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| Smile, sweet cakes! |
Started the day on a good news/bad news vein. The bad news is I dropped eight bucks to the Cager. The good news is we ate apple/walnut pancakes (Had to use the milk and eggs you know). After breakfast we drove the short, twisty sixteen miles up to the Mariposa Grove of ancient Sequoias. I'll post a few, but none of the pictures came close to capturing the stately reverence of these trees, the fragrant subtleties of the pine scent, or the crazy ruggedness of our fifteen hundred foot ascent. In the interest of toning Judy's muscles for her upcoming knee surgery, I cajoled her into a forced march of 8.5 miles covering roughly 22,000 steps. We saw a plethora of named Sequoias including the Grizzly Giant, the Bachelor and Three Graces, the California Tunnel Tree, the Clothespin Tree, the Faithful Couple (Our favorite), the Fallen Tunnel Tree, the Galen Clark Tree, and the majestic view from Wawona Point (Elevation 6800ft.) The only named tree we missed was the Telescope Tree, but I couldn't convince myself, let alone Judy to detour another .3 tenths of a mile (One way). The day itself couldn't have been more lovely. It was around seventy-five degrees down in Oakhurst, and it was warm enough for us to shed a layer as we hiked through the forest. I'm glad we came down to the Mariposa Grove, but if I had only one chance to visit Yosemite, I'd choose the Valley. If I were younger, the best way to see the place is to do as John Muir did one hundred years ago: Simply start walking from one end to the other. To finish our day, we built a camp fire under the full moon, enjoyed another batch of roasted weenies, and counted our blessings by the glow of the embers. Tomorrow, we head toward San Jose (Morgan Hill actually) for one more night before we leave the truck/trailer in the storage unit. We fly out of San Jose International about five O'Clock and if all goes well, we'll be home around eleven-thirty. We were thinking that this has been an exceptional three weeks on the road. We've fallen quickly into last year's patterns, we've enjoyed a range of weather (Mostly favorable), and we've held up well so far. We'll get Judy home, nurse her through surgery and rehab, and then I'll force her back on the road for more adventures. There will be an interruption in the blog postings after Friday, except to inform our readers as to the Wily Cager's recovery. Until then, just remember that life is good, especially today.
The photo seems so ordinary, but the place is anything but pedestrian.
Wood art: Kind of snooty don't you think?
The price we had to pay for this photo was to say, "We love Californians!" (A bit steep, I thought, but I've overpaid for other things over the years).
The bark is so thick on these trees, it's incredible.
You can't really tell, but the limbs on this "Grizzly Giant" are seven feet in diameter.
These craggy fingers are about twenty feet high where they bend to start forming the trunk.
Our "selfie" in front of the Faithful Couple tree.
The rangers burn the forest floor on purpose to discourage White Pine and encourage new Sequoia. The Clothespin center is a burned section.
Fallen oak leaves providing feed and fuel for the forest floor. The cycle continues.
The view in one direction from Wawona Point.
The view in the other direction.
The Bunny, no worse the wear from the forced march.
She even grinned a full mouthed chipmunk smile at our lunch table.
Sugar pinecones hanging like Christmas ornaments.
The Mariposa Museum, unfortunately, was closed for the season, but it's a normal man sized cabin, which gives you some idea of the perspective. The building sits in a grove of about ten gigantic trees. My lens would allow me only to get part of two.
My Bunny's bunnies.
From this humble cone, grows the giants.
Fire raging, weenies roasting, (Nitrate free, fat reduced of course).
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