We had an eventful backpacking trip with the dog this weekend. We got a late start and stopped at a camp three miles from Sykes hot springs and then... the wind started. Ferocious gusts were shaking a forest weakened by fire. From inside the tent in the dark beneath a grove of towering redwoods, we'd hear and feel the wind, then hear branches cracking, then hear and feel redwood trimmings raining on the tent, and sometimes hear a tree crashing to the ground in the distance. Early in the evening a very loud nearby crack got Amy up and shouting my name. I woke up to hear and feel a ground-shaking thud. We rushed out of the tent and saw that a tree about 80 feet high, maybe three feet in diameter, had come down in the adjacent campsite, less than 10 feet from where our neighbors were sitting around the campfire, and not far from either their tent or the tent one more campsite over. Eventually we got back in the tent and listened to more gusts and cracks and branches falling. We decided to then move the tent. The wind finally died down but we still didn't sleep much. In the morning we skipped Sykes and hiked out over fresh downfall blocking the trail, including a couple of massive redwoods. Not an ideal trip, but definitely one to remember!!
ben getting ready to hike
ari loves hiking!
ben cooking dinner
ari relaxing in the tent
baby beef dinner!mountain house is better
breakfast
the tree that came down beside us in the middle of the night...
same tree
one of many downed tree on the hike out
