California Giants

Looks like your off to a fun vacation. I bet that "is" the first time those two California giants have met.
I camped with the family in Richardson Grove some years back and saw the coastal redwoods for the first time.
I hope your going to see the Monterey Bay Aquarium while your there; it's well worth it.

Thanks for the pictures with the tiny Tee Dee.

I have a Giant Sequoia pine cone around here somewhere.

Jeff

Enjoyed your pictures thank you for sharing.
If that little sprout grows 1ft. per yr. imagine the root system 100 yrs. from now

Haha yesss mighty thirsty roots!
Read this online about them:

"The sequoias have a matting, shallow, and wide spreading root system. A mature sequoia's roots can
occupy over 1 acre of earth and contain over 90,000 cubic feet of soil. That mass of matted roots and
soil has to maintain the equilibrium of a tree that is nearly 300 feet tall and weighs nearly 2 million pounds".

You can use root barriers inset 3 to 4ft. into the ground to promote the root system to migrate
deeper. I see prefab concrete walls used in structural plans all the time at work. Rule of thumb for
moderate size trees is 20ft. from any bldg. They demand quite a bit of water and can degradate the
select fill compacted for building foundations. Slab on grade projects will have grade beams typically
24" to 48" depth, the concrete beams act like a moisture loss barrier. Big roots can go under the slab
suck up all the water and cause shrinkage of the select non expansive compacted material. At work we
always recommend foundation stabilization with a max 1"PVR (potential vertical rise) to mitigate slab
movement during the wet / dry seasons. Keeps the slab from cracking, damaging walls etc. The roots
from the Sequoia tree will rip right though 12" wide grade beams if placed too close to a foundation.  

Agree with Markeysky!!!! THAT'S a Traveling Engine !!!!

Balogh, I am so very happy for you and truly admire you and your travels   .  Heck, I live here in the US and it has been a consistent dream/hope that I will get to see them, the Cali/Pacific coastline and the Grand Tetons before before I pass on .  I gave up on the childhood dream of traveling through Europe .  Seems like every year .... "life" happens .... and it just seems to suck up the funds .  Again, I am so happy for you and yours. I wish you many safe and rewarding journeys !!

Balogh

True story

as a soldier on Fort Lewis WA 1973~1975 I married a gal who's family was deeply in involved with Simpson Lumber company

I had occasionally worked for the "family" during some of my Army leave time...made real good money for the few weeks I was away from the daily army grind....driving skid or setting chokers

I got sent to Germany for 2 years but ultimately returned to Forth Lewis 1977

At the time Cutting OLD growth Giant Sequious or Red Wood was BY exception and permit only....

The country of Japan wanted to build some new GIANT Religious temple and petitioned California, Oregon , and Washington for the Old growth Trees to support their desire.

Washington state succumbed to the insane cash offer and agreed to set the permit.... Olympia based Simpson Lumber Company got the project to harvest 25 trees in the Olympic national Forest.... Giant Sequoias 375 foot tall, Topped, fell, drag to port full length for the Temple project

Buck sergeant (E-5) von Gortler was paid $35 per hour on this project....I made more in that 2 weeks than my entire Army pay all year long

True story #2

I bought 5 acres of land south of Olympia WA to put a mobile home on.... I had to get a permit to have 5 or 6 BIG pines cut out to make the space for the Home pad, electric, and septic....No big deal just something a property owner has to do to use THEIR land...Most of the timber I needed removed had some value.... The company I contracted to remove the trees ultimately decided to buy 8 of my trees within the state permit I had to develop my acreages..... A large portion of my $16,000 Fleet wood mobile home (1975) mortgage was paid for from the sale of the trees and board feets of the final yield

True story #3

MY first ever Chain saw was a 1974 McCullough 101 B.....65" bar length --17 Hp monster---that spun up to 15,000+ RPM....43 lbs of monster wood eater

Today I own a modest Stihl 261 and is all I need in 12" to 18" Texas live Oak here in Central Texas

For the record....a photo from Balogh does indeed show one BIG assed Tree....I HAVE PERSONALLY SEEN BIGGER!

Great story's Andras and Fred.

Back in 1953 we traveled to Yellowstone and Yosemite on our way to LA and stopped by to see the giants. Impressive. I understand after a year or two of restrictions they are now open again with better access and better protections for the trees themselves.

I love trees and live in the middle of a Forrest, yet I was forced into removing this 350 year old oak from my property as it was rotted to the core and leaning towards our house. A pip squeak when compared to the Sequoias.

Yes sir there is a lot of relative rational evaluation needed to determine risk and analysis..... in fact about three or four days from now there will be great many east coast citizen land owners who had wished they had some big trees cut away from their personal property as the next Hurricane descends on the coast line as a cat 3 or 4 ..........

Hell bob...even as far inland as your are-- could pose a serious high wind and heavy rain problem

Decades ago I moved my Test team out of Norfolk VA to Mananas VA to evade a bad storm...4 days later we went back to Norfolk to find it still a grand mess, no open restaurants, If I recall correctly my 23 person team went almost 4 days with out a properly cooked meal.....

Lots of folks NEVER consider during a local disaster how many NON LOCALS are impacted.....

I had a 30 person test team in Biloxi is a city in Harrison County, Mississippi, United States just before Katrina.... Entire region WIPED out...no shelter, no food, no water, NO basic life sustaining resources.....all of us loaded out in the rental cars and headed due west.... New Orleans had more resources and FEMA SUPPORT...but not much

What I am saying here is there are hundreds of NON local folks visiting family and as many NON local folks just doing Business....that are caught in the position of TRYING to Survive, eat, and exist

Twice in my career I had to DECIDE to move my team member out of the path of destruction..... BOTH times I was chastised for the high expense of MY decision...Tough [bleep]....I actually told my superiors to charge the extreme cost to my personal USAA account.....Of course they knew that would never happen cuz of the bad press....

I hate trees!!!! As a victim of many storms in the last four decades I know they will fall on your house. Had 6 go down in last years storm. That one out there now is scary.
I'm a carpenter, the only good tree is the one under my saw. When I first started in 60s you could find redwood in the lumber yards, it was light, bug and rot resistant.
Redwood now is like gold and most of the lumber yards are gone too.

Not much lumber left in this one Andras.

When they felled it, they dropped it just the way it was leaning, right towards my house.

My one regret was that it housed a family of flying squirrels, all of whom survived.

Hello Andras ... I was surprised by the size of those trees ... I remember reading about them many years ago ... but now when you see the exposed photos there, they are really impressive.
That motor Cox .010 is a cherry there ... in that beautiful photo.
Congratulations on your trip, surely you will enjoy it to the full. Thanks for sharing those experiences!

rsv1cox wrote:Not much lumber left in this one Andras.

When they felled it, they dropped it just the way it was leaning, right towards my house.  

My one regret was that it housed a family of flying squirrels, all of whom survived.

Good thing they did the job with very good results ... all safe! Great friend!
(What a beautiful animal that squirrel is!) Here there is no ...

Balogh you said "In the shoes of US authorities I would not have allowed the removal of the sequoia for that Japanese church no matter what price the buyers offered."

and for some strange reason the older I get the MORE Tree Hugger I become..
Seriously.... two decades ago I was quite militant against "Tree Huggers"

Of course we need back story....PETA, Tree Huggers, and a lot of those militant folks were behaving very badly....

Letting laboratory animals loose was and is a very bad idea......most died a worse non humane death than was planed for them

Destroying 150~230 SUVs on a southern California sales lot is a very bad idea....many were set afire.... air quality down there is already compromised...... adding to the environment a LOT more noxious gasses was a stupid move

Burning down a giant LODGE in the mountains of California killing 3 humans is a very bad idea....Fully insured...the Lodges all ( yes Virginia the nuts burned down about 5 of these giant structures) as I said-- all of them were insured and rebuilt....The stupids were mad about the use of Earth Resources to build the giant decadent structure,,,,so they made sure mother earth had to do it again a second or third time..... not a lot of critical thinking is the militant tree huger crowd

Throwing chicken blood on some FUR wearing celiberatly was not too egregious IMO---- BUT COME ON IDIOTS?!....adding Sulfuric Acid to the blood and scarring the OTHER HUMAN just to make your point....sorry you LOST MY support

balogh wrote:Thanks Jeff. Back in 2013 when our kids joined us on a similar trip to Monterey we visited that lovely Acquarium there.

When visiting the other famous California redwood park Muir Woods North of San Francisco bay this week I could not resist buying a small redwood seedling sold there..I am not sure I will live till this lil thing reaches the 300+ feet size of trees we saw at Muir Woods and Yosemite..



Providing it survives our transatlantic flight home and the transplantation it will grow 1 foot each year

I highly doubt customs will let that tree in. Infact please leave it here. It may contain pathogens (fungus, insects, and bacteria) that could decimate your domestic trees or crops. We are losing all our ash trees here from emerald ash borer that came from China. In the early 70 we lost all our elm trees from Dutch elm disease. The American chestnut no longer can survive more than a few years before a fungus destroys them. All this happened when stuff was brought in through the border.

balogh wrote:Fred I am not sure I have understood your point on why I have lost your support. Just hope not to have caused any controversy with my sympathy fir the sequoias.

Balogh, The way i read what Fred wrote is the Tree Huggers lost his support when they burnt down wood cabins and threw blood mixed with acid on innocent people wearing fur coats.  Doing stupid dangerous hurtful things that did not help the agenda of the conservationists, they lost his support.  I did not take it as a comment aimed at you.