Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Hot in California

First, a little catching up. We managed to get the truck fixed the next day and got back on the road. I’ve been absent from this blog because our next stop didn’t include wi fi, and my cell phone couldn’t make a data connection. After the truck repair we visited my cousin Barbara at an equestrian center owned by her daughter. Great place, they even have a few RV spots, so we hooked up there and had a great visit. The horse ranch is in the bustling metropolis of Copperopolis, CA in Calaveras County. This is in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It’s very close to where Mark Twain wrote the story about the jumping frog contest.

By the way, on the way to Copperopolis we passed by Shasta Lake. I didn’t take any pictures, but if there was ever any doubt about the seriousness of the California drought, one look at the lake removed any question. The lake is now a puddle.

We’ve had 100 degree temperature every day for about a week. When we arrived at our current campground it was so hot that some of the electrical equipment in our trailer overheated and shut down. The air conditioner struggled so much that I thought it was fried, but overnight it was able to cool things down. The local TV weather dudes say tomorrow will be cooler – 98 degrees. Seriously!

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Today we toured Sequoia National Park and at 7,000 feet of elevation the temperature was about 30 degrees cooler than down at the campground. This is the home of the giant Sequoia trees and some very rugged mountains. In 2009, on our first west coast trip, we visited Redwood National Park which is located on the northern California coast. Since then I’ve wondered about the difference between Redwoods and Sequoias. Turns out that Redwoods are taller, but Sequoias are bigger in terms of cubic feet.

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This tree is the General Sherman and is believed to be the biggest tree on earth. You can get a sense of scale if you can see the guy sitting on the fence next to the tree. This tree is 2200 years old.

To get to General Sherman we walked down a steep 1/2 mile trail. Unfortunately we also had to walk back up the trail to return to our truck. The trail is at the 7000 foot mark, so it was a bit harder going up than it was going down. Please don’t mention this to my cardiologist.

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