February 23, 2013 - General Grant Area

Title: February 23, 2013 - General Grant Area

Trail head: General Grant Tree

Hike Info:

Trail: Dead Giant/North Grove Loops

Destination:Dead Giant

Distance: 3.3

Travel Time: 2:11  (1.51 mph)

Moving Time: 1:36 (2.06 mph)

Elevation Rise: 664'

Maximum Elevation: 6,419'

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Trail head: Big Stump Parking Lot

Hike Info:

Trail: Big Stump Loop

Destination: Big Stump Area

Distance:  1.8

Travel Time: 1:26 (1.26 mph)

Moving Time: 1:01 (1.77 mph)

Elevation Rise: 212'

Maximum Elevation: 6,423'

 





Description:

Today's forecast is for a bright and beautiful day. And that is how things started. Sherri and I met with Karol, our fearless leader, and Beth for breakfast at the Blossom Tree Cafe in Sanger. I had the morning breakfast special of eggs, French toast, and hash browns. Filling. Then the other seven meetup members joined us at 8:30. Up we go to Grant Grove in Kings Canyon.

We stop briefly at the Visitor Center, then on to the General Grant parking lot. We decide we do not need snowshoes or snow tracks, the snow does not seem to be that deep; it does not go over my boots. We head down the Sunset Trail. We pass by the North Grove cutoff. Karol asks if I would like to lead since I know the way. So I go in front. Snow is not to bad, it snowed Tuesday and the snow is still pretty light, not packed yet. The trees are also full of snow, and it is not melting on us.








We get to the bottom of the road down, and the North Grove Loop takes off to the North, but we first want to pay a visit to the Dead Giant. So we head south. The road level's off. We go around a meadow, at least that is what it looks like in the Summer time. Now, there is standing water here and there. But we do not get wet as we are able to navigate around it.

This brings us to the Dead Giant Loop. This is a nice trail, a little elevation gain, but not too much. But instead of a road to follow, now it is a summer track. So I look for the indentation where the trail is, and the clearing which the trail follows. We quickly come to the Dead Giant and properly survey it, even getting a picture in.

Onward we go, continuing the loop. There is a nice lookout where you are able to see Sequoia Lake. But today, it is cloudy-sort of looks like we are in the middle of fog. So all we see is white. We complete the loop and start following back the trail to the North Grove Trail.

On the North Grove Trail, we are seeing more animal tracks. Looks like some rabbit, maybe squirrel. Then some deer tracks and some other animals. Wandering through these redwoods are always an amazing. But I find it particularly moving during the winter with the snow grace their branches and clothing their base. Today is no exception. These trees are just awesome. As we return back up the trail, we see more evidence of animals moving around in the snow. Some pretty recent. Then we look up and there are deer bounding above us. Great stuff. We get back to the cars a little after noontime.

Off to the cafe by the Visitor Center. I only had ice tea, and mooch a bit of Sherri's potato-bacon soup. Pretty good stuff. I was still pretty content with my breakfast still. It has gotten colder, and the clouds are still pretty thick. Down we go to Big Stump.











Lunch has made us a bit lethargic. But once we get going, we enjoy this walk. The snow is a bit deeper than the North Grove area. Some folks put on tracks, but I am doing ok without them. This area is beautiful, but a different kind of attraction. We descend down into the meadow, and wander around on the trail. We pass several stumps and wonder what kinds of stately trees stood where these stumps are.

Some of us climb up on the Mark Twain Stump. (What stumped Mark Twain?) The debate after the stump is where does the trail go? We decide it crosses the road, and we make for it. After that the trail climbs up. Now we find more tracks, this time, it is of a larger size animal. Koral identifies it as a bear. We see these tracks several times. There is a bit of concern, mostly because these are recent. But we do not see the bear. We complete the trail with a lot of good feelings. Not because it was strenuous, but because we enjoyed our time together and the beauty of the big trees.

Jan 18, 2013 Snowshoe Redwood Canyon Road

Title: Jan 18, 2013,Snowshoe Redwood Canyon Road

Trail head: Quail Flat Jct

Hike Info:

Trail: Redwood Canyon Rd from QuailFlat

Destination: Redwood Canyon Trailhead

Actual Destination: Someplace on theroad

Distance: 2.5 miles

Travel Time: 1:49 ( 1.38 mph)

Moving Time: 1:20 (1.88 mph)

Elevation Rise: 614'

Maximum Elevation: 6,975'

Minimum Elevation: 6,450'

Description:










The morning did not start out as too promising. The weather was not the issue—it was bright and beautiful. But we were getting a late start. Planned to leave by 9am, but we were just waking up by then. Sherri fixed us sourdough waffles—tasted pretty good. Then we puttered around and did not leave Fresno until 10:30am. So we got to Quail Flat close to Grant Grove just before noon.

During the summers, Quail Flat is the shortest way to Hume Lake.But during the winter, it is just a big parking lot. Across the General's Highway is the road down to the Redwood Canyon Trailhead.When we get there, we notice that the Redwood Canyon Rd had been traveled by some sort of four-wheel drive vehicle—leaving a couple of nice, not too deep, ruts. So down the road we went. Steven was onNordic skis. Sherri and I decided to use snowshoes. Well, down is the right term. We descended about 600'. Steven had the tougher time because of the ruts. It restricted is ability to maneuver. Sherri and I just lopped on.



About halfway through Big Baldy poked its snout out. It makes astatement that it is there, dominating the southern horizon. Besideit is Redwood Canyon. After traveling about 45 minutes, we came uponSteven, having stopped for a bite to eat. We decided to turn aroundthere and travel back up the road the same way we came. We probablywere about half of a mile away from our destination when we turnedaround. We got back to the car at 2:30, content with the day.





























This was the first opportunity to use the GoPro camera which my brother got be for Christmas. I wore it with the forehead strap and set it to take pictures every 60 seconds. The pictures came out pretty clear with good resolution. The composition was a bit helter-skelter. Not many just facing the ground. The strap was tight at the start, but after loosening it up, was comfortable.

2012-01-27 Panorama Pt

Today I woke up to gloom. The ground was wet. It really did not look like a day to be up in the mountains. But the Weather Underground said that it was sunny. So we got ready to go, ate, diddled around around a bit and at 11 headed off to Grant's Grove. Steven drove up while I enjoyed the ride. The sky still looked dreary, but more like high overcast.

And then we got to the National Park border and poked through and the sky was pure blue with the sun shining. We stopped at the visitor center to find out about conditions on the Panorama Pt trail/road, but they did not have anything for us. So we ate lunch and headed off.

The snow was mostly good on the way up with a few icy spots. And even though this is the end of January, the snow is thin--in places we can see through the snow to the pavement. By Sunday, there should be many patches of ground showing through. But today, it is good. Only a few bare places. But there are four downed trees across the road, but they are easily skied over. The smell of fresh cedar is to be enjoyed.

The trip up is a lot more enjoyable than it was last year when we did this with David. Today we make good time and I only stop in a few places to get a few breaths. Am I in better shape? I do not think so. It may be just the cold weather last time got me tired enough that I needed to stop at the parking lot before Panorama Pt. But today the snow is not sticking, the air is fresh and clear and I am feeling great.

We make it to the point without incident and in good time--a little after two. And the view! Mountains are spectacularly clear. All peaks are in full view. Even the distant ones like Goddard. They make you want to go further in and further up. But this old body will need to go down soon. But we stay and enjoy the gaze. In the summer, there is too much smog and haze. In the winter, too many times the mountains are hidden by clouds. But today, today they are in full array with all of their snow topped beauty.

It is time to go back down. And it is not long before I have the first fall of the season. The sad part is that I was standing still, just eyeballing how to go down the 300 yards from Panorama Pt to the parking lot and I quickly found myself on the ground. It did not take long to get back up again.

Then skied the narrow trail, bounded by a cedar post fence almost down to the parking lot. I hit a patch of crusty snow and got concerned and fell--into a small patch of buck brush. Why there? Not much damage from the thorns, still a bit hurtful--why not crash a few feet further?

One of the great things about this ski trail is the accommodations--there is an open outhouse at the parking lot which we make use of. Then it is down the snow covered road. That is down around 900' of elevation drop over 2.6 miles. While not technically hard, I slow myself down instead of bombing down it like a skilled person would. Steven does a better imitation of a bomber. I will be sore tomorrow from doing a snow plow down the slope.

I do pretty good for myself on the way down, most of the time I was in control. But all in all, I had room to maneuver and it was on a road. Only fell one more time.

We get back to the car around 3:30 and head off to Foster Freeze in Fresno to enjoy a well deserved burger--and pick up Sherri who stayed home.

2011-01-09 Grant Grove

Today Steven and I went skiing for the first time this season. You could tell we were out of practice we each fell at least four times in the two hours of skiing.Not too good, but could be worse. As Steven said, David is going to kill us off when we go out in March.

In Fresno, it has been gray and dwery for the past week, since it stopped raining. This is a normal January condition. But the good part is when it is gray like this, it is sunny up on the mountains. So when Steven and I broke through the 5500' barrier, sunshine greeted us. We were going to ski the south boundary road. But then we looked at Sunset Campground--which was covered by 4' of snow--and decided to ski the campground.

There was snowshoe tracks, but not ski tracks. So we wandered around. At the west edge of the campground, there is a view of the valley and of Lake Sequoia. This was good. We ski'd around and enjoyed ourselves, even the falls.

That is until we went up one slope and Steven stuck his pole handle deep. When he did this, the basket broke through the snow pack and got caught. We spent about 20 minutes getting out the pole-bent-but not the basket. This crippled Steven. So we went back to the car. In the process of getting the pole loose, the other pole also bent and lost its basket. I gave Steven one of my poles and we went back to the car.

Made it back around 5pm after traveling about 2 1/2 miles. Enjoyed the day, but the pole incident put a damper on the ending.

But the best scenery part was on the road back. As we were going back, the sun was setting. We got close to level with the top of the clouds. It was like you were on a plane, about to descend.