48reasonstolive-blog

[48reasonstolive-blog]

When I arrived at  Redwoods National Park I stopped by the ranger station to learn a little about the park and get a back-country permit for backpacking. After discussing a few possibilities I settled on a combination of the Tall-Trees to Emerald Ridge and Redwood Creek Trail loop to give me a total of about 7 miles of hiking. I recorded the first 40 minutes of the hike on my GoPro where I descended the hillside to the creek bed among the tallest trees in the world:

The hike continued along the gravel bars of the creek bed which presented a challenge as the water level was low, but not enough for a clear walk-able path. After spending a significant time trying to stay dry I slipped off a downed tree and soaked myself up to my waist in water. Since the damage was done I simply trudged the rest of the way through the water.

Once I found the return trail head (seen above) I hiked another 1/4 mile past it on the gravel bars to make camp for the night. Fires are permitted in this particular part of the park which was fortunate as my shoes and socks needed drying. After making dinner I slung up my food bag and climbed in my hammock to sleep.

The next morning I broke camp and hiked back to the return trail head and began the march back up the hillside through the forest.

The serenity of the forest made it easy to get lost in thought and I found myself going over the events that led me to this particular place and time. I had worked through the anger and rage that had almost consumed me over how things had happened, but I still hadn’t let go of it all completely. I simply couldn’t understand why. It was here while deliberating with myself I concluded I would probably never get the answers to these questions I had been asking myself for months and realized that in order to move on I would need to let go completely. This meant forgiving those that had hurt me so badly, so I did. I made up my mind that no matter what they had done to me I still loved them and nothing was going to change that.

Once I got back to my car and changed I decided to drive the Drury Scenic Parkway en route to my next and final hike. I recorded the drive which can be seen below:

For my final hike in the Redwoods I chose Fern Canyon as one of my friends in Sacramento had recommended it to me. I was also informed that  scenes from Jurassic Park (The Lost World) were filmed here due to the ancient species of ferns that call it home. Some date back over 325 million years! Fern Canyon is located in Prairie Creek, the drive to which passes by the meadows near the visitor center. I stopped here to take a few pictures of the deer grazing in the meadow:

Fern Canyon itself did not disappoint, walking between walls 30ft high covered in lush green vegetation made me feel like I was walking back in time. Along the way there were several places where water came dripping down the sides of the cavern:

I recorded the hike in 4K on my GoPro which can be seen in the video below:

I finished the Fern Canyon hike as the sun started setting and decided to drive up Bald Road to the ridge of the mountainside in order to get some pictures of the sunset before leaving the park:

On a side note, these hiking videos were the first I had filmed in 4K on my GoPro which in this mode apparently does not have any video stabilization. I only learned this later when viewing the videos and was disappointing to see how much it affected the quality of the videos. To fix this I purchased a gimbal once I got back to Sacramento which helped keep camera movement to a minimum as will be seen in future posts of my hiking videos.

You can find more of my hiking and driving videos on my YouTube Channel and my full photo set for this park in my Redwoods Album

  5) Redwoods – 07/09/2017 When I arrived at  Redwoods National Park I stopped by the ranger station to learn a little about the park and get a back-country permit for backpacking.

[48reasonstolive-blog]

When I arrived at  Redwoods National Park I stopped by the ranger station to learn a little about the park and get a back-country permit for backpacking. After discussing a few possibilities I settled on a combination of the Tall-Trees to Emerald Ridge and Redwood Creek Trail loop to give me a total of about 7 miles of hiking. I recorded the first 40 minutes of the hike on my GoPro where I descended the hillside to the creek bed among the tallest trees in the world:

The hike continued along the gravel bars of the creek bed which presented a challenge as the water level was low, but not enough for a clear walk-able path. After spending a significant time trying to stay dry I slipped off a downed tree and soaked myself up to my waist in water. Since the damage was done I simply trudged the rest of the way through the water.

Once I found the return trail head (seen above) I hiked another 1/4 mile past it on the gravel bars to make camp for the night. Fires are permitted in this particular part of the park which was fortunate as my shoes and socks needed drying. After making dinner I slung up my food bag and climbed in my hammock to sleep.

The next morning I broke camp and hiked back to the return trail head and began the march back up the hillside through the forest.

The serenity of the forest made it easy to get lost in thought and I found myself going over the events that led me to this particular place and time. I had worked through the anger and rage that had almost consumed me over how things had happened, but I still hadn’t let go of it all completely. I simply couldn’t understand why. It was here while deliberating with myself I concluded I would probably never get the answers to these questions I had been asking myself for months and realized that in order to move on I would need to let go completely. This meant forgiving those that had hurt me so badly, so I did. I made up my mind that no matter what they had done to me I still loved them and nothing was going to change that.

Once I got back to my car and changed I decided to drive the Drury Scenic Parkway en route to my next and final hike. I recorded the drive which can be seen below:

For my final hike in the Redwoods I chose Fern Canyon as one of my friends in Sacramento had recommended it to me. I was also informed that  scenes from Jurassic Park (The Lost World) were filmed here due to the ancient species of ferns that call it home. Some date back over 325 million years! Fern Canyon is located in Prairie Creek, the drive to which passes by the meadows near the visitor center. I stopped here to take a few pictures of the deer grazing in the meadow:

Fern Canyon itself did not disappoint, walking between walls 30ft high covered in lush green vegetation made me feel like I was walking back in time. Along the way there were several places where water came dripping down the sides of the cavern:

I recorded the hike in 4K on my GoPro which can be seen in the video below:

I finished the Fern Canyon hike as the sun started setting and decided to drive up Bald Road to the ridge of the mountainside in order to get some pictures of the sunset before leaving the park:

On a side note, these hiking videos were the first I had filmed in 4K on my GoPro which in this mode apparently does not have any video stabilization. I only learned this later when viewing the videos and was dissapointed to see how much it affected the quality of the videos. To fix this I purchased a gimbal once I got back to Sacramento which helped keep camera movement to a minimum as will be seen in future posts of my hiking videos.

You can find more of my hiking and driving videos on my YouTube Channel and my full photo set for this park in my Redwoods Album

  5) Redwoods – 07/09/2017 When I arrived at  Redwoods National Park I stopped by the ranger station to learn a little about the park and get a back-country permit for backpacking.

[48reasonstolive-blog]

I stopped by America’s newest National Park, , on my way back to Sacramento from The Channel Islands to do some astrophotography since I hadn’t gotten my fix the week prior. The parks location between a few small towns means there is very little light pollution at night allowing for a spectacular view of the stars.

After talking with the Rangers I found out that some of the trails and caves were closed due to roosting bats. I have always been fascinated with bats and with hopes of getting footage of a bat swarm I hastily packed a day bag and my camera gear and started racing up the trail to get a good vantage point as the sun was already getting low. As the trail became harder to distinguish I found myself scrambling which was pretty fun, it was like a pick-your-adventure to get up the side of the mountain opposite the pinnacles formation.

As it got darker I began to see a few bats but nothing like I had imagined (think scene from batman) and unfortunately they were way too fast to photograph with my Nikon and too dark to see with the GoPro. The view did get better though as I climbed higher:

As the sun sank behind the finger-like rock formations that the park is named for, I began setting up my camera and tripod. It was about this time I heard a low guttural growl that made the hair on my neck stand on end. I remember thinking to myself “well this is it, this is where you get eaten by a mountain lion” as I frantically searched with my flashlight in the direction the sound had come from. I barely got a glimpse of the rear-end of an animal moving behind a bush and though I couldn’t make out if it had a tail, it was enough for me to literally scramble up to the top of the mountainside. Placing a boulder between me and the creature my backside up against the cliff edge I yelled as loudly as I could for about 15 minutes. Some time later I heard the growl-ish noise again but this time much fainter and from a good distance away. Laughing at myself I set up my camera again and waited for the moon to set.

Once the moon was gone it was so dark it was hard to make out my own feet when I looked down. It turned out to be a perfect night as the sky was clear of clouds, giving way to the vast number of stars hidden from view in the proximity of large cities:

After collecting my fill of pictures I put away my camera, turned on my headlamp and started to head down. Only problem was in my panicked attempt to get away from the supposed mountain lion I had lost the trail! I was stuck and ended up spending the chilly night on the mountain side in just my shorts and t-shirt. I won’t go into the details here but for those interested there is a progression to “My Story” that goes along with this experience.

You can find more information on the park here and my complete photo set in my Pinnacles Album.

2) Pinnacles National Park I stopped by America's newest National Park, , on my way back to Sacramento from The Channel Islands to do some astrophotography since I hadn't gotten my fix the week prior.

[48reasonstolive-blog]

The 48th Reason I made this video to give a more brief review of what this last year has been for me.

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Update

I know it’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything but in the time since I returned from The Channel Islands I have traveled to every park in California, Oregon, Washington (with the exception of North Cascades). I’ve had many side-adventures as well including driving to Cabo Pulmo, a national park in Baja California Mexico and have met many people as amazing as the places themselves. 

My…

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New Lyft Referral!

Lyft is new to many of the areas I have been traveling through in CA while visiting the parks. This has allowed me to work while I travel in a way that no other job would. If you haven’t tried Lyft or are thinking about driving for them use my referral code, 48ReasonsToLive to get free credit towards your first ride and up to a $480 bonus as a new driver. For every new ride that uses my code I…

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4th of July Fireworks from 10,000 ft - Mt. Tallac Lake Tahoe CA

4th of July Fireworks from 10,000 ft – Mt. Tallac Lake Tahoe CA

In less than an hour I will be starting my ascent up to the peak of Mt. Tallac to see the fireworks displays over Lake Tahoe from the highest point I could find. Pics and videos will be uploaded tomorrow!

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Updated contact email!

I have updated my contact email after I found out the previously listed address was not working. Sorry!

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1) The Channel Islands

1) The Channel Islands

I was beginning to think I was going to have to skip this National Park due to the difficulty in getting a campsite reservation in combination with available transportation to the Islands but with the help of a wonderful woman at Island Packers and a little luck I was able to book it last minute! Monday Morning I will be departing from Ventura CA for a 2 night stay on Santa Cruz Island followed…