The Jamoke: Day 6, Part 2. Seqouia.

After a rather trying Day 5, I decided to take it easy on Day 6. Only about thirty miles, one mountain. I headed North to the twin parks of Sequoia and Kings Canyon.

You're all bored with my cycling stories, so I'll let the pictures tell most of the tale.

Beginning the Ascent.

Random shot on the way up.

Switchback... you can see the road cutting into the hillside on the right.

The trees frame the mountain.

Check out the road snaking and cutting through the side of the mountain (about 1/3 of the way up).

It took me about two hours to do the climb. At the top there was a ranger station, explaining how difficult it is for a Sequoia to grow into a mature tree. There was a roulette wheel describing the various perils of each new seed.

Mine was eaten by a rodent.

A mid-sized redwood.

Check out the walkway on the left for some scale of size.

At the top, a ranger stopped me (people stopping to talk with me is pretty routine, provided there are actually people there). He seemed surprised when I told him where I started from... 'This is the first time I've seen someone come up here'.

Well, maybe if you didn't have three feet of snow, more people would visit!

Same mid-size tree, with bike for scale.

The bark is over two feet thick.

Yet another picture of a tree. How many more are you going to look at?

At least one more, methinks. There was a reason I chose this particular mountain - on its slopes rests the largest tree in the world, a Giant Sequoia known colloquially as the 'General Sherman'.

Eh, I've seen bigger.

General Sherman, from across a meadow.

Usually I hate to have people in my pictures; it's a pet peeve. Here, though, they provide a great sense of scale. See the woman in the red jacket? She's about halfway across the meadow, headed towards the tree.

What's that white thing on her head?