Rafting and the Redwoods

Clint and I both got to go rafting. . . without each other, of course.

I went with my boss, a couple co-workers and some people from the Outdoor Program at school (they were our guides, and filled the extra seats on the raft) on the McKenzie river.  I didn't take any pictures of my raft trip, but suffice it to say it rained and was really cold.  But still fun.

Clint went a couple days later with his summer co-workers down in Medford on the Rogue.  It was beautiful, sunny, warm weather.  Not fair at all!  But, anyway, he took some pictures while on the trip.

I can't really tell you who all these people are, other than Clint's co-workers.

Then there was kareoke.  They made Clint kareoke for a job, but he conviniently had the camera in his pocket when he went up to sing.  Figures.

The next day we went down to the Redwoods and did some short hikes and enjoyed the woods!



Redwood Dugout Canoe at the Visitors Center

The fog was pretty intense on the coast.
I've never actually seen the fog "roll in"!

There were some pretty gosh-darn big trees!

It was still alive!

Of course, I'm a tree-hugger : )

Inside a tree

Very much like the "lost boys" hide-out!

The trees become hollow when they get burned by forest fires, but they usually survive and keep on living.  Plus, the fire prompts new trees to grow from nodes underground and at the base of the tree, which makes the trees grow in rings.

A ring of trees

When the forest gets thinned (by logging, usually) the remaining trees can become too saturated with salt from the ocean air, and since they aren't used to it, the tops of them die off.

These trees literally lean on each other for support, sometimes.

Even when one of these trees falls down, it still provides good habitat.  And, since it has so many natural insecticides, it takes forever to rot away!

Lots of stuff growing in the crack of a fallen redwood.

These suckers are huge!

They make good chairs, too.

Sometimes, when they fall, the burls get activated
and grow a whole new tree right over the old one!

The trees grow mostly in height in their first few hundred years of life.  Then, after they've reached their max height, they start growing in girth over the next few hundred years.  So, you can kinda tell how old they are by how girthy they are.  Clint and I figured some were around in Book of Mormon Times.  How crazy is that!  While Moroni was writing the end of the Book of Mormon, some of these trees were saplings!

This one is called "Big Tree", because it is so incredibly big.
And therefore old.

The forests are still inhabited by Paul Bunion and Babe, the Big Blue Ox. . .

We drove home along the coast, which was nice, but since it was dark most of the time, we will have to do it in the daylight again sometime.

The sunset over the ocean was quite lovely, though!