Irrelevance Glorified

Recently, I decided to stop being so lazy and start doing the hiking that I had been putting off for oh, say, a year. I found a nice website, Bay Area Hiker, and picked one of their highly rated trails. Destination : Big Basin Redwoods State Park. One of the oldest State Parks in California, Big Basin is located in the Santa Cruz mountains, about halfway between Mountain View and Santa Cruz. It’s full of some of the largest redwoods in the Bay Area. I showed up at the Park at about 11 am to catch the guided tour, which covers the short 0.5 mile Redwood Trail. This was a nice trail, since it passes right by the tallest and widest trees in the park. I was a little surprised to see that it took 1 1/2 hours, so I was a bit concerned when it was almost 1 pm and I still hadn’t started my real hike. My intended hike was the Waterfall Loop, a 10.5 mile hike on the Skyline to the Sea, Berry Creek Falls, and Sunset Trails. Since the estimated hiking time they list is 5-6 hours, I was really worried about taking too long, so I booked it, running downhill and really pushing the pace. The result : a 4 hour hike. I paid the price, though. Having not done much hiking, this particular loop killed my legs. I spent the entire week wincing around. Both my legs hurt, so I had to pick a leg to limp on, and then switch it up every once in a while to keep it even. However, I have to say that it was a very good hike; I would rate it an A. While there were no “vistas”, I do love redwoods, and the waterfalls were nice, if a little underwhelming after visiting Oregon.

So, hit the Flickr Set for pictures, watch the slideshow if you’re lazy, or hit the jump if you want to see all the pictures and descriptions at once.

 

I think that I took this picture because there’s a squirrel in the tree. How sad is that? Like I don’t see squirrels every day. I think I took this picture because it’s a squirrel in a state park. In other words, a very special squirrel

 

Before I took my hike, I enjoyed a guided tour that showcased some of the largest redwoods in the park. We passed by this grove of gigantic redwoods, one of which had seen better days. Basically, the only natural predator for adult redwoods is the wind, which took out this tree sometime in the past 15 years or so.

 

Trees fall from time to time, as they are wont to do from time to time. All this wood is pretty heavy, and it all comes from a state park, so they can’t just toss it somewhere. So most of the time, it’s just pushed off to the side, leaving enough space to continue the trail. This giant fallen redwood is no different.

 

The tree was tall enough that when it fell, it broke into multiple pieces. The main parts were in the last picture. I guess when it fell, it crossed the path, and so the rest of the tree is over on this side of the path, where about 20 – 30 feet worth fall across a creek.

 

One relatively common redwood tree defect is for the entire middle to rot out, leaving only the trunk. There’s enough live stuff in the bark that the tree often still lives, and over time (like hundreds of years) the hole in the trunk will close, leaving a hollow tree. This caused problems for loggers, because a hollow tree can shatter while being cut, injuring anyone around. They would end up having to drive a giant stake through the tree to make sure it was solid (you can’t tell by sound). Obviously, this tree hasn’t closed all the way up, so we’re able to look up.

 

It’s hard to get a good picture of the "Mother of the Forest", the tallest tree in the park. It’s 329 feet tall, so if you’re right next to it, you don’t get a good view. So before you walk up to, this sign lets you know when you get a good glimpse.

 

Well, it’s not the greatest view, but it’s hard to see the tree for all the forest. At the least, you can see how it’s towering over everything else.

 

The title of "Mother of the Forest" goes to the tallest tree, while the title of "Father of the Forest" goes to the widest tree. I’m not sure what to think about that. You might even think it should be the other way around. Almost 17 feet in diameter at eye level, although it’s almost 80 feet shorter than the Forest Mother.

 

Note the large branch growing out of the Father of the Forest, and growing almost parallel to the trunk. It’s observed that when a redwood tree grows under the influence of a prevailing wind or on a slope, they will often grow a branch out on the opposite side of the tree to counteract the force. These sorts of changes take hundreds of years to manifest, and it’s amazing to see redwoods think long term.

 

The nature tour also introduced me to a new term, The Widowmaker. As I mentioned in the previous picture, a lot of redwoods grow large branches that grow parallel to the trunk. In a stiff wind, those branches are the first to go. So sometimes you have branches that are a foot or more in diameter that are dropped straight down like a lawn dart, two hundred feet, embedding themselves a few feet into the ground. If you are unlikely enough to be standing below when they fall….well, I hope you had good life insurance.

 

This tree right here was cut down (or fell down, whatever) in 1936. It was over 1300 years old. They put a slice up for everyone to see, and marked out the rings to note what world events this tree has watched pass by.

 

From the coronation of Charlemagne to the California Gold Rush, this tree stood idly by while it all happened. Lazy tree.

 

You know, I just really like taking pictures of tall trees. Not much more to say.

 

Although it kinda looks like it, this isn’t one tree; it’s actually a little grove. Redwoods have a habit of sprouting a bunch of trees from the same root system, often quite close together. I was busy trying to figure out how to stand up my camera to take this picture (I didn’t have a tripod at the time), when another hiker fortuitously walked by and did me the favor of snapping this picture.

 

Unlike some of the other waterfalls in Big Basin, this one is fed by a spring, so it’s still something to see when it’s the middle of June and it hasn’t rained for a while. The drop here is about 60 feet.

 

Pictures never do waterfall’s justice (when I am the one taking the picture), so here’s a video of the falls.

 

I don’t have fast enough reflexes, a fast enough camera, or a good enough lens to get a real good picture of a bird that isn’t dead. But I made a valiant effort to get this Steller’s Jay. I think this one might have been following me around during my hike. He probably thought I was trying to steal stuff. What a racist.

 

You know, this picture looks an awful lot like Berry Springs Falls. But the angle is all wrong, considering I took this picture after the previous picture, so I should be on the waterfall’s right side instead of its left. So maybe this is some sort of Berry Springs Doppelganger. I guess it will be a mystery until the next time I take this hike.

 

I think this waterfall might be more precipitation dependent. It was definitely not as pretty as Berry Springs; unfortunately, if you do this loop hike in the suggested direction, you see the best waterfall first. But still, nice scenery.

 

Okay, after reviewing the tape, I guess this video is indeed not Berry Springs Falls, and is a video of the waterfall in the previous picture.

 

Even less impressive than the last one, I’m hoping that I just caught this waterfall at a bad time.

 

A video of the third waterfall along this hike.

 

Along the hike, I came across this whole grove of fallen redwoods. It’s hard to get a sense of scale….

 

…here are those same redwoods along with a short fat Indian.

 

As I’ve stated before, the only natural enemy of the ancient redwood is the wind. So it’s really creepy when you’re quietly hiking through a redwood forest, and you see the trees gently swaying in the breeze….and creaking. The microphone on my camera isn’t the greatest, but you can hear some cracks and knocks.

Trackback This Post | Subscribe to the comments through RSS Feed