Day 27-28 (6/22-6/23): Miles traveled: ~ 305

Location: more Kings Canyon, some roadside stops, ending at Guerneville, CA

Science: air quality measurements in General Grant Tree viewing parking lot of Kings Canyon, a roadside stop (or 2?),  and from the deck of a coastal forest-nestled cabin in Guerneville. CA

As promised, I returned to the biggest trees (General Grant Tree being the biggest) before heading out to Northern California Russian River area to meet up with my friend Mai-Stella. I set up my air quality equipment in the parking lot to get a sense of how our cars might be influencing the air quality near these giants. 

After setting the air quality sensor up, and answering a few by-stander questions like "Is that for satellite tv?" and "Do you have internet with that thing?  Feel like sharing the password?" I hiked back into the woods to do a more leisurely and intentional survey of the Sequoia and their surroundings. Here are some of my attempts to capture the majesty and calm of this forest. They do no justice whatsoever to the reality -- you have to experience this for yourself -- the feel of the rough cinnamon sequoia bark filling your outstretched palm with warmth and power defies description. 

When I finally read this plaque (it was posted at the start of the hike, but I blew by it in my impatience to get to the main attractions the first time) I felt a new sense of importance in the air quality observations I was making back in the parking lot.......

And here are a few more pics from my visit with the sequoia -- 

I had to wrench myself away from Kings Canyon after a couple hours of gawking and appreciating and enjoying and learning all I could from the ancient lifeforms there. I felt a sense of anxiety when I pulled out of the parking lot -- would these trees be around for much longer? Would air pollution finally end them? Would my children and their children get to experience what I just had? 

This spiral ended abruptly when I discovered that the only way to leave Kings Canyon was to GO BACK THE WAY I CAME. Believe me -- I tried everything, including ASKING A RANGER (I never do this sort of thing) if there was any other way to go that was less "twisty-turny" (my very own words) than the way I had come in. But alas, no dice -- "There is another way, down the General's Highway," she mused, looking at my sweaty face, "but it is even more twisty-turny than the way in...."

I was doomed to re-live yesterday's terror.

No problem -- I thought maybe it might help to just go and confront the heights, face to face, so to speak, and then the drive might be easier?  So I found a nice spot off the side of the road and just observed how I felt and how amazing the views were.......

Maybe it wasn't going to be so bad on the way down.........?

It helped a little. But not much.

The rest of the trip I started noticing more references to water and farming (of course I had seen a ton the day before in Bakersfield area but just didn't grab imagery). One super interesting sign on an abandoned barn asked "If water is so precious why do we waste billions of gallons every year by letting it just go into the ocean?" I mean, barring the whole water cycle thing, that seemed like a great question........?

 Later I realized something else. Much of that water that isn't wasted by going to the ocean is actually regularly shipped across the United States to Kingston Hannaford in the form of food -- my jaw dropped when I sped past the actual Halo tangerine farm in CA.........Halo tangerines probably provide half my kid's bodily fluids and nutrients every summer. After seeing this, my snarky response to the "wasting water to the ocean" question felt a bit sour -- this question possibly makes just as much sense as shipping precious water in fruit grown in a CA desert to the Hudson Valley where water is in excess. Food, quite literally, for thought.

Here are some shots of the rest area where I grabbed some air quality measurements after getting out of Kings Canyon -- 

Next and last stop was meeting up with Mai-Stella at a sweet little cabin in the Russian River watershed in Guerneville, CA. These were familiar stomping grounds from mine and Mai-Stella's younger days, when we lived in Oakland and worked together at Project Underground (defunct NGO that supported indigenous communities around the world fighting for their right to a clean environment in the face of oil extraction and mining devastation). Anyone who has been to Guerneville at all can tell you that the roads there are steep and narrow. Houses are nestled in creative ways on steep hills that require good tire traction, deep breathing, and a bit of dumb luck when it comes to driving or parking or backing up in any form. And that's for cars that don't have trailers. 

I of course got lost the first time I tried to find the spot and spent a sweaty 20 minutes trying to turn me and the trailer around on a very narrow road. I won't lie here -- I did drive maybe a tiny bit into someone's yard and may have knocked over some trashbins that somehow snuck up on my right side......but thankfully everyone was either out on the river or inside eating dinner, meaning no one had to witness my cursing and maniacal laughing and some possible whining as I puzzled my way back out onto the main road.

When I did find the spot, it was up a steep rock road and it was clear there was no avoiding having to then back my way all the way out when I finally left. I had two days before that nightmare, though, so I quickly put this out of my mind, which was easy to do since hanging out with my good friend Mai-Stella was wonderful (as always). 

I was supposed to have slept in the trailer (the airbnb was tiny), but there ended up being a comfy couch.....! The food was incredible of course, with the help of Mai-Stella's partner D who had lovingly marinated and otherwise prepared for us one of the best steaks I have ever had (take that Texas!....:)....). The cabin had a truly eclectic movie selection so Mai-Stella and I did all of our favorite things together -- ate good food, watched silly movies, and talked about work and life.

We were intrigued by one of the movies there -- an old (2002!) Gus Van Sant flick called Gerry, with Casey Affleck and Matt Damon. It was about two friends getting lost in the same desert I had just left days before. There was practically no dialogue and required no pauses for bathroom breaks or cooking dinner, or, well, anything because you kind of wouldn't miss anything but more gorgeous desert footage and two bedraggled friends walking and walking and walking. And because they were men???? they. just. didn't. really. talk. I will confess -- we didn't make it to the end. But Mai-Stella called me days later to tell me she had fast forwarded to find out the ending after I left for the Redwoods. It was not the ending I expected.