Day #11 Sequoia Love

Screaming neighbor kids woke me from weird, entangled dreams around 7.30am. Breakfast was instant quaker oats with cinnamon (good!) & an instant coffee pad (horrible!). I didn‘t have a single good, strong coffee in the US yet. It‘s a watered down excuse for coffee, but comes in ultra sized cups. I‘ll need to find an Italian-run restaurant soon! 😼

I picked up my hiking permit and asked the ranger about the latest trail conditions and other useful backcountry tips.

Then I took a trail to General Sherman Tree, the largest tree (in terms of trunk volume) in the world.

Sequoias are really cool trees – they are hyper resistant and can live up to thousands of years. They also survive fires, but it leaves marks (the dark triangle on the trunk above). On the way I passed several „prescribed burn“ zones – controlled fires that ensure the forests‘ health and growth. Forest fires are creating a nourishing soil for the trees by clearing the ground of debris and fallen branches. It would be so cool to live inside one like the squirrels do.

In the afternoon I grew sleepy and grumpy because there were just too many people shuffling around the trees and also going into no-go zones, therefore trampling the Sequoias‘ fragile roots 😓 While everyone was keen to take selfies and „trophy“ pictures, few read the info boards or actually looked at the trees.

Also the impact of the valley‘s pollution is visible – winds from the pacific ocean pick up all the smog and dirt that lingers around San Francisco and takes it up directly into the national park. I had a good view of the surrounding mountains from a viewpoint, but usually it’s clouded with fog. The CO2 an rain water pollution harms the seeds and saplins of the trees. It‘s troubling to know that this beautiful and wild environment is suffering invisibly.

Right now I‘m cooling my feet again in the river that runs through the campground. I’ll eat Thai soup improved with peanut butter for dinner. The era of instant soups, bug spray and searching something in the depths of the tent with a headlamp has begun!