The next morning was rather relaxed. We took some time to dry out our wetsuits from the day before.
After finally breaking up the camp we all went down to the Redwood Mountain Grove in Kings Canyon National Park to hike amidst the big trees. We hiked amid giant Sequoias, Cedars, Lodge Pole Pines, and Firs in the forest.
There was evidence in the forest of logging. Several felled trees still lay on the forest floor. These abandoned trees shattered when they fell so the wood was not useful for the long sections favored by loggers.
Along the trail is a "log cabin" that a logger lived in nearly 100 years ago. It is simply a Sequoia log that has been hollowed out which is big enough to be a cabin!
Eventually we made our way to a large grove of Sequoias where we stopped to get a bite to eat and stare up at the giant trees.
After the hike, we all went our separate ways - Gunnar and Raycroft went back to work - Kdunck and Will went off to explore Lilburn cave, the longest in the US. Google Image search the cave, it looks pretty sweet.
After parting ways, Joey and I went to drive through Sequoia National Park. On our drive we noticed the van continued to have trouble on the hilly terrain. More on this later.
We drove through the park and stopped to see General Sherman tree, the largest tree in the world. This tree is not the tallest or the largest in circumference, but is the largest single volume of living wood. It is the most tree you'll see anywhere, and it gets bigger by about a whole other tree every year. The tree is over 100 ft in circumference and nearly 270 feet tall - so even a few millimeters of growth is substantial.
That evening we drove down the 198 back to civilization. Again, the van showed some symptoms that needed to be addressed. The van is not stocked with a tachometer, but it seemed that the van was not shifting to higher gears on the freeway. It also was not coasting freely. We are aware the transmission does slip in very hot weather, the friction discs in the transmission must be worn. We were worried that the transmission was in need of some TLC, so we decided not to drive on to Fresno that evening and stopped in Vaisalia.
We ate some delicious pizza at Howie and Son's Pizza Parlor - the neon sign made it more delicious! And stayed at a Fairfield Inn for the night and some much needed rest and showers.
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