Giant Redwoods

After a yummy breakfast with Carly, our host (spicy pan fried veges with egg for Ben, carrot cake for me) we headed towards Humbolt Redwoods State Park. First stop was the Eureka Food Coop, about 10x the size of Ann Arbor’s, for coffee and lunch supplies. The park contains Rockefeller Forest, the world’s largest remaining contiguous old-growth forest of coast redwoods. Many of the trees are over 300 feet tall, and some 2000 years old. We enjoyed our first hike with no rain. But after an hour it started and never stopped till we reached Oakland. But none the less, our second hike in the forest brought us to the Dyerville Giant. The tree, 372 feet tall, a circumference of 40 feet, and 1600 years old, fell in 1991. But like many of the fallen trees, it serves as a nursing base for new redwood and other vegetation growth. The good thing about the rain is that when the wood is wet it looks even redder and the ferns and sorrel on the forest floor glisten. I took dozens of photos, even with rain.

Route 101 south to San Fransisco was challenging — winding, 2 lane much of the way, and heavy rain. Once we hit Santa Rosa though it was freeway, out of the mountains, but also jarring as we reentered civilization and left all the gorgeous vistas along the road.

Another night, another friend: this time Michael, a close friend of Bens from Kalamazoo. He and his husband have a beautiful condo in East Oakland. Dinner was at a new Laos restaurant nearby. 2 nights here then maybe Santa Cruz or Yosemite or Sequoia? All dependent on the weather.

What I learned today: 1. From Carly in Arcata who studies ichthyology, showed me fish ear bones. Evidently you can identify fish by their ear bones; 2. Coast redwoods can grow taller than a 30 story building. Sequoia redwoods grow inland and are much wider in circumference; and 3. The plant growing on the forest floor that looks like clover on steroids is actually sorrel.