Grove of the Titans

While hiking Mill Creek Trail on  Saturday, a couple of hikers asked us if we knew where to find the trail to the Grove of the Titans.  They had a map, but it was rather sketchy, and they were lost. Michael is the 4th generation of his family in the area and hadn't heard of the Grove. Mom G hadn't heard of the Grove. We did some research and some said it was an urban legend. HOWEVER, the couple had stopped at Jed Smith park for help with their map and were told it "wasn't officially open to the public, so we don't give directions." O.k. That sounds like it exists.  Our research indicated there used to be a marked trail and signs in the grove, but the signs had been removed due to concerns of damage to the Grove. The Grove was "discovered" in 1998. We checked more sites, read up about what we were supposed to see and where people thought the Grove was located; we scoured google earth/maps, checked photos and stats on the trees, and finally found a site that listed coordinates!

With all the coordinates confidently loaded into our trusty GPS, we headed out. The first problem we encountered is the GPS couldn't get a signal out in the woods. ::snort:: This looked like the parking spot and trail head described on several sites. There is a sign, it's loose, it doesn't say Grove of the Titans....but we were 99% sure this was a good starting point. 

"Mill Creek Trail, Hiouchi Trail, Howland Hill Rd" 

Without the GPS, we depended on my print outs of  descriptions, mileage, sketchy maps,  and my fit bit to navigate. We decided it was a GORGEOUS hike, and we were in awe of the BIG TREES - even if we weren't 100% sure of their names and such. LOL 

At one point we went right under Redwood Roots

The Lost Monarch - Largest Multi-Stem Coast Redwood

We were skeptical, but YES, this tree was bigger than Stout Tree and the others in Stout Grove.

All of a sudden the GPS worked

 We discovered the tree we had thought was El Viejo Del Norte  - wasn't. This one was. 

4th largest Coast Redwood

Screaming Titans (only ones we didn't video)

Mill Creek

 Del Norte Titan - 3rd largest Coast Redwood (Above and Below)

Under the Roots

 Stunning!

This was spectacular! The hike is more rugged than many of the maintained trails. While there are paths around the Titans, nothing is marked, and it is rather overgrown... so we felt as if we simply walked right into them while out for a hike.  I loved not having multitudes of other hikers on the trails, and those we did meet were in the same state of awe. LOL I also appreciated there was no trash, no graffiti,  and no carvings in the groves. It was lovely.

Michael was in a lot of pain for two days after this hike - a lot. He couldn't sleep the first night at all due to Charley Horses and such, but he says this was worth it!  I sure wish we had run into the couple asking about the Grove THIS weekend - we know right where to tell them to start now. LOL

Here is a a video of our hike and time in the Grove...sorry for the noisy auto focus. I'll switch to manual. I wanted to deal with the shakes and edit titles...but my laptop froze and this was the version that was available....so I went with it rather than starting all over. LOL 

Mill Creek Trail Hike

*Note if you prefer the story in video - scroll to the end and watch the story unfold. 

Michael and I sat out the Little Bald Hill hike, but today Michael suggested we make ice cream, hike Nickerson Ranch Trail and then spend some time swimming at the Smith River.  It was already 2 p.m. by the time we were ready to leave the Caboose. Nickerson Ranch Trail is an easy 1 mile hike. It seemed doable.  We hopped on to Howland Hill Road and headed to the turn off......in our zeal we read this sign quickly, stopped and started down the trail, confident we'd be at Nickerson Ranch Homesite in a mile.

It was a BEAUTIFUL hike and meandered in and out of old growth Redwoods and ferns...alongside Mill Creek...turns out we were on Mill Creek Trail.  Ah, the sign should be read as - "Keep going .8 to the Nickerson Ranch Trailhead" not, "Head off here and you'll be there in .8 mile."  We did eventually intercept Nickerson Ranch Trail. Unfortunately, we had no idea WHERE we were on the trail and opted to take it back to Howland Hill road and the walk back to our car. LOL  We'll do Nickerson Ranch another day - but none of us were sad to have done this part of the Mill Creek Trail. 

 Seriously, who would begrudge this hike on a gorgeous day in September? 

Along the way we spotted a rope swing down by the creek. The kids headed down and Krista and Nolan tried it out. We'll remember to bring appropriate gear for playing and picnicking at this spot another time.

I commented that these trees reminded me of "sistering." That'll preach. The boys then pointed out two tall Redwoods, standing straight, a discreet distance from each other and said those were "Bro trees." ::snort:: 

Girls illustrating sistering on the sistering trees....

 

Beautiful hike! 

We can't deny the fall colors we are starting to see. I am hoping the rain holds off - we still have so much to explore!

The video version of the hike.....Not liking the auto-focus sound in the video. Thanks for your grace. 

Homemade ICE CREAM in the TRAILER!

We can't find the family's favorite brand of ice cream in town - the one with three or four ingredients, instead of a list three inches long.  My ice cream (non-dairy) is EXPENSIVE. Mom G has been talking about home-made ice cream. She gave us her ice cream maker - never used - and it was RUSTED.  We kept thinking about it and finally bought an ice cream maker on clearance at Walmart on Friday.

 Yes, three (or four if you use some light cream too) ingredients: cream, honey, vanilla.  I place out everyone's favorite add ins and they are happy. Mmmm......milk and honey.....can you imagine a land flowing with ice cream????? I used to make ice cream every Saturday morning in preparation for Sunday night. We quit doing it in Japan as the ice cream maker didn't work well with the electricity....and we never got back into the habit - until now.

8 C of 1/2 and 1/2

4 C of heavy cream (supposed to be 6 and 6)

 Not sure what happened to the photo of 1 1/2 C honey

1 - 2 T of Vanilla

 Lots of ice and rock salt

30 - 40 minutes later - glorious ICE CREAM! 

Fun to have Krista here to join us.....

 Next, I tried it with coconut milk. I couldn't find coconut cream so used coconut milk coffee creamer - it worked - but I've ordered some cans of coconut cream for the next batch. I'll make way less, too. 

It worked - and it's much cheaper than the non-dairy I'm finding in town. 

Games with Krista

Krista is here and that means Nolan will have an extra one who loves to play games in the mix. I'm not sure there is much better than Dominion, outside the trailer, with a campfire in the background.

We're so glad Krista came to visit. 

#WYFF Little Bald Hills

Hiking the Little Bald Hills trail is a family tradition dating back at least three, possibly four, generations. True confession: I've never hiked it. I've always had toddlers that were thought to be too young for the hike. The younger two hadn't hiked it. Michael let us know that the hike was just too much for him now....and I wondered how to get the other two up.

Krista is down for a couple of nights. She took the three traveling Gherkins and headed up Little Bald Hill. From the point where they started to the top of Little Bald Hill and back again is a 6.6 mile hike, IF you hike over the trail and end up on South Fork it is a  9.8 mile hike.  The last time up it took them 8 hours  - but they came down Sheep Ends Gulch instead of the trail. Michael knows all the extra spots to explore....but they hiked to the top and back in about 3.5 hours. They think they can find their way back up again, I have plans to make it up yet. LOL

 Part of the tradition is to plant seeds each time up.....

Watch out for the bears! 

#WYFF (Where's Your Feet Friday) is sponsored by Fulltime Families. For more #WYFF entries, click the tab above.

Grapes!

We have GRAPES! The ripe ones are WAY up high - above the roof line.....yes, we DO plan on taming them  - AFTER we harvest.  There are three types of grapes at Mom G's: Concords, Thompson and Malaga.  The Malaga grape vines were planted in 1939 by Grandpa Jack.

I do think they are pretty and have taken numerous photos of them as they grow and RIPEN. I thought purple was good, but we have to wait for black or DEEP purple.  Finally, I pointed out, no one could argue, the grapes at the top were BLACK.....but how would we get them down?

This man is so good to me. 

The grapes up high don't get the nourishment they need to grow big and plump. They do taste good. We will patiently wait for others to ripen. Here is our haul for the day. The grape arbor was destroyed by bears who also like fresh grapes, apparently.  In the absence of an arbor, or any pruning, the vines have grown onto the roof and entwined in other trees.  When we picked the grapes, we got a few more Green Gage Plums. These are VERY good too.