Avenue of the Giants

gf beranek

gf beranek

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Terri and I went to the Avenue over the weekend and took another round of pictures there. Had real good lighting and been shooting with a new camera. A Samsung NX200. A tiny little camera with a 20 megapixel imager. I'm real please with the rendering quality of the pictures.

And the neat thing is, at the ave, we found a fresh windfall domino that posed a good composition. Just another day in the redwoods.
 

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Hahaha...bet they will be around!!

That first picture of Terry at the exploded tree is a real attention getter. Thanks for taking us there!
 
Those groves are awesome and I am sure glad they were set aside to appreciate. Every time I would drive down Bull Creek, or by the Founders Grove when I was working there my trigger finger would itch, something fierce! It was mostly after a day of cuttin second growth and having a million different ribbon lines, creeks, wildlife corridors etc to contend with. I would drive through those groves and imagine how I would lay my strip out, and by the time I got home, I was happy. Probably not how most would envision drawing a positive from those groves, but it sure worked for me. I'm sure I will get flamed by some for my way of thinkin...oh well :) Like I said, I am glad they are there and saved from wood thirsty heathens like myself...I can't help it.
 
My skin has definitely gotten a little thicker since I posted some vids on youtube of myself and some of my pards falling some old growth redwood. Have talked til blue in the face trying to get some to understand that I really don't want all old growth redwoods destroyed, and I did revere them, but I'm also proud to be a Timber Faller. Anymore, I don't argue with too many of them, just let them post away with ignorance...only ones I delete are the ones that call us filthy names or wish us dead. Sounds like most on here will see that I have an appreciation for these great trees.
 
I often find myself looking at a tree and puzzling out how I would take it down...doesn't mean I want to kill all trees but it is just a different way of viewing the tree. Sometimes I just puzzle out how I would climb it.

The Marines have a saying....be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet. I suppose that is kind of radical but it does establish a mindset that keeps them on their toes.

The mental practice of tree felling can be valuable, learning to see angles and cipher out the process...keeps the mind active and "in the game" even when not actually doing the work.
 
Nice!

I was in Yosemite years ago and still kick myself for not going a little further to see the Redwoods!

As Jerry said, they'll be around :lol:
 
The first time I visited Sequoia National park, I was sitting at a table, poring over a map, when a ranger asked if he could help me find something.
I asked for direction to the Converse basin, the area that was clearcut by the Sanger Company in late 1800.

He told me that in his 20+ years as a ranger, that was the first time anybody had wanted to see that.

The biggest stumps in the world are found there. I calculated the size of one to be more than 150 cubic meters ( that is like 3 times the size of your biggest tree.........in a stump!!)

I told him that as a logger and treelover, I love walking among the Sequoias ( Didn't tell him about climbing them, for obvious reasons:lol:) But i also had a lot of respect for those guys who knocked them over with axes and whipsaws.
 
We've tried to go to Converse basin twice and the road was snowed in both times. We'd like to see those big stumps. Someday.
 
Growing up just over the hill from Bull creek in Mattole Valley, I never paid much attention to the Redwoods until I got into tree work twenty years ago. Driving through the Avenue of the Giants is one of the most ominous sites you'll ever encounter.
I can remember driving through Bull Creek and the one lane road during a big winter storms in my dads 65 Chevy thinking, man! what happens if one of these big trees falls in front of us. It was pretty scary.
 
:/:

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Every time I drive under a big old tree with a lotta dead, I cross my fingers. I mean, that'd be just my luck...
 
I always worry more when I am working under dense canopy. Had one about 6" and over 20 foot long break out and fall right where I had just moved gear from. I had seen it was a weak limb and not much holding it. Saw that Rob had placed the gear there. Moved it. Fell two small oaks either side of it. Walked away and crakckkkkkk.....
Nerve racking when you look up at hangers all day.
 
Yes, Jay. So consumed that I am seriously considering calling in sick for work to go back up there and check it out!
 
Mrs.B said:
We've tried to go to Converse basin twice and the road was snowed in both times. We'd like to see those big stumps. Someday.
Click to expand...

I've been in there twice.

First time the road was so bad, I tore the bottom of my poor cheap Chinese rental car up badly.
Luckily they don't look underneath when you return rentals.

Second time the road had been graded and was just fine.

There is a trail to the world's 5th ( ??? after the Washington tree selfdestructed, I'm not sure) largest tree, the Coomb's tree that starts out there.

That is one sad tree.
When they clearcut the area, they thought it was the world's largest, so they left it standing.
Being the last one left doesn't do it any good.
It is in serious decline.:cry:
 
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