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| Jason with the general |
We slept in until…don’t know what time after an undisturbed nights rest. Got up leisurely and made coffee and breakfast. Sonia updated the blog as Jason worked on the auxillary battery. Called Go Westy for troubleshooting ….we were in no hurry at all and got rolling by 1130am to Sequoia Kings National Park. Per Jacquie’s recommendation we walked through the Giant Forest. Thanks Jacquie J. We snowshoed around in the Giant Forest. We stood in the presence of General Sherman Tree, the largest tree on the planet by volume, 52, 500 cubic ft! It weighs 1, 385 tons, 36.5 feet in diameter and 275 ft tall…it’s a big tree that’s all there is to it. We wandered on our snowshoes around the forest and took in many of the other giant sequoia’s in the area. It was quiet, peaceful and amazing to be in the presence of this incredible species of tree. It extremely fire resistant b/c it doesn’t have a lot of sap or pitch. It scars well and heals itself after surviving many previous wildfires. We ate lunch and took off towards Death Valley—hoping to get there tonight.
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| Can you see Sonia in there somewhere? |
We are now sitting at a 1 hour and 7 min delay due to road construction….which is why we can blog/journal and chillax!! Jason made a few friends with some photographers in the car in front of us. Tim Scott and Greg Bates—both are well-known photographers and seem to know their stuff. They educated us about the valley fog. Its called Tule Fog and occurs only after it rains b/c the valley used to be an ancient lake bed. Ahhh interesting. We got going, as usual, pulled over to let the other cars pass by…but this allows us to take in the scenery. It was a beautiful, steep and twisty ride down. The Sierra Nevada Mountains right alongside and towering high above with its rugged terrain and snowy peaks….then the fog in the valley. It immediately felt like late afternoon and fatigue set in. We continued our drive (per recommendation from the photographers) on Rt 65 South to Porterville to restock our provisions for Death Valley.
We passed Porterville and took Rt 155 East winding and twisting our way thru mountainous terrain and a few passes. There was nobody on the road, so the Loaf could take up both lanes as we climbed. Luke and Will…this could be an interesting bicycle ride for you guys …a long, steady climb. On the steep 11% grade down, we had to pull over to let the red hot and stinky brakes cool down. Whooo…that was kinda scary! We made our way into Lake Isabella and re-fueled and stocked water from Vons Grocery Store (a sister store to Safeways). The cashier in there thought I was some strange vagrant…going back and forth 3 times with my bathroom-faucet-filled-gallon jug of water. She decided not to inquire why each time I had to go back for another token to get into the bathroom. I tried to prop the door open with papertowels, but it failed against the weight of the door. Then I thought, what if I jam the papertowels in the locking mechanism…that’d suck and be embarrassing…luckily the whole idea failed and the token opened the door the next 2 times. Now, we got gas, water, food, and toilet paper…we are ready to head into Death Valley.
We pushed on thru the dark, but then realized all the Joshua Tree silouttes and decided it may be a cool landscape to drive in the daylight hours. So we pulled off the road and camped. Gotta love the van…It was so bright from the moonlight, we didn’t even need headlamps. We were quickly looking at the undersides of our eyelids.Another undisturbed nights rest, we got an early start anxious to see the landscape into Death Valley.
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| Loaf with a Joshua Tree |
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