[Have used second and third person interchangeably,
happened while writing…and I’m not changing it. The reason is not laziness,
just the way I want to keep it]
The smallest details will escape over time and yet they are
the ones which matter, at least to me. Hence this memory demands to be poured
into this pensieve of mine to be
retrieved later. Below is an account of my trip to Sequoia and Kings Canyon
National Park over the Memorial Day weekend of 2016. And it’s going to be a
long, long post.
I had taken a leave for Friday and had planned to start
latest by 1 pm, but of course when has anything gone according to the plan. I
hadn’t reserved a camping site for us. I had checked the wrong website which
said that July 4th weekend was busy and for late spring they had
campsites on fcfs basis. By the time we realized and called up all were booked.
Abhijeet was working from home and he was stuck in some urgent issue. He was
still working, it was already 2 pm and I offered to go and get the gas filled.
I returned and then he told me maybe we should travel tomorrow morning. I took
a deep breath and said okay but I guess my eyes betrayed or the facial
expressions did and he saw it and he said, “No, we are going”. He wrapped it up
in another 15 minutes and we started around 3 pm. I was driving the first
stretch, and after getting stuck in LA traffic we managed to get out of the
city. I don’t remember the songs; this is what happens when you postpone writing
down.
The terrain was different than what either of us had come
across, like it had contrasting features with the ocean and mountains making
way for valleys and plains. And it was continuously changing, like driving the
country roads in Midwest had a different feel and this was something altogether
different, as if this was wider, bigger and right now I’m really wishing I
could articulate it better. I do remember getting onto Highway 180 and there
was this stretch of roads flanked on both sides by Orange trees. It was a
sight, and I remember thinking that despite there being drought since last 3
years, Southern California was still a very fertile place. That’s almost the
first thing that struck me when I moved here from Milwaukee. I have come across
myriad varieties of flora and fauna, like I’ve seen hummingbirds and pelicans
and those cute little prairie dogs. We switched places after a while and then
Abhijeet drove, it was still sunny when we entered Three Rivers. Right now I am
searching for synonyms of beautiful; and since I can’t come up with anything
better let’s go with picturesque for
now. We didn’t stop, we wanted to but we were getting late and so we decided we’ll
stop while returning. Thinking of it now, we never returned back that way.
Abhijeet was remembering the hotels and inns nearby, lest we weren’t able to
get a campsite. I was adamant and I said that there’s no way I’m staying
indoors and I remember him telling me, “jyada
attitude mat dikhao, nahi milega toh kya karenge”. I gave him the silent
treatment for a while and then he’d have said something funny or the
surroundings were so pretty that it rendered one impossible to hold a grudge.
Camping:
We stopped by the foothills near the trailhead of Sequoia
National Park and I bought an Annual Pass. On enquiring with the ranger she
said that every campground in the foothills area were full. We were a little disheartened
on hearing this as the light was diminishing. We stopped near the Foothills visitor
Centre but it was closed, so we continued straight ahead. Just a little farther
down the road was the Potwisha campground; it had a sign outside saying FULL, I
guess we thought we’ll just take a look around or maybe ask someone which is
why we entered and drove. We took a round, there were a lot of people and most
of the campsites were full. We were going to exit but then we stopped to look
at the fliers or notices. And then it caught our attention, that the sites with
a green card on them were available to camp only for one night. So, I guess we
were just lucky. We found one site and we paid the daily rate and parked our
car. It was a good site too, as the restrooms were close and we weren’t exactly
adjacent to other sites so it offered us a sense of privacy.
Abhijeet wanted to set the tent up before it got dark,
so we started working on that. I had bought a Meramac 4 person tent last month
and this was our first time trying it out. After stumbling a little, with the
connecter of one of the poles breaking, we managed to put it up. There were
bugs and we were both sort of tired too I guess. After setting up tent, the
next job was making a fire. We hadn’t bought firewood along because a lot of
National Parks do not allow firewood from outside for fear of infestation. It
was dark by now, and along with a flashlight we started out to search for dry
wood. We met a ranger who was giving a talk on bears and enquired a bit on
firewood. She said what we already knew that we just have to use what’s in here
for burning. By now I know that we need three things to start a campfire-
tinder, kindling and fuelwood. Tinder was already taken care of, we had
Vaseline and cotton and lighter etc. which would do. We collected twigs, short
sticks and dry leaves which would serve as kindling, finding fuel wood now
proved to be a challenge. Also, it’d have been much easier if there was light.
We found a dead fallen tree but we didn’t have an axe or anything to cut the
branches. And we tried, using a pointed stone as a lever, trying to put
pressure hoping we could break some part of it, but to no avail. We gave up,
collected as much kindle as we could gather and left. I had bruises on my
palms, and we were both exhausted.
This is what was going inside my head, as to how much
he would have liked someplace a little more comfortable, or some girl who
didn’t drag him into searching for firewood in the forest. We have similarities
and differences and sometimes I wonder if I’m not a little too coarse or
uncouth (can’t find a better word, apposite phrase that comes to my mind right
now would be “junglee”) for his
taste. There was another dead tree just near our site which we had considered
as too heavy even for both of us and looked impossible without chopping it off.
As a last attempt we managed to drag this particular one till the fire ring. It
was more like a long piece of log 6-7 feet in length and a and 8-10 inches in
diameter, it had one thick branch protruding outside and another small one on
the other side. We did make a fire, after struggling for a while we realized
that paper towel was an excellent piece of kindling. We had a good fire in a
short while and then we sat down to drink our warm Tecate, we didn’t cook anything that night; we ate chips and cherries
and some leftover cake from road. And since it
was bothering me (go back to how this paragraph started), I asked him if he was
a little taller would he still have gone for me or something like that. Then I
also asked him to give an honest answer. And he said, if I was taller I don’t
think I’d have been single. He also said that then he got to know me and fell
in love with me so it doesn’t matter. I didn’t prod him, but I know I hadn’t
let it go then. There were fewer stars and we talked about our earlier camping
trips, memories to be relived. I think we took a short tour of the campground
before retiring into the tent. We put out the fire as best as we could and went
inside. It was an almost perfect setting: the stars above, the sound of gushing
river and the one person I wanted with me; thinking back now I wouldn’t trade
this setting for anything more or less. You would say, “We have been blessed by
the stars”, the context and remark muted out.
(I pinged Abhijeet on Gmail to ask him the dimensions
of the log and his version if he ever narrates this to his grandkids: “6-9 inches, Rough edges, Crawling with
insects, We painfully removed each insect to save their life, Before we set
fire, With our bare hands, Using Rocks” and when I reminded him that he
almost killed a spider he said “It was
suicidal, I just wanted to help”. And I’m putting this down because when I
read this post at 60, I’ll remember and it’ll give me yet another reason to
smile.)
I woke up in the middle of the night to the roaring
fire which had again started, the embers fuelled by the wind. And then I woke
him up and he got up, put out the fire and it was then in the middle of the
night that I realized that it doesn’t matter, that I loved him and not just
because I knew that I could always wake him up in the middle of night and he
wouldn’t complain. I just couldn’t hold anything against him at that moment.
And, so I woke up to a happy morning, would laze around in that deflated air
mattress (because we didn’t have the right set of batteries for the inflator
pump to work) for an extra half hour before getting up. The site was one of the
fcfs site and had to be renewed every day. And we decided we’ll come back to
the same site, so we paid for another day, left the tent as it was and started
for the day’s adventure.
Sequoia
National Park:
Abhijeet drove the way up on CA 198, the ascent from
the Kaweah River canyon to the Giant Forest area of Sequoia National Park; this
portion of CA 198 is known as Generals Highway and it snakes its way through
hairpin bends and steep grades till an elevation of 3700 feet. We stopped
midway at the viewpoint for the first glimpse of the High Sierras and then
continued ahead. It was a beautiful day and the road was flanked with rows of
trees of different heights and with reddish brown trunks that looked stunning
against the backdrop of the clear blue sky. There was no network so we couldn’t
play songs on Saavn app and I was mumbling some song and he told me the perfect
song for this setting would have been “chala
jaata hoon” and then we started humming that. We saw the first huge trees
here along our way. The speed limit on those winding roads was 20 and it took
us some time before we reached the Giant forest area. We explored the Big Trees
Trail which had the concentration of massive Sequoias, including the General
Sherman, which is the oldest living tree. The forest had trails with dozens of
sequoias and other scenic features like meadows, streams and fallen logs. We
passed by a family where one was in a wheelchair and it was kind of reassuring to
see them as a whole group enjoying the trail. There was another old couple and
the lady asked us if we wanted a picture together. And then she told us that
her father who had passed away was a photographer and this was her small way of
paying her respects to him. And these are those random nameless acts of
kindness that keeps you going, makes you smile in acknowledgement. There were a
lot of people that day; it was a holiday weekend after all. I remember this
Asian father who was carrying his child on his shoulders, it was almost like a
chair and I’m sure that kid had the best time there. There were other cranky
children, with parents coaxing them on their way up. And so on.
Our next stop was to be Moro Rock and Crescent Meadow.
The Ranger outside Giant Forest advised us to leave our car parked there and
take one of the free shuttles. So, we took the bus which stopped first at the
Visitor Centre and then took us to Moro Rock. It was overcast already and by
the time we reached Moro Rock, it had started raining a little. Moro Rock is a
granite dome rock formation and there are some 400 odd steps to reach the top.
It was one of those rewarding hikes, any side you turn on your way up while
stopping for a breath and you see images that will stay with you. The rain
added an additional element of precariousness to the hike, with Abhijeet
reminding me every now and then to tread carefully. It would stop by the time
we reached the top and the vista above was something to behold. The snow-capped
Sierras far ahead, canyons carved by the Kaweah River on one side, the long
stretch of General Highway that one can see extending far into the Valley. It
always feels unbelievable that I find myself here, that this part of my life is
like from a book or movie where all the interesting things happen. And I offer
a silent prayer for I realize that I’m blessed to see Nature in its best
attires, and this time here is all the more precious because I had him with me.
I don’t know how else to put it. We walked down and took the next bus to
Crescent meadow. We passed by the Tunnel Log and the driver asked if anybody
wanted to get down and I shouted yes. It was a tree carved into a tunnel which
let vehicles pass, more like a photo-shoot area. And of course I had to get
down. We took a few pictures, climbed across the fallen tree, had fun I’d say
and then took the next bus to Crescent Meadow. There wasn’t much, there was a
meadow which looked pretty from a certain angle. We had some time to kill, so
we started on one of the trails. It went into a forest with all sorts of huge
trees, more sequoias, redwoods and others I can’t name. And there weren’t a lot
of people, it was just the two of us, and so we walked holding hands, not talking
too much, just taking it all in. And this part of walk was one of my favorites;
there was a sense of calm and contentment, just walking through it. We saw a
deer and some birds. We saw trees with their roots splayed, trees burnt by
lightning or wildfires in strange ways, the stump of some tree hollowed by
fire, black streaks on red trunks, moss covered trees, weird fungi here and
there. I’ll remember the sunlight passing in through the trees, and the
silence, and the company, like everything was in harmony during that walk.
We were exhausted after the Crescent Meadow loop, we
went back to the Giant Forest parking to pick our car up and we decided we’d go
to the nearby Lodgepole village to find something to eat. It had started
raining again, and while we were driving a deer crossed right across the road,
thankfully we were going slowly but it was frightening and it’s one of the
things you remember. We stopped at the Lodgepole Visitors Centre, and it had
public showers and food and everything. So, we had a very late lunch and then a
much needed shower. I remember that you had to wait for some time before I came
out of the shower and you were irritated.
And then I told you there was a line and maybe (?) you realized that you got
angry over nothing. Anyways, we bought firewood (we were too tired to scramble
for fuel). And we bought one of those Swiss knife types which you’d name “bear
repellant”. And refreshed after the shower we’d take the long drive back to the
foothills to Potwisha. There was still light when we reached the campground, we
took a stroll which was a nice idea since we got a chance to walk along the
stream. And then we huddled back near the fire, roasted corn and drank beer,
talked some and then lay to rest what had been an eventful day.
We started the day packing everything up, putting it
back in my car. The front doors of my car were open and a squirrel got in, and
I missed it. This had to be noted down, I can still imagine it so perfectly
that I’m not sure I should put it as ‘missed’. We were back on the road soon
after. And for this part I can say that the journey surpassed the destination.
We drove past Sequoia and Giant Forest to arrive at Grant Grove village where
we filled gas. Our first stop of the day was the Panoramic Point, a short drive
and a shorter hike to the viewpoint which was so aptly named. The whole vista
was stunning: before us stretched the snowy peaks of Sierra Nevada Range, Hume Lake
cradled in between the valleys amidst all those trees along ridges. The trips
best pictures are undoubtedly from this point, but it was more than just
pictures. It was a sight to behold, as if one is transported onto some plane,
that the same earth we inhabit with it’s never ending pollution and cacophony of
vehicles could be so pristine. One has to see it and be there to believe it.
After lingering a while we started towards our destination
which was Cedar Grove. I was still driving this part and our next stop on the
route was Hume Lake, we had just passed it and then we returned. It was a
meandering road down till the lake, and full of tourists. The Hume Lake
Christian Camp was just by the lake. There wasn’t anything unique about this
place, we had our lunch here. Maybe it was the crowd which was irritating;
otherwise the lake in itself would have been a nice place to spend some more
time. The Kings Canyon Scenic Byway or Highway 180 begins near Hume Lake Ranger
Station. I have had some experience with Road trips by now but this one was
surely one of the best, especially with respect to the spectacular surroundings.
It was a 50-60 mile descent into the canyons, and the first thing that hits you
is the grandeur of the walls of this canyon. We switched seats and I was free
to awe at those huge granite walls which appeared to close in on us. It was a
difficult drive; one had to tread really carefully but the views more than made
up for it. It was a strange sight to behold with burnt trees spaced out and
spread across stretches. As if Nature has once again let it’s imagination run
wild in painting this part. And I was just taking it all, drawing his attention
to some wall here and some tree there.
The drive just kept
getting better as we progressed. Soon enough we came to the stretch of roads
with the roaring Kings River to our side and this was one of my favorite
stretches. I lowered down the windows so that I could listen to the sound of
gushing water. It was the late spring snowmelt which fed these and it was an
appealing sight. We envied the backcountry campers by the roadside along the
river who had put up tents. This part also reminded me of the Aut-Mandi valley
road, the one past Beas River in Himachal in India. Just that now as opposed to
then I was in a much happier state of mind, partly owing to the company. We
reached Cedar Grove village and enquired at the Ranger station for things to
check. From the Ranger station we went to Roaring River Falls. I can say this
there is something about plush waterfalls that triggers the happiness button
inside me. We walked amidst shady trees to reach to the mouth of the falls. It
was gushing with full force and I almost wanted to wet my feet in it, but the
force was too much and of course Abhijeet wouldn’t let me, he wouldn’t even let
me get near it. I still managed to coax him into climbing onto nearby rocks to
take pictures, to just sit for a while. Maybe it’s the energy that the water
exudes, there’s an undeniable allure in it. I wouldn’t say I had my fill here,
so he had to drag a reluctant me to our next stop. We were getting late. There
were a few Indians at this place and there were kids, and he would stop me
citing PDA in front of kids as a concern and I lectured him on how there’s
nothing wrong if kids are audience to harmless displays of affection, rather it
fosters love. To which he would give the irrational argument of would I then
concede to a quickie behind the tree, like who cares about the kids or other
people watching. Ike I said ‘irrational’ argument. But I guess it’s these
playful banters which keeps me cheerful.
We finally reached Zumwalt Meadows which was our final
destination. The loop path started at the parking area and took us over a
suspension bridge opening into a dirt trail. There were a number of sandy spots
and pebble beach by the riverside where we could see families with kids wading
in. We walked alongside the river and entered a patch of meadow area with tall
grasses. The light was almost perfect, there was a wooden platform across which
allowed unimpeded views with the river and meadow in the foreground and the rim
of Kings Canyon high up.
The trail then passed through woods and we didn’t see any animals
but we saw some Robins and black birds. He didn’t take a picture of them,
saying they are like “preema and abhijeet of the bird world” and I retorted to
what was wrong with preema and abhijeet because I happen to like them. There
was a fork half way and a path lead to Road’s end and we took that trail. It
was longer through stretches of grassy meadows, pine trees and short boulders. We
were walking through the pine trees alongside the river when we spotted the
Blue Jay, and the bird wasn’t at all frightened. Abhijeet was clicking as she
hopped from one branch to another and then to our surprise she came down, like
almost posing for pictures. She danced around and we took shots. He would later
make a remark “if only it was a little more beautiful”, and that was it. I
didn’t give him a break after that, like how he wasn’t contented even after she
came down and posed for her. I almost
equated the bird with myself and I’d pull his leg all along the way, it was fun
one could say.
The trail was interesting, to one side we had the Grand
Sentinel which justifies the name and we could see views of the North Dome. We
saw a rock formation which we almost mistook as a bear; it was shaped in such a
way. We crossed another river on our way and we finally reached Road’s End. It
was a trailhead and as the name suggests it designated the eastern terminus of
Highway 180. The only way to explore any further than this was by foot. Anyways
this was our last stop. We were almost tired when we realized that there was
only one way back to Zumwalt Meadows parking lot where we had parked, that the
trail hadn’t looped us back into our starting point. It was almost a 2 mile
hike back. We contemplated for a while if we should ask someone to drop us
there because a lot of smart people had driven till here unlike us. But when it
comes to asking people I guess we are both shy and uncomfortable so we just
swallowed our lot and traced the path back. It was end of a long day and we had
a long drive back to LA. It was okay though I guess, like we don’t complain
that much and in a way it’s not fair. In retrospect, I should say what’s
another mile or two when you have just witnessed Nature at such sheer
magnificence?
Abhijeet would drive us back till we crossed and left Sequoia
and Highway 180 behind us, we wanted to stop at an overlook and I remember my
car skid when he braked. It was frightening, even though there wasn’t anyone on
the road, we could easily have hit a tree or the wall of roadside. He thought
it was a lucky save, and it dampened his spirits a little. And so I drove us
back after that, he had anyways covered the difficult terrains. Soon we got
into the freeway as the last light of sun was leaving us. Nothing noteworthy
across this stretch, it was returning home, you’d call your father to wish him
a birthday and it made you happy that your mother and brother had planned it.
Small things to jot down.
As I was writing this down, I think I want to go back to
Kings Canyon and explore it more. Go beyond Road’s End to Paradise Valley and
the Bubba Falls, camp beside the river. Like if feels incomplete, so I am not
sure if I’ll get a chance to go there again. But I know this already that it
will hold a very special place in my heart.
PS: Now I can say I have walked with you till Road’s End and
back *wink*
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