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

Gary and a Sequoia

Dogwood

Red leaves of fall

Deer Ridge

Gary

Fall Leaves

Fall Leaves

Scene off of Soldier Trail

More fall foilage

Top of ridge on Soldier Trail

Sky watching

 
Flowers and Plants

Dogwood

Dogwood pods

Dogwood

Dogwood pods

Fungi

July 28, 2021 - Crescent Meadow

 

Title: July 28, 2021 - Crescent Meadow
Hike Info : Description :  Menu : Extra Photo's : Flowers and Plants

Trail Head:Crescent Meadows

Hike Info:

Type: Hiking
Trail:  High Sierra, Trail of the Sequoia,  Circle Meadow
Destination:  Wander
Distance:  5.87 miles 1
Start Time:  11:40
End Time:     5:02
Travel Time: 3:47  (1.29 mph)
Moving Time:  3:16   (1.49 mph)
Elevation Rise:  968'
Descent: 945‘
Maximum Elevation: 7,328'

GPS Tracks
 ¹I did not turn on the GPS until we had gone a mile. The distance includes a calculated mileage. The Start Time is from my notes. The rest of the data is only from the GPS.

Description:

I get up a few minutes later than yesterday. Instead of making my morning trip to the Grant Grove Visitor Center, I checked to see if there was any lightning yesterday-no. So I just read and wrote this morning until Sherri got up. Breakfast was oatmeal. Then we dilly-dallied around camp for a while. By the time we left, it was 10:30

Sherri drives down to Giant Forest-a decidedly easier drive than yesterdays. We get to the parking lot at 11:20. We get on a shuttle to Crescent Meadow. When we get off, we talk with a couple of Park people who are with SAR. Last week when we were at Park Ridge Lookout, we heard of a couple people who were lost. One of them on the High Sierra Trail. That is what these people are here to make us aware of. A bit more information is that he was with a group. He got sick and decided to head to Crescent Meadow. That was the last heard from him. We will keep our eyes out for him-not that we are traveling very far on the HST.

Clouds over Sawtooth

A few minutes of taking care of ourselves and off we go. The first stop is Eagle View along the High Sierra Trail. It is about a mile away and we have been there several times, so it is nothing new. Except is is a grand view without the crowds of Moro Rock. Along the way up to it, we talk for awhile with a hiker. He is interested in going backpacking, but not sure how to stop. So we fill him in on some of the basics. He seems to be ready to take the next step in his adventure.

When we get to Eagle View, the sun is beating down on us. But on the Kern-Kaweah Divide clouds are gathering-looks like there will be some activity on my lightning report tomorrow. But today, there is just a sense of awe and majesty. You can see why the Psalmist would say that He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet.

 

We go back to the junction where the High Sierra Trail and the Trail of the Sequoias come together. We take one of our favorite trails, The Trail of the Sequoias. This trail is usually a trail less traveled. Today is no different-we will see only one couple over the three miles we travel. This means the trail is quiet. You get to hear birds chirping and the rustle of the breeze. Occasionally, but not today, we will spot a bear. But the main attraction are the Sequoias. You get to look up at them, see them in the middle and look down. There is a sense of peace and majesty everywhere you look.

 

 

 

But there is also a reminder of a falleness, both literally and spiritually. Even the mighty Sequoias do fall and destroy everything in its path. But there is growth as they decay. You find bushes and trees gain nutrients from the monarch of the forest. There are also signs of living in a fallen world. There is hardly a Sequoia not scorched by fire or at least having a bruise by some other living creature. Of course, we humans leave our marks as well-the most visible evidence is litter. We occasionally find small bits of liter, which we try to pick up as we go. Paul states this so well, the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

Chief Sequyah Tree

About half way along the trail, we have lunch. Nice ambiance-quiet, cool with Sequoias in view. Then we continued on. By the time we headed down to the Congress area, my legs were starting to tire. There we met the Chief Sequyah tree. Also there is a bench close by to enjoy the view. It would be dis-courtious not to take advantage of the bench. While there a family comes by and we assist in their tourist persona by taking family pictures. Then Sherri acts as tour guide and shows them the Chief Sequyah tree.

Sherri admiring Circle meadow

We take off through The Senate group to Circle Meadow. It is a pretty walk around the meadow, but the trail does nothing for my tired legs-there is a series of ups and downs. The meadow does offer some solace with several good views, but not that “picture-perfect” one with a Sequoia in the background-too many trees get in the way.

 

 

 

 

 

Circle Meadow

We finally drop into Crescent Meadow and hike around it. Also a pleasant sight, even with the body starting to wear-down. When we get back to the tram stop, the SAR people are still there. Still no success. After talking with them-they do back-country maintenance, not trail work, but taking care of the ranger buildings and such, the tram comes and we end up at our car.

 

Sunset from our campsite

 

I drive back to camp, an uneventful journey. Sherri gets our dinner ready-a grilled cheese and tri-tip sandwich. Pretty good. During dinner, it is time for our family Zoom call. The normal chit-chat and family enjoyment. By the time it ends, it is starting to get dark. I am tired and I think Sherri is pretty close to that. So off to bed we go.

 

 

Menu

 

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
Oatmeal and add-ins, such as dried peaches, strawberries, nuts, granola. Tang.	Peanut Butter and Nutella Sandwich	Hot grilled tri-tip and cheese sandwich.	Clif Bar, GORP,, Jelly Belly

Extra Photo's

Clouds towards the Kern Kaweah Divide

Clouds towards the Kern Kaweah Divide

Waves and Waves of Clouds

Clouds over Castle Rocks

Do you see mountains or trees?

Sequoia and grass

Pathway in paradise

Sequoia in the Congress Grove area

Circle Meadow

 
Flowers and Plants

Fireweed