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| Sequoia National Forest June29-July1, 2016 | |
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| Base of the President George Bush Tree in the Freeman Grove of Giant Sequoia. (The first one, the emperor ..... not the fuehrer (Bay Area joke via Barry) actually fuehrer means leader or guide in German) | |
| Ridgecrest was hitting 111 and I was over my Washington 50 degrees and rain escape where I had been praying for the dry heat of home. It was time to head up and get out of the heat. Kennedy Meadows Campground at 6210' was in the low 70s when I got there Tuesday evening. Last year I had attempted to go to the Freeman Creek Grove of Giant Sequoia twice and found it closed both times when I arrived there. (The second time the posted paperwork closing it had expired but they were enforcing it anyway as I was told by the fire fighter who escorted me out of the grove area.) It was open this time and when I reached the Freeman Creek area Wednesday afternoon at 5600' it was 90. (Still 20 degrees cooler than Ridgecrest) Thursday I went up to Ponderosa where it was 79 degrees at 7155' almost directly above the Freeman Grove. Ponderosa is less than 4 crow fly miles from where I was camped but over 50 miles to drive there. McNalleys at Fairview on the Kern River (3560') was 97 and the river turn outs were beginning to fill up for the 4th of July Weekend with people from Bakersfield. I finally made a camp back up towards Sherman Peak Pass on Mosquito Meadows Road at 8910' where the daytime high didn't get out of the mid 70s. | |
| Kennedy Meadows | |
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| Someone has been stealing shit. The outhouses that have been at the Kennedy Meadows Bridge for as long as I can remember are gone (over 20 years) | More water in the South Fork of the Kern River than this time last year when it appeared empty. |
| Great Western Divide | |
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| The Needles | |
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| Blow up of left side of the Needles where you can see a catwalk to nowhere. The lady who was working the fire lookout tower accidentally burnt it down years ago. They gave her another one somewhere else. | Ponderosa store, restaurant and motel is for sale again. |
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| Just like the coastal redwoods a camera can not capture the immensity of a sequoia. In June I'd seen the tallest (Sequoia Sempervirens - Redwood) and largest (Sequoiadendron Giganteum - Sequoia) trees in the world. I need to get to the oldest in the world again, the Bristle Cone Pines. All are in California. I actually didn't see the General Sherman Tree (largest) or Hyperion (tallest) but some of their relatives. I have seen the two mentioned trees before. | |
 Plaque
in front of the George Bush Tree. |
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| Mosquito Meadows Road | |
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| Mya at Mosquito Meadows Road camp. (We didn't have any mosquitoes around camp) | Snow flowers were still around (USFS says Snow Plant, I've
always called them snow flowers) http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/sarcodes_sanguinea.shtml |
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