Nasty Austrian🇦🇹 Conquers da 🇺🇸 & 🇨🇦

[TVB]

Amusingly beutiful, hope it stays that way.
I read about fire warnings in California again a while back and seems that is an ongoing threat to these amazing forests

 

[big oil]

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Additional footage of the Giant Forest at Sequoia National Park in California.


[youtube]https://youtu.be/3nVZJdw2USQ[/youtube]

 

[big oil]

Amusingly beutiful, hope it stays that way.
I read about fire warnings in California again a while back and seems that is an ongoing threat to these amazing forests

Almost everyone would think that, but it takes fire for the Giant Sequoia trees to thrive.


Giant sequoias are the largest trees on Earth.

They can grow for more than 3,000 years.

But without fire, they cannot reproduce.

The giant sequoias really are born of fire.

A fire gives them 3 things they need for regeneration.

The first one is, it punches a hole in the forest - that allows there to be more light and more water for the sequoia seedlings.

The second thing it does is it heats the cones up in the mature sequoia trees, without harming the trees and those cones open and there's a rain of seeds on the ground.

And, the final thing it's done is it's cleared away all the leaves that have built up.

Because sequoia seeds need to hit bare mineral soil before they can germinate, and survive well.

Then the winter storms come and bury them in a blanket of snow.

And then when the spring comes they have the ideal conditions... its warmer... it's really wet and those seeds will take off and become seedlings.

From their birth among the ashes, these seedlings have become the groves we see today, with trees nearly 300 feet tall.

Over 3,000 years - think of what a giant sequoia has seen.

How many times did Native Americans sit at the base, have lunch, look up and marvel at the crown of a sequoia.

And now were doing it again today - it's humans just living their lives under these trees for millennia.

 

[big oil]

After I was done riding at Sequoia National Park, I headed west towards Fresno, California, which, unfortunately, is one of the toilet bowl cities of the state. 

Next up, I ride through another amazing place on this rock, Yosemite National Park, also in California.  When I rode through, wildfire had already affected parts of Yosemite.  It was such a strange feeling to be riding with the ground and trees still smoldering adjacent to the route.

 

[Tony the Boney]

Gotto get to Yosemite one day

 

[big oil]

Gotto get to Yosemite one day

:thumleft: You will not be disappointed, especially if you love rock climbing and hiking.

 

[Roulof]

Waiting patiently for BO to continue this one :ricky:

 

[big oil]

Waiting patiently for BO to continue this one :ricky:

Thank you for following along and your patience.  :thumleft:

 

[big oil]

Entry 35 - Yosemite National Park
Star date - 29 August 2018
Distance:  270 miles
Day of Trip:  104

 

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My riding day started out beautiful, the weather was fabulous, sun filled skies, not a blazing inferno.  I felt like I was on cloud nine leaving Fresno, perhaps because I never felt comfortable there.  The ride up to Yosemite National Park and Yosemite Valley from Fresno, was mostly a straight shot, until I got into the mountains, then it was nirvana again, just as the previous day was riding in Sequoia National Park.

 

[big oil]

Once I arrived in the upper elevation of the park, I began smelling smoke.  As I stated previously, 2018 was a horrible year for wildfire in California.  An alarming percentage of Northern California was on fire.  I began smelling smoke as far south as Big Bear, in the mountains north of Los Angeles, but once I arrived in Yosemite, the smell of smoke was the most intense yet.

 

[big oil]

A few miles further, I could see why the smoke was so intense.  These areas in the following pics are enormous acreage, as far as the eye could see.  There were trees still burning, the ground smoldering.  I was told that these forests will continue to burn for weeks until a long steady rain finally extinguishes the forest.  It was an eerie feeling riding through this area.

 

[big oil]

The problem isn't the burned forest, it will regrow in a few years, it's the mudslides that will occur that is the most devastating.

 

[big oil]

As I rode further into Yosemite, the scenery became jaw dropping beautiful.

 

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