From Modern Hiker blog.

RAWS. RAWS stands for Remote Automatic Weather Stations. This particular station is known as Giant Forest and can be found through Mesowest.

Extra Photo's