Wednesday 15 August 2018

During the night we are suddenly awakened by a loud siren-like noise and flashing lights. It takes a few minutes for us to figure out it is Vincent’s alarm. After much fumbling in the dark we find our flashlights, car keys and shoes and tumble out of the tent. Our car keys will not work from the tent, but O finally manages to turn off the flashing lights. The alarm turned itself off before we got out of the tent. We check Vincent inside and out. No critters inside. No big paw prints (such as bear) outside. We are not sure who or what set off the alarm, so we return to the tent and try to get back to sleep.

Happily, there are no further incidents during the night. We rise at 6:15 and break camp. By the time we are ready to depart, our neighbors are awake. We exchange email addresses, and O and I are soon on the road. We top off Vincent’s fuel tank. While O is fueling, I spy a long tailed weasel on the edge of the parking lot! I’ve never seen one before. We find ourselves some breakfast at Wuksachi Lodge, and proceed to the Giant Forest Museum.

Here, the ranger at the desk helps us identify some of the plants that have been puzzling us. There is large-leaved lupine which we found on the Hart Tree loop. There is Sierra gooseberry, a prickly red berry that is edible, and there is white thorn, the bush near our campsite that the chipmunks were enjoying so much. All of this info is in a book by a local naturalist, with hand-drawn images. We buy the book as well. In the book we discover a plant called mountain misery which is closely related to desert sweet, but has an unpleasant smell. From the drawings we think we recognize our smelly plant from the previous day. In any case it is a much more appropriate name for the wildflower.

O also asks why so many sequoias have fire scars on the uphill side of the trunk. The ranger is impressed with his powers of observation. The answer is that the scars must by caused by something with a long burn time, such as a pine log that rolled down the hillside and was stopped by the tree. It makes sense!

After our museum visit we head back to Hollister. We are very much anticipating warm showers after our days of dusty hiking! After cleaning up we drive to Fisher’s Restaurant where we enjoy a delicious dinner. Before returning to the Hollister Inn we pay a visit to the farmers’ market, recommended to us by one of the inn’s painters who remembered us from our visit two weeks ago. Here we purchase strawberries which are so sweet, they taste as if someone has added sugar.

On returning to the inn I contact Karen, a friend of my cousin Phyllis. We make arrangements to meet in Santa Cruz tomorrow.