Dan takes me to the 100 Giant trail in Sequoia National Forest. Kernville is at about 3500ft and we go up to about 6400ft. He shows me my first Sequoia tree. Amazing how big they are! The first one I'm looking at is called the Proclamation Tree.
Dan and I stand by the car talking with Hans from Colorado. He has just cycled from San Francisco to San Diego and is on his way back home. Dan had tried to cross at Big Sur. He tells us how he went down were the rope was with his bicycle and trailer, sliding, pushing and puffing. Just going along the beach to get to the beginning of the slide was an ordeal. The bottom of his trailer had been damaged by the time he got there. Moving his equipment over the big boulders( and they look a lot smaller from high up the cliff!), he did not want to damage his bike too so he turned around and went back this time using the rope. He had to cycle 20 miles back to the next town in the dark, just to climb a killer pass the next day with a racing bike and a trailer on an 16-17% incline. I guess I would have had to push most of the way!
Dan says good bye and Ed from Colorado is joining us. Ed just has cycled east to west across the northern part of the States. He also has his bike with him on this trip and is also going into Sequoia National Park and Yosemite National Park. We stand there in the sun in the forest until it is 11:30am. It`s time for me to go. I have a 100 km day ahead of me. I still have a bit of climbing to do up to 7300ft. It`s going constantly up through the trees, not much of a view except of the occasional glimpse over the Sierras. I cycle for an hour when Ed is passing me, asking if I want a lift.
I happily accept. We drive on a super windy road, no shoulder at all! all the way down into Fresno. Ed is an extremely good driver. He`s driving fast but I feel totally save and enjoy the ride ( except of a slight queasiness in the stomach...). We pass hundreds and hundreds of orange trees, that haven`t been picked. The oranges are laying on the ground and are just too tempting to not stop and pick some. They are perfectly ripe and delicious! We are climbing back up again to Sequoia to 6500ft.
At the entrance they tell us the camp site is full. We still go in and try to get a spot. No problem, we get a nice snowy walk-in site right by the river. This is bear country, you have to lock away everything. Walking around the site we realize, there are lots of free camp sites, even the drive in sites. Why do they tell us it`s full, when it is not?!
We have beans, sausage and pasta soup all mixed together, cooked on a fire. There is plenty of wood around so we can keep it going until food is ready. Unfortunately there are no seats near the fire, so it's really only for cooking. It's getting pretty cold at an elevation of 6500 ft.
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| Me in my backyard |
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| The Proclamation Tree |
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| Camp Site in Sequoia, just a little snow! |
June 9, 2011 Sequoia National Park to Yosemite National Park
We walk early in the morning to the General Sherman Grove, it`s a peaceful and quiet walk, hardly any traffic yet. There are lots of Sequoias in one area, very impressive especially in the morning light. This time the trees are fenced in, we can`t touch the trees. But we still find some trees off the trail, so we can take some pictures with us in front for comparison.
Here are some facts about the General Sherman Tree:
It measures 36 feet in diameter at its base and reaches a height of 275 feet. The tree weighs almost 2.7 million pounds and contains a volume of 52,500 cubic feet of wood. One of its branches alone measures approximately 7 feet in diameter, and a 15 story building would fit comfortably beneath its first branch! The General Sherman is estimated to be somewhere between 2300 and 2700 years old. The lowest limb of this tree, 130 feet above ground, is larger than any tree east of the Mississippi. The Sequoias only grow in 5000-7000 ft, they need a lot of snow, water, moisture and steep hills.
We take the free shuttle bus back to the camp site.
We drive through the park to see the Giants Grove. On the way there we find another cluster of trees beside the road. A lot of them are in twos or threes or have a parting trunk. The sunlight is great and we walk from one tree to the next marveling at their size.
The Giants Grove is a bit busier since it is now midday. Again we get to see a lot of impressive trees. 2 man have built a very solid hut in the middle of this forest in the 1890s so that they can do logging. It took 2 man 2 days to cut down one of those giants!
We keep going to Yosemite. At the entrance they tell us there are no camp sites available at all. We again try our luck, but it doesn`t work this time. The camp sites we go to are literally booked out, the sites that have no one on it yet are payed for. Even the walk-in camp site is full. One tent next to the other. The park is overloaded with tourists, it is so crowded!
We drive out of the park, just into El Portal. We don`t know how far the camp sites are that are outside of the park. Just as we pass the post office and store we find a parking spot by the river. The ideal place to camp, perfectly flat, grassy area high and far enough away from the river to avoid being flooded out should the river suddenly gain height. Which they say will happen soon. The mountains have 300ft of snow in the highest elevations and it is warming up fast. The Merced River, along which we camp is already very fast. No one is rafting on this part of the river.
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| can you see me?! |
June 10, 2011 Yosemite- Hike to Vernal Fall
We drive back into the park, and take the shuttle for getting around. It`s still early, so the masses are not out yet!
Ed is going on a long hike up Half Dome. I go to the visitor information to find out about buses to Merced so I can catch a train back to Seattle. Around noon I take the shuttle to get to the waterfall trail head. The hike is very crowded, but I zoom by everybody up the Merced River. Eventually I get so close to the waterfall that everybody is getting wet from the spray. It feels so good, being in the sun, the mist. It`s steep, there are 600 steps going up! But I haven't done much exercise recently so this feels just right! I have a nice rest on top of the waterfall, everybody is sitting or laying on the rocks soaking up the sun and the sound of the waterfall.
Once I'm back down a bus driver tells me about a spot where I can get free wifi. It's the camps recreation area, where the workers go for their leisure time. I walk in and sit down, no one would know, if I'm working there or not. Someone is playing the piano, a treat to my ears, he's very good.
Ed and I meet up at 5pm at the car and drive back to the same camp site we found yesterday. No one has claimed it so we are in luck again. This time we are a little earlier than last night, so we go to the store and have a beer for dinner.
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| Vernal Fall |
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| Yawning Squirrel |
June 11, 2011 113.03km, 6.14hrs, 18.1km/h Yosemite - Merced
After 2 days in a car my bags are all messy, I have to repack everything for the ride. Ed and I say good bye to each other, he`s driving back into the park to go for another hike while I ride to Merced. I am going downhill. For a while. Most of the traffic is actually going uphill into the park, so I have a pretty good run down the river except of the occasional truck or bus passing me really close! Soon there is lots of river activities, the river seems to have slowed down somewhat. Lots of tours are getting their boats ready this morning to take people down the river on rafts.
I`m leaving the Merced River and start climbing along a smaller river. I have 2 summits to climb, the first climb is at least 13km long, then a short downhill and another climb. Of the 113 km I probably climb 25-30 km. But the next part is gradually downhill. The wind is picking up, of course headwind, what else! And it is getting hot too. 30 Degrees Celsius. I stop in Mariposa and have a burrito in a restaurant, sitting outside to watch my bike. I slowly get into the foothills of the Sierras and eventually I end up in the hot Central Valley. I don`t see any orange trees anymore, but plenty of grape and pistachio. Nothing ripe yet or reachable from the road.
I stop at a fruit stand, an asian couple is selling sweet strawberries. They are very curious about my trip and just like in Asia they invite me to sit down and have the strawberries right there. It is very tempting but I still have at least 10 km to go and by now, if I stop now, it would take a lot of energy to sit myself back on the bike again!
Down here the road is a lot busier and there is only a very narrow shoulder if at all.
Eventually I get into town, find a motel, cycle to the store, forget the lock. I`m not willing to get my bike stolen on my last day, so I cycle back to get the lock, back to the store, back to the motel and enjoy a beer after this nice long day.
Booking my transports or accommodation on this trip has been made pretty easy with my laptop. I even was able to organize some hotshowers.org stays. Though I only stayed once with people in San Francisco. It`s a very handy tool to have and it is great to keep in contact with people. But I would think hard about taking it on a trip again, that`s promising to be very hilly. Every ounce weighs, literally!
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| Back in the flat and dry |
June 12, 2011 Merced to Seattle
I leave my motel at 11am to see if I can find a cafe. Everything is closed today, it`s Sunday. I find 2 cafes open and have some food. Really just to do something with my time. I have until 7 o'clock tonight, hanging around this town. A couple starts talking with me. She has grown up here, so I ask her for advise, where to hang out for a few hours. She sends me to a park.
There are lots of homeless people and some mexican families. I spend a few hours there. One of the homeless is coming over to introduce himself. He has a bike and has cycled all around the country. Another man shows up a while later, again very respectfully asking if he might approach. He introduces himself as Fred and sits with me for quite a while, telling me about his bike trip and his life. There seem to be a lot of homeless people on bikes in the States. Fred tells me about how he cycled around the country, with very little money and finding all those goodies, like a brand new Harley Davidson Helmet( which he uses sometimes for cycling), or a leatherman knife. He has a storage place somewhere, and goes back to get his automatic bike. It has an automatic gear changer called ``autogear``. Whenever the wheel spins faster the gears go up automatically moved by a little belt. He is pruning trees around the park, occasionally when there is a flood he is shoveling sand and mud so that people can pass that area without getting all soaked. He`s clearing areas off the Russian Thistle, which is an invasive plant.
He takes me to the railways station and tells me he comes back later to wave good bye to me. The ticket man in the building sees my bike and tells me to take the next train, then take a bus to Sacramento. It would be much easier to pack the bike there and I have much more time. He claims they don`t have the facilities here to pack my bike. I point out to him, that I can see a bike box in the background. He`s not willing to help, so I get on the train, the conductor tells me I have to get a proper bus ticket in Stockton. But there it is no problem, I have to take the luggage off the bike and load my bike into the bus.
In Sacramento the ticket officer is very nice and helpful, even though, as he tells me, he`s working the whole day just with 2 people in this big train station. He gives me a used box for my bike for free, I just have to pay 5$ for the bike transport.
I spent 30 minutes in Starbucks. From 7:30 until 12:30 I sit at the train station waiting. I get to talk with a nice couple who are going to go on a big hike on Mount Rainier. They are from Oklahoma, have 10 cats, 2 dogs, 2 horses and they are planning to hike all the major mountains in the States as long as they can.
Another couple arrives, they are on bikes and take the train to Vancouver. They will start their journey in Vancouver to go down to Mexico. Exciting! Isn`t that interesting, how even here, which is not on any main bike route, you meet other cyclists? This has been really great here to meet so many people that are on a bike trip or that want to go.
June 13, 2011 train to Seattle
I find a good seat next to a college student, who is fast asleep at night. We have nice conversations over the day. And of course plenty of time for it, since we both go to the end of the train ride, Seattle.
There are 9 bike boxes on this train, incredible!
I get my bike ready and cycle to The Moore Hotel. It's a great hotel, old but nicely renovated, everything very clean and very friendly staff.
June 14, 2011 Last day of this journey, arriving back in Canada with the Clipper
