Interesting Stuff

So, for fall break, Jack, Whitney, Elicia, and I went camping in Sequoia National Park! Jack apparently goes camping a lot, and definitely knows how to do it. His van had a panel in the side that folds out to become a table for meals. His back seats fold down into a bed for two. The roof pops up to make room for two more people to sleep. It was pretty neat. He also had a GPS device that plotted our course, and charted new courses when we decided to take a different street due to heavy traffic.

For those of you who don’t know, Sequoia National Park is 5-6 hours north/northeast of Mudd. It’s up in the mountains somewhere in north California. Our campsite had a stump that was easily large enough to pitch a tent on (though we were camping in Jack’s van). And the living trees were huge too! The forest had your usual pines and things, and then every 20 feet or so was a sequoia 5 feet in diameter. Since we were on the mountain, there were also huge boulders to climb on. It was pretty great. We also got to see Sherman Tree, the most voluminous living thing on earth, as well as Grant Tree, the national christmas tree (actual statistic from the info plaque next to the tree: if it were made of gasoline, you could drive your car 350 times around the world with it). We got to drive through a log that crossed the road, and we saw another log that people used to be able to drive on. We also got to walk through a log (the Tennessee Log). Trees used to be named after Civil War generals and states in said war, but this practice has been discontinued. These trees were huge, though! Sherman Tree had a base diameter of over 40 feet! It was amazing.

Super geek points to anyone who gets the title of this update without looking it up. Having said that, it was just beginning to rain at Mudd when we left Saturday morning. We got there, and it was nice and dry, so we collected firewood, had dinner, and sat around the campfire. Jack played some harmonica, which was hilarious because another group of campers (there were maybe 3 groups in the whole campground) sang along to Home On The Range. As I went to bed that evening, it began to rain. I woke up Sunday morning to the rain on the roof. We waited around for a bit, and then went hiking when the rain had subsided into a heavy mist/fog sort of thing. We also decided to spend one more day at this campsite, just in case the next day was drier. Again, I went to bed to the sound of raindrops on the roof of the van. Monday, I wake up to the rain. Again, we eat, but this time we pack up and drive through the park. We see all the different named trees, and I got a poster (it’s a really cute picture of a little boy looking up at a huge tree). All this time, it is raining lightly (or perhaps the trees are just dripping on us; either way, it’s wet). We get to our new campsite, and have dinner. It’s drizzling, so we can barely keep a fire going (we were cooking on a gas stove, so it was ok that the fire had troubles). Again, I go to sleep to the rain on the roof. Tuesday morning, I wake up to Whitney talking excitedly. Overnight, it got cold enough that the rain had turned to snow. Whitney is from San Diego, and hasn’t seen much snow. Elicia is from Colorado, I’m from Minnesota, and Jack has camped in the Rocky Mountains before, so we don’t share her enthusiasm. We cook pancakes in the snow, pack up the car, and head back to Mudd. On the way back, it begins to rain fairly hard. When we get to Mudd, it is still drizzling, and it continued to do that all the way up through this evening (it’s now Wednesday night). I, of course, forgot to bring a raincoat, and didn’t think I’d need gloves, because I didn’t expect snow. Though I was cold and wet the entire time, it was still a pretty great trip. If you ever get a chance to go, go see it! It’s fascinating.

On a side note, it’s hard to type “sequoia” on a Dvorak keyboard. Here’s the layout: The left hand does vowels, punctuation, and uncommon letters like Q. The right hand does common consonants, like S. Thus, typing “sequoia” begins with one keystroke on the right hand, followed by 6 on the left. However, unlike the Qwerty counterparts, I don’t have this problem with more common words like “onion” or “treads.”