Tue - Nov. 10th
We are at a campground near Garberville. We drove thru "The Avenue of the Giants" today and will drive thru the rest of it tomorrow. I don't know why I couldn't buy redwood in Brookings, when I needed it. We drove by several places with lots and lots of redwood stacked up and ready to ship.
We are in Humboldt Redwoods State Park where 20% of all the coastal redwoods in the world are found. Redwoods produce between 90 and 120 pine cones a year. The pine cones are about the size of the end of my thumb and each one produces 100,000 seeds per year. However, 90% are never fertilized due to fungus or other reasons. Redwoods can live to be 2000 to 3000 years old, but usually die from lightning, fires, etc. before they reach old age. A dead tree is called a
snag and supports 1000 species of life in the forest. A fallen rotting log supports as many as 4000 species. It takes approximately 400 years for a log to rot.
John is standing at the base of a fallen tree. I am standing at the base of the "Dyerville Giant" that fell in 1991. It was 370 feet tall, one of the tallest trees in the world. It was 52'4" around and weighed more than a loaded 747 jumbo jet (1 million pounds).
The "Immortal Tree", with the sign in front of it, is approximtely 1000
years old and was 298 feet tall before lightning broke off the top 50 feet. It has also survived the loggers axe, a fire in 1908 and a flood in 1964 caused by an unusual snow fall. There is a mark showing the high water line of the flood about 20 feet up on the tree. It is 14 and a half feet in diameter at the base and would produce 104,380 board feet of lumber, enough to build several homes.
The last picture was taken for my granddaughter, Tierney, in the little town of Holmes between Pepperwood and Redcrest.
We have seen lots of bikers and hitch hikers. The bikers are loaded down with four saddle bags, plus tent and bed roll. The coast highway has a biker lane in most places. Sometimes the road gets so narrow, there is no room left to mark a lane for them. Some of the bridges have a traffic light they can push to let cars know that there is a biker on the bridge or in the tunnel, in case the cars can't see them. I hardly consider myself a real biker anymore after having seen so many of them on these narrow, steep, winding roads carrying such a heavy load. Wow!
We are at a campground near Garberville. We drove thru "The Avenue of the Giants" today and will drive thru the rest of it tomorrow. I don't know why I couldn't buy redwood in Brookings, when I needed it. We drove by several places with lots and lots of redwood stacked up and ready to ship.
We are in Humboldt Redwoods State Park where 20% of all the coastal redwoods in the world are found. Redwoods produce between 90 and 120 pine cones a year. The pine cones are about the size of the end of my thumb and each one produces 100,000 seeds per year. However, 90% are never fertilized due to fungus or other reasons. Redwoods can live to be 2000 to 3000 years old, but usually die from lightning, fires, etc. before they reach old age. A dead tree is called a
snag and supports 1000 species of life in the forest. A fallen rotting log supports as many as 4000 species. It takes approximately 400 years for a log to rot.John is standing at the base of a fallen tree. I am standing at the base of the "Dyerville Giant" that fell in 1991. It was 370 feet tall, one of the tallest trees in the world. It was 52'4" around and weighed more than a loaded 747 jumbo jet (1 million pounds).
The "Immortal Tree", with the sign in front of it, is approximtely 1000
years old and was 298 feet tall before lightning broke off the top 50 feet. It has also survived the loggers axe, a fire in 1908 and a flood in 1964 caused by an unusual snow fall. There is a mark showing the high water line of the flood about 20 feet up on the tree. It is 14 and a half feet in diameter at the base and would produce 104,380 board feet of lumber, enough to build several homes.
The last picture was taken for my granddaughter, Tierney, in the little town of Holmes between Pepperwood and Redcrest.We have seen lots of bikers and hitch hikers. The bikers are loaded down with four saddle bags, plus tent and bed roll. The coast highway has a biker lane in most places. Sometimes the road gets so narrow, there is no room left to mark a lane for them. Some of the bridges have a traffic light they can push to let cars know that there is a biker on the bridge or in the tunnel, in case the cars can't see them. I hardly consider myself a real biker anymore after having seen so many of them on these narrow, steep, winding roads carrying such a heavy load. Wow!
I fixed steak, rice and veggies for supper and we had a couple glasses of Pinot Noir. I am hoping we will have time to do a little wine tasting at some of the local wineries as we pass through. We plan to be at John's sister's by the 20th. She has tickets for us to go to a football game in Fresno.
More redwoods and hiking tomorrow.
Good night all,
Tarra
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