CALIFORNIA HERE WE COME AND UP INTO THE ALTITUDE WITH SOME ATTITUDE

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CALIFORNIA HERE WE COME AND UP INTO THE ALTITUDE WITH SOME ATTITUDE

As we started to climb, amongst the smog, so heavy from the recent fires through the agricultural plains we started to twist and turn with glimpses of yet another severely depleted lake with house boats - the water born version of the road RV - bobbing in a tight group due to lack of water. This lake as others we have passed is suffering from 3 plus years of drought in California and is also awaiting the snowmelt that will be 6 months away in the spring thaw from the Sierra Nevada. We then arrived at the ever-friendly greeting of the pointed hat wearing Park Ranger at the entrance to the Sequoia Park to be told that Revvy can’t go past the first campground, as it is too long. So we slip into the first campground Potwisha at about 2500 feet and unhook Elvis. Before we do this we are introduced to the concept of “Beware Bears are active in this Area” and that each campsite has a steel lockable cupboard for ALL food at night. No leaving food in cars in site as the bears see it and pry the top of the door open with their claws and simply climb in to get the food. We are happy though as we are allowed to collect firewood for some open fires at night.
Up bright and early we head up the twisted hairpin road towards the giant forest and the Visitors centre at 4,500 feet. As we were climbing we suddenly became aware of the size of the trees rapidly increasing in trunk size and soon we are eventually winding our way through the giant Sequoia trees that are thousands of years old and only grow in these mountain areas between certain elevations that are neither too wet of too cold. This is the location of the largest tree by trunk volume in the world - The General Sherman tree - so named like so many others in the grove after Civil War figures as the trees were explored and protected by National Park status shortly after the American Civil War, and it is aged at 2,200 years old. We spent time in the Museum learning how the Sequoias grow and propagate with the benefit of fire, they are very fire tolerant and resistant but it is fire that drives the male and female cones to pollinate and collect and drop new seeds and as we stand and marvel the wisps of a seasonal planned burn flow between the trees in mountain mystery and silence. We further investigate the facilities of the mountain meadows of this part of the Sierra Nevada that contain more groves of these mountain giants and lunch at a mountain hotel of Wuscachi for our wedding anniversary.
We headed home to Revvy and our anniversary camp fire that we started before nightfall and enjoyed the warmth with some of our favourite French bubbles and an amazing dinner of lobster ravioli in a vodka sauce, a super 4th wedding anni.
We awoke to rain the next day (Veteran’s day), so stayed in and C made the Christmas cards. This soon passed and the following day we ascended again for a visit and ranger talk at the General Sherman tree and then a hike through the Sequoia grove and also to peek upwards to the surrounding peaks and find that the rain we had was snow up here - just a dusting to tempt us, The Sierra’s looked so paintable.
As we could not go over the top to Kings Canyon, only 50 miles, we headed down to the plains again via Tulare with its outlet stores for some clothing essentials and a little more xmas shopping and then back up the Sierra Nevada to 7,500 feet and a beautiful campground among the Pine trees that are above the Sequoia tree zone. We were blessed with a sunny camp site and only a few other campers, as the rain had driven many home, and friendly rangers who guided us to see the Kings canyon today or tomorrow morning as it was to close for winter before the advent of blocking snows. So off came ‘Elvis’ and we started the long decent of winding road into this granite canyon in the centre of the Sierra Nevada. The road in was not along the canyon floor but along a road carved into the granite hill sides with the only way of seeing the bottom by stopping on precipitous parking bays in the road and getting out and looking down at the river below. Rock colours of yellow and tints of green were contrasted against the steely grey of the canyon walls and the roadsides were laden with the fallen yellow, red and brown leaves of autumn. We finally descended 3,500 feet and stopped on the floor beside the river to lunch on our prepacked sandwiches and as we were getting ready to move on a rockslide began high above us and Corrie had to take evasive action as she was, doing some autumm leaf collecting and was about to walk into the path of it and all Ian could do was watch as the rocks started to bounce onto the road and towards “Elvis” - thankfully the nearest stopped 10 feet from the door and C- lucky and blessed we moved on further up the valley dodging more rocks at frequent intervals that were laying on the road from dislodged slides due to the rains of the previous days.
We arrived at the meadow walk at the end of the Canyon with towering grey mountains on either side and had a beautiful walk and met a grazing Stag who was happy to consider us as just other inhabitants of this wild beautiful terrain. We visited the two waterfalls of the area and experimented with black and white, Sepia and blue filters on our camera and as evening approached we retreated back up to 7,500 feet and an evening fire which we invited the adjoining campers to share after their dinner, as they had no wood. We met a lovely couple, Claudia and Thomas, from Vienna in Austria, who were doing in 14 days what we were doing in 3 months and a Swiss lad, Danny, who had a wet tent and equipment and was heading home to Switzerland after living and studying in Wellington New Zealand for 6 years and he was a mad Kiwi Rugby fan. We all appreciated the fire and some Aussie wine, as it was creeping down to near zero as the night closed in.
As the canyon road closed at 1300 hours the next day we were up bright and early and headed back to the end of the canyon for a 2 hour walk and we were rewarded with a Black Bear on the side as we went down - Corrie had been getting up every night and sitting at the window to see if she could sight a roaming Bear so at last the reward.So exciting!!! As we went further towards our trailhead the flash of something moving up the road embankment gave us a sighting of a Bobcat - very shy and timid of people so we were also lucky.
We set out on the hike with 2 hours to spend and next we were greeted by a grazing Doe and her baby who were not timid and simply grazed as we strolled and photographed. Added together with the ever-present squirrels/chipmunks we had had a fabulous morning or nature sighting. By the way the Black Bear is not a personal threat unless you get between it and a cub or it gets your food and you try and take it back!! - a ranger told us the concept is ‘Finders Keepers’ and we said this would not be an argument with us. He also told us that it is the Brown Grizzly bears that you have to worry about but they are in Yellowstone - so that is for next time. The solution if you are confronted by a black bear on the trail is not to look it in the eye, back away and if it advances throw pinecones not rocks - as you might hurt the bear. Definitely no weapons to be carried but we did have a 6inch knife to peel the apples in the backpack. At about 50 minutes into our walk we arrived at a bridge and trail fork so it was time to rest and enjoy before our retreat to the 1300 hrs deadline. As we were dry camping and showers were not every day, Ian decided on trying the mountain stream that Corrie’s photographs were showing was so clear. A beautiful, but very cold bath in the river was enjoyed before return to the car via the doe and her young still on the trail grazing, and finally passing the road gate with 15 minutes to spare. On one section of this twisting road up you climb 2000 feet in 10 minutes and all this up down of altitude means you must be aware of de-hydration and altitude sickness or the headache soon strikes but by now we were aware but not immune - or is it just the awe and beauty of this world.

The next morning it is an early hike from our campsite to the General Grant tree, the tallest Sequoia in the world at 27 stories and this is after it has been de-capitated by lightening some time in the last 1000 years. We hook up and collect firewood for the next leg and head down 7000 feet to the coastal plain again and north to Yosemite. ‘Elvis’ seems to be revelling in the high altitude now he has some lower compression fuel with Ethanol included of maybe it is the downhill run.

The Great Yosemite eventually looms large with the first sighting of El Capitan - climbers Mecca of sheer walled granite - after a shopping detour to Fresno to resupply - this canyon we approach by climbing the Sierra Nevada to 7000 feet plus and dropping into the Yosemite Village area and campgrounds at about 4,500 feet. Yosemite is a dead end for vehicles but the hiking trails on offer rival the Grand Canyon with many overnight trails available only at high elevation that is the reverse of the low elevation of the Grand Canyon.
We settle in for nights 7-10 of dry camping in another area where the “Bears are active 24 hours a day” The weather is bright but cold, only snow on the peaks still!
The first day we set aside for an orientation day where we leave ‘Revvy’ at base and slip up in Elvis to Glacier point in the morning sun at 7,500 feet and look out over the high Sierra and Half Dome, Clouds Rest, Vernal and Nevada falls, the village valley floor and some of the hikes on offer. Absolutely a feeling of being near the heavens away from the smog of the coastal plains. This valley has the beauty of all Glacial carved valleys with the smooth sided ‘U’ shape of the affects of the long retreated Glaciers. A light covering of snow has dusted the distant peaks the highest being at about 13,250 feet along the route of the Tioga Pass which we skirted this time. We retreated a little along the ridge to the trailhead for Sentinel Dome and sling on the backpack of goodies to climb to a 360-degree view we have been told about by roadside friends we talked with back in Kings Canyon. A quick 1.5 mile hike and up to 8,250 feet and we are rewarded with the highest hike destination of the trip and a fantastic view across the High Sierra. This location gives us the opportunity to really value the world we live in but also see the damage pollution is doing, as to the east in the morning light we can still see the smog of San Francisco creeping up the valleys on the Pacific sea breeze. We make doubly shore we leave nothing but our footprints, pick up what others may have dropped and ‘pack out the trash’ and commit to doing our best to help reverse the pollution and the environmental trends Al Gore speaks about in ‘The Inconvenient Truth’.
We descend and head for the village and visitor centre orientation and afternoon washing and piggy backing on the hotel’s WiFi and meet a lovely couple with baby who are from Israel so this leads to some reminiscing for both of us and exchange of soap powder, orange and 1 quarter to help us all around the out of stock washing powder machine and the out of coins change machine.
The next day we plan for the 11 mile valley floor circuit and return to the lovely old Ahwanee hotel - opened in 1927 and built of timber from the valley with Baronial Hall type internal design and high mountain outside architecture and staff uniforms that Corrie assess are 1965 design - for lunch, a nap over a newspaper, in the over comfortable lounges between two fireplaces that Ian can stand up in and not be able touch either side, some more communication on the Hotel WiFi, and then retreat via the bar for some local gossip with the barmaid who had worked here since 1979 and with her hubby had recently enjoyed the delights of touring in NZ. Got some good tips for the route of our hike the next day - up the Mist trail and down the John Muir trail - it was good advice.
We awoke early for our last high country hike day this trip and headed on the 7 mile loop to Vernal Falls, up and over and then Nevada Falls, up and over about 600 stairs and 1,700 feet to lunch in solitude, other than a couple of lone hikers passing nearby on their way to or from the ‘back country’ which we plan for next time as Half Dome is a 9 mile one way hike and Clouds rest is a 19 mile one way hike both with altitude and Half Dome with double cables to get you up but were now down for winter. We ended a lovely hike before the day trippers reached too many in number and free shuttled back to the visitors centre for the park movie and museum and the culmination of a lovely stay of 10 days in the high country of the Sierra Nevada.
Alas the next morning arrived and we hooked up and slipped back to 7,500 feet and tripped up and down the odd 1,000 feet as we headed to the downgrade back onto the coastal Californian Plain which revealed the agricultural delta between the foot of the mountains and the Pacific Coast and San Francisco Bay - Off to spend Thanksgiving in the Napa Valley.
Napa Valley and the Skyline Wilderness park
A great 5 day stop for us, with full hook up and some time to catch up on our chores, correspondence, the blog and our Christmas cards and shopping etc. Plus one glorious day in the Wineries and a visit to Dean and Delluca - only the best Deli ever !!!
Thanksgiving day we spent quite appropriately, we felt, - writing to you all i.e. via our Blog and our Christmas Newsletter and Christmas cards, time well spent, all with lots of love and with thanks for our blessings of having you all in our lives to write to!!
Tonight at midnight Corrie is taking Ian to the Thanksgiving sales at the outlets, should be quite an experience, especially for Ian!
And tomorrow it’s off to San Francisco, and another taste of US city life.

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