After spending an exhausting, yet exhilarating four days at the MySQL Users Conference and Expo I managed to get away from it all in the Sierra Nevadas, which span the California and Nevada borders.
The name Sierra Nevada means Snowy Range, and even in what is a rather warm year and in spring, it certainly lives up to its name. A number of the passes through the range were still closed due to snow, including Tioga Pass. Our first stop was the picturesque Yosemite National Park.
Coming from Australia where there are no predators (apart from humans) larger than the dingo, the concept of bobcats, mountain lions and bears was a little unsettling. Luckily (or not, depending on your viewpoint), I didn't meet any of the native species of that size. However the views were spectacular. The Yosemite park is littered with waterfalls, and if the number of climbers is anything to go by, is a climber's paradise.
We decided to camp in the Stanislaus National Forest in one of the many National Forest Service camp grounds. I was really amazed at how well these camp grounds were set up and how many of them there were. Even the supposedly unserviced grounds had excellent toilet facilities and tables and fire pits complete with grills. The serviced grounds, which have both rubbish collection and recycling facilities, charge a fee for camping, but the unserviced grounds are free.
Being early in the season we had the camp ground to ourselves, and the solitude added to the overall feeling of connection with nature.
In the morning we drove the short distance to a trail head (don't ask me which one, I'm not from around here), and we trekked from about 5000' to around 8,500' altitude through pine, cedar, fir and juniper forest. We stopped for lunch on a rocky outcrop that overlooked a number of mountains of around 10,000' (3,000m) height. Even though snow was on the ground the temperature was in the mid 20s (C, around mid 70s F), making it a pleasant walk.
The high meadows really caught my eye. These were surrounded by juniper trees and covered with sage, pleasing both eye and nose. I really wanted to grab some of the juniper berries that had dropped to the ground and some of the sage leaves to use for cooking, but since I wasn't in charge of the food, I wasn't sure what I could combine them with. Nevertheless, my mouth was watering at the plethora of culinary prospects available.
After our six hour hike we returned to the camp ground for a second night. Being this high the nights were chilly, but not unbearably so. The following morning I took the time to face the sun and simply enjoy the feeling of it on my skin and take in the scent of pine and listen to the bird life.
I'm not sure if it was simply too early in the year, or if it was because of the nature of the conifer forest, but I was taken by the lack of noise in the forest. In Australia I am used to a noisy forest, with the screech of parrots, the calling of kookaburra and the insects so loud that your eardrums are assaulted. In the undergrowth you expect wallaby or kangaroo to crash though occasionally and any sunny spot will almost certainly have a lizard of some sort sunning themselves. In Stanislaus it was almost totally silent, with the wind being the main source of sound. Yes there were birds, and some of them had interesting and very pretty calls, but overall the noise level was way down on what I was used to. The toilets were free of insects, and I can't recall seeing even a spider's web.
On Sunday we drove through to Nevada, coming close to Carson City, and on to Lake Tahoe before returning to California and finding a camp site near the Big Bear Reservoir, after passing a number of lakes that were still at least partly iced over. Silver Lake was certainly well named as the ice glowed in the sunlight with a silvery sheen. As night fell the bright moonlight caught the mist rising from the nearby lake, giving an almost mystical appearance to the forest. Something I will remember for a long time.
Monday I had to fly back to Australia, so we drove back to San Francisco via a few historic towns, including Angels Camp, which boasts the world frog jumping championships, and Murphys where we had lunch. We also visited the Stevenot Winery and I bought a few bottles of their Red Rover branded wines. I'm kicking myself now as I bought Merlot and Cab Sav, both of which pretty common varieties in Australia, and didn't buy Zinfandel and some of the other Spanish varieties that are virtually unknown at home. Maybe next time.
I have to thank my friend and guide, Eric, for taking me through areas I would probably have never seen by myself. America is a land of stark contrasts, with 300 million people living in an area of almost the same size as Australia, which has only 20 million, yet it has wilderness areas and national parks that are the envy of the rest of the world. I understand that some of these areas are under threat from development and from funding shortfalls. Can I just say to you who live there, please fight for them, they are too precious to lose.
I don't know when or even if I will be able to get back to America soon, but if I do you can rest assured that I will be hankering for some time in your remote areas. So if you see a lanky Aussie looking lost, I'm not really - I always look that way. Just say hi (and please, don't try and say g'day - it just doesn't sound right unless you are born to it).