A Coyote Ate My Lunch...

was the only event to mar our 60 mile Rae Lakes Loop hike in the John Muir Wilderness of the Sierra Nevada. Once again my brother from another Mother (AKA Brad) and I had a great adventure. It didn't even rain or White Death on us. Just skin searing blue skies and warmth. 

http://jeffsambur.blogspot.ae/2015/04/my-brother-from-another-mother.html

And one skinny, mangy coyote. Gone were precious calories. I finished the hike on my hidden stores of fat. Hunger drove me up those two passes on the last day. It's true, food can be a great motivator. Just ask Pavlov's Dogs.

The Loop takes you through the Prime Cut of the Sierra. Once again, fame has a price. It's sort of crowded. Brad and I hustled to a few premier campsites. It was worth the sweat. Look at these drool worthy photos. 

I'm now in Fort Collins, Colorado after 1,020 miles of Barley the Van piloting in two days. I'm beat. However, there's no rest for this Wandering, Wondering Jew. I'll be on the move again come morning. 

I'll take a break later. Sort of...

There's too much to see. 

Cheers,

I hear an Colorado IPA calling me...

"Jeffy, Come here! Drink me!"  

The Sierr-ahh Nevad-Ahhh...

"Another glorious Sierra day in which one seems to be dissolved and absorbed and sent pulsing onward we know not where. Life seems neither long nor short, and we take no more heed to save time or make haste than do the trees and stars. This is true freedom, a good practical sort of immortality." — John Muir

Mr. Muir coined many insightful descriptors for the Sierra Nevada. I believe he pegged it when he lovingly nicknamed them the "Range of Light." 

I've been exploring the Eastern Sierra for over a week now. Old John was right, the rays are different here. Maybe, it's the way the sunshine reflects off the abundance of glacial scoured granite. Or maybe, it's the lack of humidity in this high mountain desert. For whatever reasons, even the Bristlecone Pines seem to radiate a warm alpenglow. It's so beautiful and best of all, heaps of it are under Federal protection. 

Not many American Mountain Ranges score three National Parks, two National Monuments and twenty Wilderness Areas. The Sierra Nevada can add highest mountain range in the contiguous United States to its impressive resume too. 

Look at a map. There's not many roads bisecting this steep landform from east to west. Many of those highways are mere 1.5 lanes thick. They'll  close with the on set of the season of White Death. I suppose Caltrans doesn't want to overtax local  Emergency Services and tow truck drivers. 

From the U.S. 395 corridor, a few asphalt intrusions nudge westward up along waterways. Usually, an impounded creek which is now a Los Angeles reservoir is the road's terminus. Luckily for people like me, trails take off from there. 

And hike is what I did.  Despite being in the most populated state in the U.S. (there's a tad less than 39,000,000 in California), the trails are well-maintained and surprisingly clean. On this Labor Day Weekend, families strolled about. Some folks were content to sit along a creek side and nap in the sun. Most were sporting an almost IPA inspired grin. It's all good. 

I'll now commit a Colorado blasphemy. I wish the Rockies were the Sierra Nevada. 

From Bishop, California 

Where did the summer go?

Cheers!

Jeff

Next to Last photo: as usual I purchased a fix er upper. 

Paul Bunyan and Babe...

the Blue Ox almost cut all of them. I'm talking about the Old Growth Redwood Forests. 

Before the advent of White Folks to the Pacific Northwest, there was an estimated 2,000,000 acres of these green Giants  found along a lean stretch of the Northern California coast. Now only five percent of the Old Growth Redwoods remain. Eighty percent of those are in preserves, three California State Parks and one Redwood National Park. It's all managed with the trees in mind. That's a good thing.

Between the 1880's and 1920's most of the damage was done. This was a different kind of gold rush, but money was still the motivator. In Eureka, CA there were nine active lumber mills in operation. The trees were being mowed down at an alarming pace. What took 2,000 years to grow was gone in a relative "Jack be nimble, Jack be quick" moment. That's too fast.

All that carbon based-carnage finally got people's attention. "Save the Redwoods League" formed and began buying up land that the loggers haven't yet violated. The State and Feds got involved too. God bless them! 

A few Redwood factoids:

Redwoods thrive in cool temperatures, fog and rain. Not exactly my pint of IPA, but it works for them. Then again, I never grew up to be 379 feet high. Yes, they are the tallest living things on Earth. All this mass from a seed equal to the size of one tomato seed. The cones are as small as the tip of your pinky. Their bark is around one foot thick. It's impervious to disease, insects and fire. Unfortunately, it's not impervious to greed and loggers. 

Walking amongst them is the closest I'll ever come to an actual spiritual experience. A feeling I never received when I sat in a Synagogue; listening to Rabbi Isbee drone on about the human experience. 

I'm not the only one who feels this spiritual connection. I've seen visitors stop to touch the bark of a magnificent specimen. Their heads are usually bowed and their eyes are shut tight. Seeing the Redwoods make many feel humble. Even me. 

Silence is the predominant sound here. Footsteps are muffled in the duff. The Redwoods seem to vacuum up excess noise. It's a dignified, cultured and regal forest. These trees wouldn't vote for Trump! 

I love them. 

So does the United Nations. Redwoods State Parks and Redwood National Park have been designated both a World Heritage Site and an International Biosphere Reserve. 

No wonder I heard so many people speaking non-English languages.

This place is a Must See. I'm not joking...

Cheers from the Sunny Sierra Nevada of California,

Jeff

PS. I'll leave you with a John Muir quote. That dude really loved his trees. He didn't even go to a Forestry College like I did. 

"Any fool can destroy trees. They cannot run away; and if they could, they would still be destroyed - chased and hunted down as long as fun or a dollar could be got out of their bark hides, branching horns, or magnificent bole backbones."