Free At Last

Del Norte Redwoods Coast State Park, CA – Yesterday was the last day of my Masters Program and I can now be unencumbered by the thought process. I took my last finals near Hoover Dam last week, handed in the final copy of my 90 page research paper, and handed in the PowerPoint presentation I had to make about my paper. Yippee! It was only a year-and-a-half but it is nice to finally be done.

I went for a run in the park this morning, about 6 miles. It was very nice running under the canopy of the Redwoods. This forest had been clearcut probably about 100 years ago so there aren't many old Redwoods. There are a lot of really big stumps, however. As I was running, I noticed that most of the old stumps had produced a bunch of young Redwoods that were growing up from their roots, sometimes more than a dozen young trees growing around one stump. It occurred to me that it looked like a group of young gathered around a grandparent or parent's grave, drawing strength and inspiration from those that had gone before them. It was a nice run and no bears or mountain lions.

- Jeff

Pacific Ocean

Bodega Bay, CA – These are the kind of beaches that I like: hard to get to, rocky and not many people around. I went out for a run this morning that I thought wasn’t going to be very special, but it turned into a really nice 6-miler. Our campsite was on the bay but I knew that it wasn’t too far over the hill to the ocean. I ran over the hill and followed a single track path that went along the top of a cliff above the ocean. The air was cool and the wind off the ocean was refreshing. There were a number of wildflowers blooming and the plants were quite interesting. There were excellent views of the ocean crashing into the rocks below. While running, I spotted a path down the cliffs to a secluded beach below that the whole family would hike later. I have come to enjoy not knowing exactly where I’m going when I start on a run and then just improvising as the spirit moves. Sometimes I have to backtrack when a trail dead ends, but that is okay.

- Jeff

Day 18

Bandon, OR—We just randomly stopped at a beach on the way today. It was a lot sandier than the other one, but it was a lot cooler too. There were huge rocks we climbed and caves to explore and sea anemones WHICH I NOW BELIEVE IN. They were green!! We got a lot of pictures, and then we stopped at Dairy Queen to top it off!! MUHAHAHA!!!
-Jake

Day 17.1

Redwood National Park, CA—We arrived at Redwood for the night, and walked a bit around the campground. The trail we were going to hike on had a bridge out, so we just explored for a little. It turns out that Redwood has some of the nicest campgrounds ever, as well as freaking huge stumps that are enjoyable to climb on. The only downer was these HUGE yellow slugs that Jonas was disgustingly fascinated in. He took numerous pictures. Ew.
-Jake

Day 17

Bodega Bay, CA—we slept overnight in an RV park, and then this morning we went for a walk along the beach. You had to climb down to the beach from this small path cut into a hillside, and it made some members of the family very nervous (Mother). The ocean was gorgeous, though, and we found lots of shells, a starfish, and mussel type creatures and even a dead bird! Now we’re off to Redwood National Park for the night.
-Jake

Day 16

San Francisco, CA—This morning we stopped at a roadside tie-dye store and we each got a tie dyed shirt as well as smoked elk and buffalo jerky. It was tastey.

Then we stopped briefly in San Francisco to see the sights. It took us an hour just to find a parking spot for our awkwardly large RV. We ate at a fancy Italian place and afterwards just strolled through a bit of the city. San Francisco is ridiculously hilly, but surprisingly it wasn’t hot and there were actually a lot of trees and suburban-type houses.

On our way to eat we saw Alcatraz Island, which used to be a prison where they kept hardened criminals. We posed for a picture in front of it. Also in one picture is Jonas loading my leg into a cannon we found in the streets.

One of the sights we saw in San Francisco was Lombard Street. At one point, the whole street just winds randomly back and forth down one block. It’s completely pointless and on the other side of that was a ridiculously steep hill. Just take a look at the pictures for photographic evidence. We saw the Golden Gate Bridge before we drove across it and tried to get a picture, but it was really hazy out so we failed.

Now we’re going a little further before stopping for the night in Bodega Bay.
-Jake

Day 15.1

Yosemite National Park, CA—We woke to find ourselves rolling around the edges of our beds (again). We were off to Vernal Falls, a three-mile round trip hike. At the beginning of the hike, it was very shady and lush, a pleasant walk despite the hills. For the most part at the trail was paved and smooth. After about a mile of up and down paved paths, we came to a bridge that had a view upstream from the falls. The wind and mist from the waterfall drifted back to where we were and felt wonderful after the almost all uphill hike to the beginning of the hike to the falls! Yes, and all of this was one and a half mile hike there, I was told. After a couple pictures on the bridge, we moved on and saw a sign: 0.3 miles to Vernal Falls. It couldn’t be too hard, could it?

Yes, it could. First, we hiked on a semi-steep slope along the waterfall until we were about one-forth of the way up. We came across the Mist Trail, and the reason for the name was clear. There were stone steps leading up to the top and there was so much scenery! The stone steps were very treacherous and slick. Higher up, there were railings. There were even puddles and little streams going down the rocks! All the mist created a rainbow in front of the falls, with the lush wood behind it, with mountains behind it all. It was very picturesque. After it was less misty, there was another slope leading up to yet more stone steps. These ones were very very steep, and after about twenty or so steps we took breaks. Squirrels were everywhere. Jake and Dad thought about grabbing one and throwing it over the edge. Then we imagined what noises it would make as it fell onto the sharp rocks below. It helped distract us from the huge staircase.

When we finally reached the top, it was so worth it. The waterfall looked like tiny pieces of silvery glass descending into the stream below. The mountains still towered over us, and the stream on top was very peaceful, and we enjoyed the view for a while and took pictures of all the Stellar’s Jays that were at the top, begging for nuts like the squirrels there. I even saw a jay take a squirrel’s nut and fly away with the squirrel screeching in protest. It was pretty funny. We sat and ate snacks for a while, then began the long walk down. But after the bridge, it was pretty much all downhill, so our first hike in the morning was pretty much over, thank goodness. Three mile round trip, supposedly.

~Marcy

Kings Canyon Run

Kings Canyon National Park, CA – This is definitely the nicest campground we have been in yet. There is something about the tall trees that is cool and the campground is not crowded. I’ve got to learn, however, to read trail maps better. I went out for what I thought would be a relatively easy 9 mile run just before 7am. My first problem was that I couldn’t find the trail head, so I just kept running and looking for it and eventually found where I expected to finish, and figured I’d do it backwards.

I was a little spooked after seeing the two grizzly bears on the hike the day before and was concerned about being eaten before I was fully ripe (okay, maybe I’m already past ripe). I started out on the trail and decided to sing grizzly love songs so that they could hear me coming and know my intentions were peaceful. I didn’t want to surprise anyone. I soon added cougars to the song, as I heard they also roamed the mountains. The song said something about loving all creatures, although I did admit that squirrels were an exception, but I didn’t think they liked squirrels either. I kept singing for maybe a mile, but then the ascent turned punishing and I was forced to stop singing and just huff and puff. I hoped they would hear my huffing and puffing and be forewarned of my arrival.

It was a tough go until I got to the top of the mountain, but as always out here, well worth it. The reward was great views of the canyon and nearby valley and relatively flat running on top. I could once again resume by bear/cougar love songs. I did see, however, numerous places where people had piled stones on top of each other and figured that they must be memorials to people who died of simultaneous bear/cougar attacks and were ripped to shreds. I added to my song that I did not want to be a Reader’s Digest “Drama in Real Life” story.

After running around the top of the mountain a little, I had a nice descent amongst the large Sequoia trees and made it back without seeing any wild life but birds and squirrels. The run was 10 miles and took longer than I expected, but I wasn’t expecting quite that much of an ascent.

- Jeff

Day 15

Yosemite National Park, CA—Today Jonas went a little nuts and started acting like a creeper. In case for some strange reason you find this hard to believe, here is the photographic evidence. Also included is an awesome shot of him throwing a pine cone.
-Jake

Day 14.1

Yosemite National Park, CA—We just arrived at Yosemite, and hiked ½ a mile to see Bridal Veil Falls, which in itself was amazing, and that was only one of the small falls. We’re going to see the big one tomorrow. In case you can’t read the sign, it says:
“Stay back from the stream. The boulders are treacherously slick. If you fall in: Icy water will quickly incapacitate you. Strong currents can batter you to death against the rocks.”

Haha.
-Jake

Bright Angel Trail

Grand Canyon, AZ – I may turn into a trail runner yet. I had never done much trail running before, preferring to stay on dirt mountain roads and not venturing to run on rougher stuff. But so far, I have had one great trail run after another out here. Today I ran the two miles from our campground to the Bright Angel trailhead with a bottle of G2 in each hand and a small fanny pack with my camera and two strawberry Nutrigrain bars in it, starting at about 6:20am, and plunged down the trail. I had a little fear and trepidation, as I knew the trail was narrow and probably technical (lots of rocks and logs to dodge). A broken ankle, torn Achilles, or small trip could be disastrous.

Because of this, my pace was slow but steady. The early morning light in the canyon was very nice. I had shade much of the way down. I passed some campers coming up the mountain and a few early risers going down. After the first mile or two, there was no one else going down.

I was enjoying the run, even though it took a lot of concentration and looking down at my feet. Suddenly I turned the corner and stopped short. There, about 10 yards in front of me in the middle of the trail, was a bighorn sheep (see picture at left) with huge horns. He just stood there and stared at me. I didn’t move and looked back, hoping he would trot away. After that didn’t happen right away, I started talking to him. “Hey sheepy, just trot on down the mountain, I would like to keep running,” and so on. I was apparently not convincing him to move, however. I kept talking and he just kept looking at me for more than a minute. I didn’t know what to do.

Finally, I bent over and picked up a rock, in case I needed it for self-defense. As soon as I did that, he moved to the side of the trail and started eating some leaves or a shrub or something. His butt, however, was still on the trail and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to pass that close to him. After a few seconds, he turned and looked at me again, and then started trotting towards me on the cliff side of the trail. I was happy to say on the inside of the trail, but unsure what his motivation was. I gripped the rock tightly and just watched him. He just trotted past me, on the edge of the precipice. I could have reached out and touched him. He kept trotting and I was more than happy to continue running.

I finally reached the bottom of the canyon (4.6 miles from the top, 6.6 from the campground). There is a nice little campground at the bottom that is near the source of a creek so it is very green and shady. I took a quick break to talk to a man about a horse and then had to make a decision as to what to do next. It was 1.5 miles to the edge of the Colorado River gorge, 3 miles to the actual river, or 4.6 miles straight back up. I decided I didn’t have time to do the river, but felt well enough and had enough time to get to the gorge.

It was a nice run across the floor of the canyon to the gorge. It was hot and basically desert, but early enough in the morning that it was okay. The view overlooking the gorge, Plateau Point, was gorgeous, and the first time that I had actually seen the river in the canyon. I had a drink, a Nutrigrain bar, looked at my GPS (8.09 miles), took a few pictures, and then headed back.

The way up was hard. I started running and tried to hold that as long as I could. I have to put quotes around “running” because it was quite slow but could marginally be considered running. It was getting hotter but I struggled on. Eventually, I did have to resort to walking, and would try to run when I had shade. About a mile from the top, I sat down for a few minutes in the shade and had my second Nutrigrain bar. This provided the needed boost for me to summit the trail. It had been hard and I took a few walk breaks on the two miles back to the campground.

I got back to the campground, asked the kids to bring me a Mountain Dew, and sat down exhausted at the picnic table. I looked at my shoes and discovered that I had carried out a significant portion of the canyon with me on my shoes and legs. Somehow that made the journey more satisfying. It was definitely worth it and I would do it again in an instant. Having said that, I will probably be feeling it for a few days.

- Jeff

Day 14

Sequoia National Park, CA—Mom and I went on a bird watching walk this morning the same time dad left for his run. We walked on the General Grant Tree trail which led to the General Grant Tree that happens to be the widest tree in the world. First we saw what we thought was a Swainson’s Sparrow. It was a brownish gray with a brown speckled white breast and had a very loud sound. We later figured out it was a female Fox Sparrow. After that, we continued to see Fox Sparrows until we came across two Peliated Woopeckers. One was a male, and the other was female. We were very close to them, but our camera had the wrong zoom-lense, so our pictures aren’t very good. Next we encountered a bright yellow bird with a black cap that happened to be a Wilson’s Warbler, a lifer (a lifer is a bird that you have seen for the first time in your life). A brownish bird with yellow under its wing was seen, too, but we can’t identify it. After that we decided to go home because the boys would assume the Grizzlies got us and start claiming our things. Now we have a four-hour drive to Yosemite National Park, where hopefully, I can see the Cinnamon Teal (a type of colorful duck).
-Marcy

Day 13.2

Sequoia National Park, CA—On the walk to see the William Sherman tree we went past a grizzly bear that looked at us like we would make a tasty schnack. We got a couple pictures of it. So, we went on walking and saw a baby grizzly bear. Marcy and Jake thought the grizzly bears were cute. Later on the walk we saw a couple deer.
-Jonas