Mike's First Entry

Finally the moment you have all been waiting for, Mike publishing on Mel's blog. This is likely both the first and last time I do this since I start work with Cisco in about a week and a half. I've been in contact with a few of my future colleagues via email during the past couple of weeks and I'm both excited and scared stiff to get going. I'm sure it will work out great and hopefully our brood learns to love the Bay area as much as we do Utah.

While we have found a place to live in Fremont, our contract will not be in force until June so we are still here in Bakersfield with Mel's parents for another few days. They have been very generous and we were lucky that they could put us up for a few weeks. Despite their hospitality, however, we have had some trouble filling the time over the past couple of weeks. In an effort to get out of the house and get Ty and Kenny some fresh air, we decided to drive to Sequoia National Park a couple of days ago....Hence all of the nature photos.

The drive to the park entrance was only about an hour and a half to cover the 120+ miles from Bakersfield, but the 12 or 15 miles from the gate to where the big trees are took about an hour. The gate sits at about 2000 feet above sea level and after what seems like a million switchbacks you find yourself at just over 7000 feet in the Giant Forest. I'll admit I'm a bit of a geek about this stuff so sorry about any nature lessons.

The first shot is of me standing in front of an average Sequoia by the roadside.

Just after entering the park is Tunnel Rock--The park road used to run underneath it. Maybe they moved the road because the left side looks a little sketchy. Kind of reminds me of a Wiley Coyote trap for the roadrunner.

The kids are sitting in front of the biggest tree (and the biggest organism for that matter) in the world---"The General Sherman" As you can tell, T-Bone had seen quite a few big trees by this point---he's not that impressed anymore. Kenny is just happy holding her sticks....simple pleasures. It is tough to really show how big the tree is....if you could put the tree I'm standing in front of in the first picture next to this one, Sherman would probably be about three times as wide. It is around 275 feet tall, but the really impressive thing is the girth. At ground level it is 40 feet wide while at the top the trunk is still nearly 18 feet wide. It is between 2200 and 2500 years old and they say the amount of new wood it grows each year would be roughly the same found in an average sized 60 foot tree. Like I said, I'm a bit of a geek.

General Sherman in the foreground right, a taller, skinnier Sequoia in the background.

When we first arrived in the Giant Forest it was about 2:00 in the afternoon. We hiked around a bit and quickly realized that we hadn't packed enough warm clothes. It was about 30 degrees colder than down in the valley and we were in the clouds for the first couple of hours. Mel kept on saying that it reminded her of Endor in Return of the Jedi. All I know is that I had a stick in hand ready to beat down anything humanoid and furry that moved.Anyway--It was good to get away for a few hours and breathe some cold fresh air. Hope you are all doing well----more from Mel soon.