Sierra Nevada

I finally got the chance to visit the much touted Sierra Nevada range in Central California. The enormity of the range and the paucity of time meant that I would visit only a small portion of this huge range, but the glimpse of this range was neverthless spectacular. We visited the Sequioa National Park in Central california which is home to the largest trees in the world.

This was also the first time I got to drive along the Central valley california on CA-99. The Central valley for most part resembles Kansas, as it has green fields lining both the sides of the freeway, and visibility stretching to horizon. However, the perennial fog sometimes blocks the view of the spectacular mountains to the east. The drive into the park is a treacherous one, as you climb an elevation of 7,000 ft, at a slow 20 mph. Driving at night is definitely nightmarish, with those hair pin bends and monstrous sequioa trees lining the sides.

The first day was spent camping at Lodgepole by the banks of Kaweah river at an altitude of 6,700 ft. Abundant bear warnings only added to the anxiety, as we resigned to the fate of storing all our food in huge tin bear vaults. The next day we paid visit to the General Sherman Tree, and I was stunned by the fact that a tree of that size still exists in the world. The Congress trail, is a nice 2.5 mile hike through some of these monstrous trees, and easily dwarf the other alpine trees around it.

The most exciting part of the trip however was backpacking into the wilderness. A 7 mile hike, with an elevation gain of 2,700 ft was made less strenuous due to numerous lakes and beautiful vistas en-route. At Heather lake, a small slip later I was drenched in the lake and lack of planning (read adequate change clothes) meant I would hike the remaining 2 miles with wet shorts to the summit. At Pear lake, our night camp, I was surprised to see snow around the lake, and understandably the water was ice cold. Although that didn't discourage us from taking a dip in the water, we had to keep a close eye on marmots, lest they nibble on our clothes and take away the shoes. The hike down was done at a much vigorous pace, but 2 days and 20 miles of walking doesn't augur well with your tendons and ligaments, and I spent much of the monday limping at work.

On a different note, for 2 days we had no cell phone signals or internet connection. Infact, as none of us wore a wrist watch, for one whole day on our backpacking trip, we had no clue of time. We slept when the sun set and rose with the first ray of the sun. The pockets were empty - no wallet, no keys, no cellphone. It was a wonderful feeling !!