Tuolumne Grove of Giant Sequoias

Forty miles.

Gotcha didn’t I? It was actually 37.5. ;)

Gotcha again, right? It wasn’t all hiking. In fact, very little of it was hiking—most was biking. I decided not to go on a long hike during my weekend (no matter what days they are, your two days off are referred to as “your weekend”) this time due to the prolonged recovery of my stupid toes. So instead I was looking for somewhere to bike to out of the valley that would be interesting. I had looked up biking to Crane Flat and it was only roughly 18 miles, so I talked to some of my neighbors about it in the kitchen one day. Peggy—the nice woman who fed me lemon pepper chicken for our potluck and biscuits and gravy, who works up at the Crane Flat gas station, said anyone who biked up that road would be crazy, but she had seen a couple of people do it. That was really all I needed. If they could do it, so could I.

Solid mentality for a fool. (That’s me—the fool.) I left a little before 7:00 and the first couple miles were a piece of cake. Then I turned onto Big Oak Flat Road. Pure death. The entire thing was an incline at a grade that my sucky loaner bike from the wellness center program hated.

Notice anything about this bike? That’s right—there’s no way to shift gears. There’s one gear that you get to go, as determined by the bike. It was absolutely awful. I had to stop by the side of the road on those little pullout things more than once to try to catch my breath. I constantly contemplated turning around. I kept dreaming about how easy it was going to be to come down! I pulled into this little parking area and asked these people in an RV about how many miles they thought it was to Crane Flat. They said it was 10 minutes—3 to 4 miles. In case you didn’t figure it out, that’s ten minutes by car…obviously. It took me another hour and a half to get up there. I stopped and took my granola bar break, drank some water, and rested my poor quads. To be entirely honest, I had to walk my bike up some of the stretches of road. It reminded me of the people in gym who could power walk the mile faster than they could jog it. I could walk my bike up the hill faster than I could ride it…but it hurt my pride. I finally got up to Crane Flat around 10:15, so 3.25 hours later. 2.5 hours of that was after I turned onto Big Oak Flat Road. (Remember this for later.)

I went into the gas station because Peggy wanted me to check in with her so she knew I was alive. That gas station was packed! She had said they stayed really busy, but I didn’t realize like that. The store itself isn’t very big, but it’s the only one for miles and Crane Flat is at an intersection of roads. Anyways, there were people in there who had seen (and passed) me on the way up and they all told me how nuts I was but how impressed they were. Peggy said she was proud of me. :D

I was tired of biking so I walked the half mile to the Tuolumne Grove of Giant Sequoias from Crane Flat. Then I went into nerd-mode and took pictures of all of the signs after reading them so I could look back at what they said later. The first Giant Sequoia that you encounter after entering the grove is Big Red. It’s 24 feet in diameter. As I was walking, I determined that based purely on square footage, 4.5 of my bedrooms could fit inside this tree trunk. Also, it's extremely hard to take a picture of yourself with a giant tree...just saying.

After that, I spent about half an hour at the Tunnel Tree playing photographer for families that wanted their picture taken. Good times, good times.

One of the sequoias fell and somehow while it was lying there became fossilized. The preserved sequoia, “Fallen Tree,” was absolutely massive. It was so overwhelming to stand next to something so giant that fell because they have crappy root systems. I think that’s a metaphor to life. It’s all in the roots—gotta have a strong foundation.

While I was eating lunch, this exhausted family came and sat next to me (because I picked the table in the shade—obviously). From what I picked up, they were from South Korea, had flown into Seattle, and were here for three weeks. That could have just been the daughter though and the parents lived here…I’m not really sure. The thing was, they had two of those dinky water bottles for the three of them and they were almost out. I had packed almost 60 oz. for the day and had only gone through maybe 30. I was also about to head back to get my bike and head down. So it was a pretty easy decision to attempt to ask them if they’d like me to fill up their water bottles. After a little confusion, they graciously accepted my offer, telling me what a kind person I was. If you’ve never tried to pour from a full Nalgene into that little opening—I challenge you to try. Because I didn’t spill a single drop for either bottle. Take that. :) They were so grateful that they insisted they take their picture with me AND send it to me. So the father handed me his phone to enter it in—and the screen’s entirely in Korean haha. After a little confusion, we think we got it so that it would email to me (he turned the screen briefly to English), so we’ll see! Nice people, I liked them.

This isn’t a Giant Sequoia, but it was a sugar pine that the sun was hitting really nicely while I was sitting at lunch.

Alright so fast forward a little bit and now I’ve got my bike from the gas station and I’m about to leave Crane Flat. It’s 12:50. I turn the corner onto Big Oak Flat Road and just start moving—not pedaling—moving without pedaling. This is white knuckle driving ladies and gentlemen! I almost didn’t have to pedal ever on the entire way down! There was one time that I went to let cars pass me on one of those pullouts, but the gravel was too loose and I about skidded away off the mountain—so I salvaged it quickly and decided to try the next one. Including a stop at a scenic overlook, I was back down that road in 27 minutes. TWENTY-SEVEN MINUTES!!! 150 vs 27…holy cow.

I got back to Yosemite Village a little after 2:00, so today was a pretty short day overall. Was it worth it? My gut tells me yes, but boy that first part really sucked! We’ll see how sore my butt and quads are tomorrow. The Giant Sequoia grove WAS really neat though and there only two of Yosemite’s three groves are open this year. The Mariposa Grove is closed for restoration until next year. The Tuolumne Grove had those wooden barricades everywhere trying to keep people on the trails so the rest of it could recover from stupid people over the trampling all the undergrowth. Stupid tourons.

(If you’d like any of the information about the sequoias, don’t hesitate to ask. I just didn’t have time to type it all or to upload each of the sign’s photos.)

I almost forgot to share this—but on Wednesday night we had this youth group visiting at church. They outnumbered us like 6 to 1. ;) Wednesday nights are basically a Bible study set-up, so we’re in Genesis right now discussing Isaac and Rebekah. Pastor Brent told us a story about something he did for his daughter Ashley. He told her that he would put a quarter on the counter every day for a month or until she picked them up. If she didn’t pick them up, at the end she would get a $20 bill. If she picked them up, she didn’t get anymore. Well Ashley managed to wait until the end of the month so she received her $20. He then asked her what lesson she thought this was about. She said she thought it was about saving money. Pastor Brent said, “No, it’s about boys. If you pass up all the quarters, some day you’ll find that twenty dollar bill.” Ashley’s getting married this summer—he thinks she’s found her $20 bill. (When she would bring boys home before, he always said, “Is this a quarter?”) I think it’s hilarious. :D I look around me and see a bunch of like, nickels or something hahaha :) So I’m going to close with that for the day. It’s almost Joshua and Nicole’s wedding anniversary, so congrats to them on finding their $20 bills!