Month: August 2016

After our original plan to hike in the Cascades was derailed by a forest fire (after we drove all the way up there) we decided to recover from the shock by spending a couple of impromptu nights in the High Sierra.  On the way back to California, we stopped at the Bishop Ranger Station in late afternoon and started inquiring about a wilderness permit.  Our top choice was already gone, but our backup option was available: We got a permit for the Kearsarge Pass Trail out of Onion Valley.  We’d day-hiked the trail back in 2011, but we certainly hadn’t exhausted the exploration possibilities in the area, and we knew that it was exceptionally beautiful.  We were only planning to spend two nights, which was much less than the ten-day trek we had planned for the Cascades, but being in the Sierra would make a big difference mentally, and would put us back on track.

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While on our annual summer vacation we decided to head back to see the Schulman Grove in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest.  This was the location of the world’s oldest tree(s), with one of them being over 5000 years old.  We visited the new visitor center and learned a lot about these amazing trees.  Then we hiked the “Methuselah Walk” trail which took us down to the site where the oldest trees of all were living.  It was humbling to be in the presence of living things one hundred times older than yourself.

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