Glorious. Simply glorious. If you want to know more about redwoods, 
check this out. Since I was getting a late start (I wouldn’t get on trail until just after 11:30), I opted for the trail to Miner’s Ridge, and the short trail there. Or so I thought. I cheaped out (and committed a cardinal camping sin) and didn’t pick up a trail map. After all, in Minnesota you don’t need them other than to plan a route- almost every juncture has a map. Not so in California.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Recently the appears to have been a rather significant wind storm in the area that knocked many trees down. This seriously impeded many of the trails, and closed some roads. Speaking to the guy at the visitor center, he gave me instructions for just take Mineral Ridge Trail, but it would start out as John Irvine Trail. Otherwise I could take the Fern Canyon Trail to the Catalinia Trail to Mineral Ridge. Again, late start so I opt for the shorter route. Seeing a "bridge out" sign early on, I continue assume that particular trail can’t be Mineral Ridge, and continue th
e John Irvine route. Which is Fern Canyon. And almost two miles longer than I thought.
Now, before I go to much further, I figure I will likely end up with a trail speed of about 1 mph. I’m sickeningly out of shape (indeed, as out of shape as I’ve ever been- illness aside), and expect to be crawling over trees, possible needing to bushwack to find trail, all along with unknown levels of elevation change. If I take the long route, that means six hours of hiking, which puts me setting up camp in the dark. This I do not want to do.
Early on I can tell that it’s going to be interesting. Less than a half mile into it, there’s a downed redwood. I highly doubt that anyone reading this has ever seen a freshly downed redwood. Something you must know about them- they don’t land, they EXPLODE! If I remember correctly, that was a problem that early loggers had with them to an extent, and even more so with sequoias. The reason this is important to me is because when you have that much biomass covering a trail, it is obliterated. Utterly. Being in a coastal rainforest, there’s no "oh, I see the path over there" at this point. So, I follow the path I see other people have taken. Forgetting my own understanding that people are idiots.
I eventually find the trail again, after discovering that what looks like a solid patch of this or that is often the deceptive covering to a three foot drop. I continue, amazed by the massive trees around me, and the lush ferns. My imagination goes wild, and I’m envisioning dinosaurs grazing. I’m picturing indians on the look-out. I’m picturing druids (D&D ones) on the look-out. I’m picturing elves. And yes, damnit, I’m picturing Ewoks. They’re not on the look-out. They’re just being Ewoks.
Yub yub.
I continue walking, climbing here, descending there, scrambling over destroyed redw
ood every fraction of a mile. At one point a particularly large tree has fallen over two separate sections of trail, and this is easily the most difficult passage. Considering the massive jumble of branches, chunks of trunk, and slick mud, I’m really happy I didn’t twist an ankle.
check this out. Since I was getting a late start (I wouldn’t get on trail until just after 11:30), I opted for the trail to Miner’s Ridge, and the short trail there. Or so I thought. I cheaped out (and committed a cardinal camping sin) and didn’t pick up a trail map. After all, in Minnesota you don’t need them other than to plan a route- almost every juncture has a map. Not so in California.But I’m getting ahead of myself. Recently the appears to have been a rather significant wind storm in the area that knocked many trees down. This seriously impeded many of the trails, and closed some roads. Speaking to the guy at the visitor center, he gave me instructions for just take Mineral Ridge Trail, but it would start out as John Irvine Trail. Otherwise I could take the Fern Canyon Trail to the Catalinia Trail to Mineral Ridge. Again, late start so I opt for the shorter route. Seeing a "bridge out" sign early on, I continue assume that particular trail can’t be Mineral Ridge, and continue th
e John Irvine route. Which is Fern Canyon. And almost two miles longer than I thought. Now, before I go to much further, I figure I will likely end up with a trail speed of about 1 mph. I’m sickeningly out of shape (indeed, as out of shape as I’ve ever been- illness aside), and expect to be crawling over trees, possible needing to bushwack to find trail, all along with unknown levels of elevation change. If I take the long route, that means six hours of hiking, which puts me setting up camp in the dark. This I do not want to do.
Early on I can tell that it’s going to be interesting. Less than a half mile into it, there’s a downed redwood. I highly doubt that anyone reading this has ever seen a freshly downed redwood. Something you must know about them- they don’t land, they EXPLODE! If I remember correctly, that was a problem that early loggers had with them to an extent, and even more so with sequoias. The reason this is important to me is because when you have that much biomass covering a trail, it is obliterated. Utterly. Being in a coastal rainforest, there’s no "oh, I see the path over there" at this point. So, I follow the path I see other people have taken. Forgetting my own understanding that people are idiots.
I eventually find the trail again, after discovering that what looks like a solid patch of this or that is often the deceptive covering to a three foot drop. I continue, amazed by the massive trees around me, and the lush ferns. My imagination goes wild, and I’m envisioning dinosaurs grazing. I’m picturing indians on the look-out. I’m picturing druids (D&D ones) on the look-out. I’m picturing elves. And yes, damnit, I’m picturing Ewoks. They’re not on the look-out. They’re just being Ewoks.
Yub yub.
I continue walking, climbing here, descending there, scrambling over destroyed redw
ood every fraction of a mile. At one point a particularly large tree has fallen over two separate sections of trail, and this is easily the most difficult passage. Considering the massive jumble of branches, chunks of trunk, and slick mud, I’m really happy I didn’t twist an ankle.As I reach the Miner’s Ridge camp, I encounter my last down tree- lengthwise down the trail to the camp. Either way, I’m glad I can make camp. I check the time. Just after 2.
WHAT! I’m out of shape, went the long way, climbed up, down, and around fallen redwoods, and still managed almost 3 mph! Granted, that's pretty much par for the course, but considering what I was expecting to do, I was quite happy. What irks me is that I could have taken a much longer route, seen more, and still set up in daylight.
This is getting long, so I’ll cut it off here. More later.
WHAT! I’m out of shape, went the long way, climbed up, down, and around fallen redwoods, and still managed almost 3 mph! Granted, that's pretty much par for the course, but considering what I was expecting to do, I was quite happy. What irks me is that I could have taken a much longer route, seen more, and still set up in daylight.
This is getting long, so I’ll cut it off here. More later.
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