Kings Canyon: The More Beautiful, Less-Crowded Yosemite

Dave and I tried to visit Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks on our last road trip, but the Sierra actually had snow that year, so we couldn't.  This year, the Sierra received something like 25% of its annual snowpack.  Bad for California...  great for backcountry travel.

On the way into the park, there was a crazy heat wave.  Crazy.

did i mention this is crazy?

Time to escape to the mountains!

We stopped by Sequoia to see some of the Big Trees.  They are Seriously Big Trees.

the boole tree. i took this photo from ~100 meters away. can you find dave in the frame?

Like all of the minor temples and churches listed in a Lonely Planet guidebook, Seriously Big Trees start to look the same after a while.  We visited the Boole Tree, because it required a nice walk in the woods, and the Grant Tree, because we wanted to fill up our water gallons at a nearby campground.  I was suitably impressed and ready to get to the mountains.

hanging with the boole tree

So, how do we pick our hiking routes?  Not too much research in advance, because the amount of information available on the internet is totally overwhelming.  Instead, we talk to park rangers about their favorite locations and get maps and current trail information from land management offices when we arrive.  

And sometimes we pick our route because one of us sees a pretty picture, which is how we ended up on the Bubbs Creek trail headed toward Kearsarge Pass in the eastern section of Kings Canyon!  On this 3-day trip, we started at the Road's End permit station, camped two nights at Vidette Meadows, and a day hike to Kearsarge Pass and Kearsarge Lakes on the second day.

The walk up Kings Canyon was beautiful.  Soaring rock walls as you climb higher and higher.  And yes, there is climbing here - adventure climbing with brutal approaches!

view from the switchbacks, looking toward Road's End

From Road's End to Vidette Meadows is around 12-13 miles with about 4500' of elevation gain, so it took most of the day.  

Didn't help that the few parties walking out kept asking, "Be careful for rattlesnakes! How many have you seen?" (Answer:  2 total on the trip, neither of which were under my boots, thankfully.)

Vidette Meadows has a few nice campsites.  We picked the one that seemed to have the fewest mosquitoes.  Stay away from standing water...

camp at vidette meadows

The next day, we slept in (to 7:30 a.m!) and had a leisurely breakfast, leaving camp around 10:00 a.m.

Kearsarge Lakes are BEAUTIFUL.  It's the type of scenery that makes you rub your eyes and wonder if you're dreaming!

for me... the most beautiful type of scenery! alpine lakes and soaring peaks!

We continued high above the lakes, toward Kearsarge Pass.  This is a popular place for PCT through-hikers to exit for resupply (Onion Valley -> Independence), so we ran into a few friendly faces.

climbing higher above kearsarge lakes

 After a set of rocky, sandy switchbacks above a steep talus field (minor nail-biter), we were at the top!!

kearsarge pass, elevation 11,760 feet

The panorama from the top was stunning.  That's Mt. Whitney, the highest point in the lower 48, in the back corner!  This is the best view I've seen since the Khumbu Valley in Nepal.

ah-MAY-zing!

We ate lunch on top, then wandered back down to camp via the higher Kearsarge trail to make a nice loop.

After dinner, we bushwhacked up the slope behind Vidette to watch the alpenglow on the Kearsarge Pinnacles in the distance.

Very romantic...  and COLD!

On our last day, we got up early to get to the car and out of the park ASAP.  On to the next adventure!  Along the way, we stopped to gawk at some wildlife.

the level of not-give-a-crap was just like the deer at home on the east coast!

what type of snake is this? very pretty.

i know what kind this is...  nice rattle, baby.

I had no idea that Kings Canyon was so beautiful.  Considering my very conflicted opinion of Yosemite Valley (see next post), I might recommend Kings Canyon and the Rae Lakes Loop (or any section of it) over the more famous park to the north!!  Two thumbs up for the Kings Canyon backcountry!

California or Bust!

I had a week to go from Los Angeles to San Francisco while Dave had a job on the East Coast.  I decided to head up the scenic Pacific Coast Highway, Route 1.

Santa Monica National Recreation Area:  When I think of heaven, this is what I imagine...  happy little hiking trails, cliff faces, lots of green, trickling creeks, blooming wildflowers, bird song...  ahhh it was just so darn pretty!  I hiked the Mishe Mokwa Trail to TriPeaks, where I went off trail and almost stepped on a snake (sorry buddy!), to the Backbone Trail to Sandstone Peak, the highest in the Santa Monica Mountains.


I wanted to hike in the Angeles National Forest, but a lot of the trails are still closed due to the Station Fire back in 2008.  A few different rangers suggested checking out the Morro Bay area outside San Luis Obispo, so I headed there.

Montana de Oro State Park & Morro Bay:  Let me tell you, this isn't the Jersey Shore or Malibu!  Tidal pools packed with anemones and hermit crabs...  cliffs dropping straight into the churning surf...  dense fog rolling in off the water and turning everything dream-like.  I'm not much of a beach person, I prefer the mountains, but I'm glad I went here to experience the California coast.

The next day, I decided to walk up Cerro Cabrillo, Cabrillo Hill.  It's something less than 1,000 feet, like 3 miles round-trip, I thought I'd knock it off in an hour.  Holy crap on toast, I was wrong!  The first third is a gentle uphill on a wide track.  The second third is a respectable uphill puffer on a beaten-earth track.  And the final third?  Bushwhacking through poison oak while avoiding snakes.  I totally lost the track on the way back down and survived the whackest of bushwhacks I've ever experienced.  I'm going to burn the pants I was wearing because I'm positive they're infused with 100% poison oak oil and will never be safe to wear ever again.  It was nasty and awesome.

the look on my face after the bushwhack...  WHEW!

Route 1 and Big Sur:  how to describe the California coast...  MOODY.  Not spectacular, not dramatic, not serene, but rather... infused with subtle feelings.  Everything here is a shade of gray, especially when the fog rolls in, which is always.  It seems like this would be the place to reach some sort of far-reaching personal conclusion about the workings of something or other.  Does that sound weird?  Something about the loneliness of driving this road in the middle of the week...  how the waves keep crashing, crashing, crashing against an unobserved cliff...  the way the fog burns off the peaks of the ridges before the valleys...

I visited Big Sur and day-hiked the famous Pine Ridge Trail.  It would make an awesome backpacking trip.

I was surprised to learn that Big Sur is the far southern end of the range of the great Redwood tree.  Most of the trees I saw were freaking huge by east-coast standards, but rather puny by Redwood standards.  I decided to head farther north in search of the giants.

the trees might not be huge, but the banana slugs are!

And then the highway fell into the ocean.  Oh, s***.  At first, I heard it would be closed 3-7 days.  Now crews say a month.  I backtracked a few hours and went up and over the Santa Lucia mountains.

AP Photo/Monterey Herald, Orville Myers, http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20110318/WIRE/110319452?Title=Hwy-1-on-state-s-central-coast-may-be-closed-a-month

Big Basin Redwoods State Park:  Why this park?  I don't have a good reason, other than acknowledging that something told me in no uncertain terms that I had to go.  I've learned not to second guess those intuitions.

It was AMAZING.  The little half-mile "Redwoods Trail" brought me past some of the largest trees in the park.

the "father of the forest" is 66 feet, 9 inches around

the "mother of the forest" is 329 feet tall and 70 feet around.  take that, dad!

I also walked the Skyline to Sea Trail to the Dool Trail to the Creeping Forest Trail.  This park wins on trail names alone!  The forest was SO lush, SO green, and then there are monster trees everywhere.

a bridge made out of a downed redwood

The hardest part of being a bum in California has been finding non-sketchy, non-illegal places to sleep at night.  I really wanted a break from the stress of figuring out where I would park for the night, so I paid for a campsite in the park, nestled in a grove of redwoods, right next to a shower block (aaahhh!).  Wisely, I slept in the car and awoke to the pitter-patter of raindrops sliding off the redwoods, my tent still dry under the car seat.  I stayed in my sleeping bag until 9:30 a.m. when I reasoned that I had been hibernating for 12 hours.

campsite among the redwoods

Hanging out with the redwoods was a very peaceful experience. Some of these trees were seedlings during the Byzantine Empire...  saplings during the Dark Ages...  already eight feet in diameter when Columbus landed in the Americas.  Spending any length of time in a grove of redwoods reminds me that I am very small and very insignificant.  Not in a bad way, though.  It feels reassuring to know that there was so much before me and there will be so much after and beyond me.

Angkor Wat: The Macchu Picchu of Southeast Asia

A lifetime ago, when a copious supply of toilet paper was available in every bathroom and I didn't eat rice three times a day, i.e. when I was living in the United States and thinking about traveling, I assumed I would visit Angkor Wat in Cambodia.  I knew barely anything about Cambodia, only a little about the country's turbulent political history, nothing about the language or the cuisine, but I sure knew about Angkor Wat.  Everyone knows about Angkor Wat!  Even teenage boys--yeah, that's where Lara Croft did something-or-other in the Tomb Raider movies.  Angkor Wat is the Grand Canyon of the United States...  the Macchu Picchu of South America...  the Great Egyptian Pyramids of the African continent.

And here I am:

whoot!

Hands down, my favorite parts of the park have been as much natural as manmade.  This is a tree-lovers paradise!  Various species of tree have grown on top of, into, and around various ruins.  The shapes are stunning:  a juxtaposition of man's straight lines with nature's curves.

As I wandered around, I reflected on impermanence.  When these monuments were created, they were so solid.  At the time, it must have seemed like the construction would last forever.  Even now, the ruins have an eternal feeling to them.  But everything that is built will eventually crumble.  Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not this millenium, but eventually it will change and fade away.  That's just the law of nature.

Speaking of nature, I also sensed how everything that arises from nature goes back to nature.  Humans borrowed these stones and piled them up.  Now, nature is taking back what was always hers.

On a less dreamy note, the problem with everyone knowing about Angkor Archaeological Park is, well, everyone knows about it!  After the jump, a little rant about mass tourism and a few suggestions for future visitors...

Malaysia? What's in Malaysia?

Written September 22, 2010

I'll be honest:  the reason I ended up in Malaysia was because of a cheap flight.  Denpasar, Bali to Kuala Lumpur for about 100 greenbacks.  I needed to leave before my visa ran out, so I figured, "Why not?"

Malaysia was an interesting place.  Just like Singapore is the most un-Southeast Asian city in Southeast Asia, Malaysia is the most un-Southeast Asian country in Southeast Asia.

The standard of living is quite high; Wikipedia tells me that the per capita GDP is roughly USD$14,800, the only country in SE Asia to beat the global average of USD$10,500 (except Brunei, which beats even the United States).  And you can tell it's wealthy, too.  The public transit is clean, efficient, and relatively expensive.  People are well-educated; most speak at least two languages, as English is a compulsory subject in schools.  While I did see some people living on the streets in Kuala Lumpur, the city felt just as modern and clean as Singapore.

Malaysians are an interesting ethnic blend of Malay, Chinese, and Indian.  So even though Malaysia is an Islamic country, defined as such by the Malaysian constitution, there are significant minorities of Buddhists (~19%), Christians (~9%), and Hindus (~6%).  We were in Malaysia for the start of Ramadan, but it didn't affect our travel plans at all.  We simply ate in Indian or Chinese restaurants for breakfast and lunch.

We spent our time in three places:  Kuala Lumpur, Taman Negara National Park, and the Cameron Highlands.

Welcome Back to Tuateawa

We've been back in Tuateawa for almost two weeks, and the June program is in full swing.  What's new and not-so-new?

Tree Planting
My main focus lately has been tree planting.  Over the next month, we hope to install 1,200 trees in the earth of the valley.  We are planting mostly acacia species for ground cover and mostly eucalyptus species for shelterbelts.  In the first week, with the equivalent of 3.5 days of a 3-person planting team, we've planted just about 30%...  an excellent start.

There is just as much non-planting work, however.  I've recovered and saved seeds, and planted seeds into root training trays.  We also have to pound stakes into the ground, paint the stakes, staple plastic tags into the stakes, and label the stakes with the code of the tree that will be planted next to it.  It's a huge effort with logistical challenges, as there are only 6 of us, certain people must do certain tasks, and certain tasks must happen before other tasks.  So far, I'm loving it, as one of my main motivations for coming to New Zealand was environmental conservation work.

Lettuce House
On one of our first days back, Dave and I built a glass house cover for our lettuce beds.  Since the weather is cool and rainy, the little lettuces need some extra warmth and protection from downpours to flourish.  It was only a one day project, but it turned out quite nicely.  We built this out of two old windows and some scrap wood.  Creative building material reuse:  check!

Plenty of Water; No Heat
It all started when the wood-burning stove inexplicably began to leak smoke into the house.  Time for a newer stove!  The old stove, however, was connected to the hot water supply, a smart way to use excess stove heat to reduce energy use by the hot water heater.  In the process of draining the hot water tank, we accidentally "drained" the tank all over the living room and the kitchen, resulting in an inch of standing water in most of the house.

Ooops.

To make matters worse, the heating element in the hot water tank burned out once the tank was empty.  Result:  no heat from the wood-burning stove and no hot water.  Hilariously, one of the burners on our electric cooking stove short-circuited, leaving us with an electric kettle as the sole source of heat in the entire house.

There is a happy ending to the story, however:  handy Dave figured out and repaired the hot water tank.  My hero!  :-)

New Friends
Two French Canadian young ladies, Melanie and Catherine, have joined us for June.  They are so much fun...  always laughing and telling stories!  I really appreciate their enthusiasm for tree planting and working outside.  I think we are going to have an awesome time working and playing together.  (And I'm not just saying that because they might read this!  :-P )

Quality Time with the Doggles
I actually don't have anything to say about the dogs; I simply love this picture of "smiling" Ninya.  The doggles are an endless source of entertainment and companionship.

Hiding from the Rain
All of the rain that we didn't get this summer has fallen in the past few weeks, and it will probably keep falling for the rest of the month.  It is certainly winter, the rainy season, here in our temperate rainforest.  The air is always damp and the weather changeable.  It's still warm enough to sleep outside, though, so we are happy in our tent.  It is mostly dark by 5:30 p.m, and it doesn't start getting light until 7:00 a.m.  North Americans, enjoy your daylight!

NZ Conservation Ecology & Really Old Trees

We recently took our first nature walk as a group since I arrived.  I really enjoyed tramping around in the woods.  Our program administrator, Ogre Jon, knows a lot about New Zealand forests, which means I get to learn a lot when I’m tramping with him.  For example, we spent a while discussing the landscape around us.  Here he discusses the reasons why we are working to restore native plant species in the valley below:

We went way off the track for the majority of the walk, so I got plenty of exercise climbing and twisting under, over, and around everything in my path.

The highlight of the walk was our end destination:  a 1,300 year old kauri in the back of the valley behind our land.

One thousand, three hundred years old!!!

Here are more pictures from the day.  The album is fairly small, because I left out all of the pictures I took of particular plant species (not terribly interesting).

Whanake and The Trig

On Thursday, our free day, Dave and I decided to take a little nature walk up the ridge across from the front of the house.  The map on our wall labels it "Whanake," and says it has an elevation of 305 meters (1,000 feet).

We almost couldn't find the trailhead, but a friendly gentleman on a bike showed us the path and told us it would lead us to "The Trig."  What's a Trig?!?  I enjoyed a silly adventure looking for The Trig, as well as some beautiful views and interesting learning opportunities about the New Zealand forest.  Dave has been in NZ far longer than me, so he was able to show me some interesting aspects I wouldn't have noticed.

How about spider webs so strong they can catch fish?

Or a tree that has a very unique defense against parasitic plants?

Or how about a creature that started its life around the time Lief Eriksson landed in North America, 1000 years ago?

Finally, here are some photos from the day:

Enjoy!

What Makes New Zealand So Special?

I've been excited about visiting New Zealand since I was in high school and the first Lord of the Rings movies were released.  I was captivated by the amazing scenery, and I enjoyed watching the documentaries about filming the movie in NZ as much as I enjoyed the movies themselves.

Mt. Ngauruhoe, inspiration for film version of Mt. Doom, photo by Don Swanson, 1984

Since I made the decision to go to New Zealand, I've tried to learn a little about the land and its native species.  I've lived my entire life in New York and New Jersey in the United States.  My frame of reference, my concept of "outside," is a forest of oak and pine or maple and beech, or a gorge lined with hemlock.  I expect to see grey squirrels in the oak trees, white-tailed deer wandering through the pines, and blue jays zooming through the canopy (or terrorizing the chickadees).

New Zealand is completely different (not surprisingly--it is on the other side of the globe).  What is surprising are the extent to which and the reasons why it is unique.

Coromandel rainforest, photo by James Shook, 2005

Click the link below for more about New Zealand's otherworldly ecology!