Day 12 and 13

Back in the tent :) we are currently in the sequoia national forest and have been since sometime this afternoon. We started out in passedena where we stayed with a friend of alex after driving from Santa Rosa, around nine hours. Unfortunately Alex had some trouble with his eyes and allergies so I ended up doing the whole thing but by now nine hours isn't too bad, especially when it's along the pacific coast highway. I had never seen the pacific before yesterday and I was not let down in my expectations. The pch was a gorgeous cliff drive on windy (long i) roads for hours on end. Vista after vista and it didn't get old. Went to a bar when we got there and then crashed shortly thereafter.

This morning we slept in a bit, and then headed out. I ended up reading a few chapters in my book which I hadn't done yet so that was nice.

We hiked today in two places. One was a loop around a glen, which may have been the greenest thing I have ever seen, and the other was up to a peak that has a 360 view of the area for the sunset. Now both were gorgeous but the ending story still needs a little setup.

On the glen loop we saw 4 bears. Both Alex and I had been hoping for a (singular) sighting, so this was pretty cool. The fifth bear we saw was not quite as cool because it was on the path we were on, the others having been a mild distance away, close enough for some pictures but far enough away not to be too scary. This bear was ripping apart a tree, yes a tree, to get some food and, long story short, ended up running away when it heard us. We made it to the overlook and there was a lovely sunset after some 400 stairs. This is the part where it gets interesting. See, neither Alex or I hoguht about what happens after sunset. In most cases it means it gets dark, as the sun is no longer visible. What this meant for us was that our planned walk back to the car, some 1.7 miles on the road, was now a death march through legit bear country. We whistled and clapped the whole way, hoping to scare away anything large and small, and made it back alive, but rest assured that our lesson has been learned and we will not be caught so unaware next time.

An hour drive put us in our campsite, and the sound of frogs and owls will be my lullaby tonight. Tomorrow will be more hiking through these massive trees, and I'm excited for another forest, this bigger and older than he last.