Day 10

We slept in today until 7:00 PST. Not wanting to venture outside with temps in the 30's I hung out in bed for a bit with the computer, while Joe took his shower. Stopped at the Ranger station to check on the forecast for the day and to make sure they got rid of the bat. The ranger today was a young guy. A bit weird with not much sense of humor. Sort of creepy, so we made a quick get away from there. We had a long breakfast (they were shorthanded at the lodge restaurant) before heading out hiking at nearly 10:30.

It was so cold! For much of the afternoon it ranged from 46-50 degrees according to our car thermometer. We first drove nearly an hour to the General Sherman tree in the Giant Forest. We made a few stops along the way at scenic pullouts for some photos. The roads were twisty and narrow. Made me nervous. I told Joe a few times to slow down. You could never be sure of who might come flying around the next corner! Some of the pullouts were in groves of sequoia trees. So amazingly huge!

When we got to where the Sherman tree was, there were lots of tourists. You walk and walk and when you see the tree you know it is the Sherman for sure! Biggest tree in the world! Outstanding! Hard to get a good photo of it to portray the actual size of this giant. 275' tall! Taller that the Statue of Liberty! The park did an excellent job creating a path and heavy wood fence through this area. We ventured off the common path a bit to explore deeper into the area, but only went so far until I got creeped out for thinking of running into a black bear. (I still suffer from PTSD from the close encounters with alligators in the Hillborough River.) Still, we did have a great hike in the woods. Saw a waterfall. Listened to the birds talking over us. Were amazed at the sequoias that had fallen many years ago, yet have many, many more who knows how long to go before they are totally decayed. It was interesting that you could see these trees, that obviously fell long ago, and over the years, after much decay, lost their original straight shape and collapsed at the curves of the ground below it, taking on the shape of the ground. It was as if they were fractured. You could see the fractures of their trunk. Some of the trees had been ravenged by the claws of bears who were rooting for bugs to eat. We even saw claw marks from bears on the wooden fence along some of the paths. Huge claw marks! It was so cold that I wrapped myself up in a blanket for this hike. Joe took a picture of me from behind, all bundled up. I looked like a hunch back hermit with my walking stick!

After this, we went to the Sequoia museum and had an interesting conversation with a young (teeny, tiny) female ranger about the risks of bear encounters, etc. Not a big risk, however, not one I want to take given my recent other wildlife encounters! At this point, back on the road, I was driving so Joe could check out the scenery. A heavy fog set in. You could see it pushing down on the trees. Joe had me pull over and he hiked (by himself) up a hill to catch the action on the camera. He got some great shots! After nearly an hour we stopped at the entrance to Big Stump. We hiked down a half mile or more. Along the way we saw the sad stumps of many sequoias who were chopped down in the 1800's for "sport" before people came to respect these giant trees. It made me sad. The trail was deserted except for Joe and I, and I found that a bit creepy! I tried to make noise as we went along, as to scare any black bear mommas with her babies away and not to surprise them. I'd say, "Watch out. Here we come, and we're big!" Must have worked, because we did not see any bears. We are hearing from many people that they have seen, or heard of encounters recently. At Big Stump we saw one stump that was particularly huge named the Mark Twain stump. It had stairs so you could climb up on top of it. From there we had a nice view of the grassy valley around us. Joe tried to take some pictures, but again hard to do given the diameter of the base of these trees. Rather than go back the way we came in to return to our car, we found a short cut to the road. Of course, we did not end up by our car and had to hike along the road for half a mile side stepping every time a car came speeding around a curve!

On the way back to our lodge we stopped at another lodge that advertised having a restaurant. We made our way up there and when we went to turn into the place, we were met with heavy, thick fog. I didn't want to go on, but Joe wanted to try it. Very quickly, we discovered that this was a one lane road and there was not a shoulder on either side of it! On my left was a steep hill. On my right was a lake! Needless to say, I drove quite cautiously and was glad that it was only a short ride to the lodge. Craving something hot to eat, we went in to find that the only thing hot was hot dogs that were turning around on those warmers like you see at a 7-11! Not much of a meal choice at all. On we went to the next lodge that had a sign out front that said "restaurant." Joe went in to check it out only to find out that they only served to their own guests!

It was 4:05 p.m. when we got back to the John Muir Lodge where we are staying. We thought how nice to stop at the restaurant and get a hot bowl of chili, but lunch ends at 4:00 sharp. No if's and's or but's! Dinner is at 5:00. So, we ended up going back to our room and having salsa and chips for dinner. Our fave! There is NO tv here! No cell phone service. Only internet 8( Just kidding! We can rough it till we get on the road tomorrow as we head onto the next adventure: Yosemite!