A ride to find the official George HW Bush tree, on the Freeman Creek trail, starting at the RM Pyles Boys Camp and riding to the famous dedication tree. 6,000ft elevation traveling through Giant Sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum) old growth forest and open meadows.
Length: 8.1 miles
Duration: 4 hours
Difficulty: Trails filled with deadfalls, single file, many boggy water crossings and dead-ends and trails requiring re-routing.
Here we are getting ready to set out on our third day of riding, and there's the special private paddock accommodation that my pals at the RM Pyles Boys Camp give Tobe to use during his visits.
And very soon after entering the forest we see the weirdest plant that is such a surprising delight here. Called the snow plant, Sarcodes sanguinea is a truly beautiful wildflower and always a special find. It is bright pink and sticks up out of the ground like a floral hot dog on a stick. It lacks chlorophyll and is nonphotosynthetic, being fed by mycorrhizal fungal mycelia.
Very quickly we slip into the forest, with the hot day baking down in the open areas and the cool shade under the canopy.
I like how erosion and fire have revealed the rock on the bottom left area of this tree's root system, encased in the root ball.
I try to get into the spirit of thinking like a mule as we travel, and when we come up to streams I KNOW he is thinking "salad!" He doesn't usually want to drink, but there is always some tasty riparian plant that he wants to get a good mouthful of.
This is a rather unassuming little cave in the side of a giant redwood tree, one you'd have to have someone point out to you to even notice.
But once you crawl inside and stand up THIS is what you see. The Pyles Camp guys call it the telescope tree. It is an ancient still-living tree that caught on fire maybe hundreds of years ago, and the inside slowly smoldered away. Now it is all a slick black chimney in the inside surface, looking up to a glimpse of sky and branches far above.
But of course my very favorite tree is the one you can ride through ON a mule. The size of this beauty just cannot be comprehended unless you are standing right there craning your neck to see it all.
There we are, Tobe and I, that little garden gnome standing in the tree!
And here's a video of what it feels like to walk through it.
Giant sequoias are slightly shorter than the coastal redwoods, more massive and considered to be the largest tree in the world in terms of volume.
Popping out of the woods for a stretch we got a clear look up at Hermit's Peak. The Pyles counselors tell a scary campfire story about the evil Hermit and his wicked sister Hermitsina.
These tiny flowers were out in profusion in just a few places, a kind of mountain columbine.
The bark on the redwoods is so visually rich, craggy and gnarled next to the lacy delicacy of the branches and the multiple shades of greens in the sun and shadow.
This is Hippie Hollow. The story goes that back in the 1960's a group of counterculture adventurers set up housekeeping in this cave beneath this massive deadfall, and were forcibly evicted several times by the Forest Service. Easy to imagine neanderthals crouching there, or BigFoot !
This is a campsite quite far into the forest, that was recently rebuilt and refreshed by the boys at the Pyles Camp. They hiked out and swept the area clean, stacked firewood, rebuilt the fire ring of stones, and made a beautiful spot where a trash-strewn clearing had been. The virtues of community effort and stewardship of the forest are taught, as well as respect for others.
This blow-down is a great example of how big the root systems of some of these centuries-old trees can be.
Finally !!! The goal of the trip, if there needed to be one: The official George H W Bush tree!
In 1992 President GHW Bush came to this grove and officially dedicated this as his memorial redwood. He also named the RM Pyles Boys Camp one of his "Thousand Points of Light." A designation they wear proudly, and taking a day hike to see this tree is a favorite outing for the boys. In his inaugural address he talked about the "community organizations that are spread like stars throughout the Nation, doing good." And he spoke of "...duty, sacrifice, commitment, and a patriotism that finds its expression in taking part and pitching in."
I tried to stack the three photos there so you can get a sense for how tall that tree is. The use of the words massive, gigantic, huge, all the adjectives eventually run out and anyone with a soul has to just stand in awe of these towering trees, grateful for the chance to experience their grandeur.
Giant Sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum) grow only on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada in California. The groves are scattered over a narrow 260-mile belt no more than about 15 miles wide at any point. They range in elevations mainly between 5,000-7,500 feet. Here we are at 6,000 feet elevation.
Scattered among the trees are boulders that might have been placed by the last ice age to sweep through.
It is one thing to look up until you are dizzy trying to contemplate how tall these trees really are. But when they fall and lay out bleaching and take minutes to walk down, it hits home how out of scale and gargantuan they grow to be. Sequoias can live to be 3,000 years old. Humbling to contemplate.
I looked all during this trip and finally saw it, the mark of bears scratching on a tree. On my visit last summer I saw a juvenile brown bear here on Summer Solstice, but it is rare to actually glimpse them. What you CAN see is the way they mark their territory, reaching up as high as they can and raking the tree so than a drizzle of sap leaks out and down the bark. The next bear will measure his own stretch against that of his potential rival, and if he is clearly smaller he will leave without attempting to contest for this territory.
One wild thing we did see was this mule, that had somehow gotten outside the pack station paddock and was happily grazing along the trail.
A tired and happy and quite domesticated mule carried me back to the camp, another lovely vacation ride coming to a close.
A ride on the Angel's Flight trail, starting at the RM Pyles Boys Camp and riding to a point where we could look down and see the Kern River far below. 6,000ft elevation traveling through redwood old growth forest and open meadows. Length: 7.3 miles Duration: 3 hours Difficulty: Trails filled with deadfalls, single file, many boggy water crossings and dead-ends and trails requiring clever re-routing. Very narrow track with steep drop off and overgrown brush. Altitude gain: 910 ft Grade: IV
All tacked up, and patiently waiting to head out for another adventure in the Golden Trout Wilderness. Tobe loves his summer vacations!
Here's a view of the RM Pyles Boys Camp, built in 1949 and consistently providing a positive formative experience for generations of boys.
Crossing the creek we start up into the wilderness area to the East, on a hot but extremely pleasant day.
Once out of the forest we can see that the controlled burn nearby has erased the mountain vistas.
Fire in the forest is always frightening, and as we travel we can see the smoke and sometimes the smell of it is quite strong, wafting down canyons toward us.
Walking across the open meadows at this time of year is a patchwork quilt of tiny wildflowers, all flourishing after the recent heavy winter rains and snow.
This tree crashed down right across the usual trail, no problem negotiate a new pathway around it.
The open valleys are often still boggy and wet, and bright green with seasonal growth.
At the trail head to the Angel's Flight trail. Very much an old-time tradition, it has a notice board for notes to be left for other hikers and campers, and hazard warnings.
If there really is a KERN FLAT CATHOUSE we didn't find it!
The view into the distance would normally show several layers of mountain ranges, but today they are very much obscured by smoke.
This is an illustration of why I'd always rather be riding a trusty mule. The trail is very narrow, with shale and rocks, and overhanging branches of untrimmed trees and bushes.
And the drop off is a long ways down.
In fact, that tiny tiny point just above Tobe's right ear tip that shows where the two slopes meet is the mighty rushing Kern River, a mile below us. It is a vertigo rush to be up this high, and once we'd seen that view, we sensibly decided to turn around and head back.
Coming back on a trail shows completely different views, and often seems like a whole new place.
The land formations here are stark and beautiful, uncompromising and barely touched by the hand of humans.
This lichen covered rock was a massive wall that looked like sagging elephant skin, filled with bright red and orange and yellow colors.
This tree fell and smashed directly across the path, and no crews have been through to saw a way through it. Lucky that mules are All-Terrain-Animals and we can always find a way around!
Mistletoe growing up in a tree, sacred plant high above.
When the road opens up it is an opportunity to go a bit faster, a pleasure after having had to rely on Tobe picking his way so very carefully on ledges.
And water crossings are a salad bar for the refreshment of the thirsty and hungry equine.
Back into the forest near camp, we did one last loop before returning for lunch.
And found this wonderful dolmen, a structure that calls to mind the sacred spaces in the Celtic lands. The spirit of the forest dwells within.
A ride in the High Sequoias, above Kernville, in the Golden Trout Wilderness. High above the Kern River, at 6,000ft elevation in mixed redwood old growth forest and aspens and pine.
Length: 3.6 miles
Duration: 1.5 hours
Difficulty: Trails filled with deadfalls, single file, tangled undergrowth with steep climbs, many boggy water crossings and dead-ends and trails requiring clever re-routing.
Altitude gain: 250 ft
Grade: III
We begin the ride at the RM Pyles Boys Camp in the High Sequoias, a tremendous place established in 1949. I have been graciously invited to visit for the past several summers, and ride in the surrounding area with the staff.
Two views of the ends of a very large granite outcropping on the camp property.
The forest near the camp is filled with smaller trees, and lots of large boulders dot the landscape.
Once you enter the denser parts of the forest you quickly see the effect of 100 years of fire suppression. The lower limbs of the trees are all dead twigs that snap off with a loud crack as we ride through. There is only enough light available to keep the crowns green.
This tree fell recently, and shows the amount of root system that was supporting it. The spidery branches make a foreboding sight, a skeletal forest from a primordial time.
This is a burl growing on a redwood, quite a strange sight.
Highly prized by craftsmen, burls are cut up to make fancy table tops and furniture.
A corral in the trees contains a group of mules and horses used by a packing station that contracts to take hunters and other tourists into these woods.
Unexpectedly the forest changes into aspens, with an understory of ferns.
Coming up onto a ridge we can clearly see and smell the smoke from a controlled burn not far away. A lightning-strike-caused fire is burning out of control so the Forest Service has set a back-fire to burn up to it and protect the camp. Down in the valley it it not too evident, but when we get up to a view spot the sky is filled with smoke.
Manzanita bushes fill areas with more sunlight, and the ground everywhere is filled with dead dry branches.
This amazingly huge Giant Sequoia Sempervirens, redwood, towers over the landscape, inviting us to enter.
And there we are, that little gnome in the tree waving hello is me on Tobe!
Pretty darn amazing. I remember driving through the General Sherman tree on a family vacation when I was a kid, but somehow riding my mule through a tree is even better.
Many trees wither away from lack of light, and in their slow decline bend over into these spectral shapes.
This last river crossing had an eddy that formed a perfect whirlpool, a pretty sight and a chance for Tobe to have a drink and a bit of creekside salad before heading back to the camp.
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