Amid giants
Our camping trip to the Sequioa and kings canyon national parks was one where I spent the entire week prior to leaving, trying to convince others to join and for a brief while not to, depending on the number of cars and the camping spots I was told we have. What made this trip all the more special was that I was with friends I have known since I started classes at USC. It was time to get to know them a little more, for better or worse. We checked the weather conditions in advance and were excited that we might be camping in the snow. Little did we realise that the weather prediction was for the interior of the national park, which was miles away from where we camped. The place where we stayed was beautiful nonetheless, by a lake.
We arrived at the campsite sometime after midnight, even though we seemed to have left well on time to reach much earlier. Others in our group were already there, sipping some beer. I was introduced to quite a few people in the dark, whose names I would associate with their faces only in the morning. It is amazing how well we bond while one person in the group is made the butt of all jokes, especially when that person does not mind and sometimes contributes too. I do not think I would ever handle it that well. We went to sleep some time after 3 AM and woke up in a few hours to take a walk by the lake which looked inviting. We gladly had bread with butter and jam for breakfast, grateful we had breakfast at all. Ours being quite a big group of more than twenty people, making sure we went around together was a difficult task. That had one advantage though – every time we hung around waiting for others, we clicked so many more beautiful and fun photographs of the surroundings as well as ourselves.
As we walked towards the General Sherman tree, the largest known living single stem tree on earth, I stopped every now and then just to look at the giant Sequoias around. How tiny we are in comparison! We were literally rubbing shoulders with giants (our shoulders against their trunks!), hoping to get enlightened perhaps, or to bask in their glory at the least. These endangered trees, only to be found here in California in the Sierra Nevada mountains, were truly mesmerizing. As a friend said, we could lie down amidst them and keep gazing in awe for hours. If we could hear the stories they had to say, the stories they had garnered in a lifetime of thousands of years, I am sure we would never want to leave their side.
Enthralled, but exhausted, we longed for food. We soon gobbled all we could and headed for a short hike to Moro rock, the top of which rewarded us with breathtaking views of the mountains and half of the national park. Every single time we looked down as we climbed up the stairway, it was with a gasp. Reaching the top of the rock would be quite an achievement for those who suffer from acrophobia. I was intimidated by some people who ventured outside the fence and climbed down the rocks such that we could not see them for some time, and came back without anything as much as a scratch. With some practice, I hope to be able to do that some day, to honour the streak of daredevilry that I think I have. Though our plan was to stay there till sunset, we were on our way to the campsite much earlier as we had to make dinner. We reached late, owing to the numerous stops we made due to my motion sickness.
Though I did not contribute to the cooking, I happened to be privy to a cheesy pickup line while I was trying to see if I could make myself useful. When the girl asked a guy if the sandwich she made was hot, he replied, “Not more than you are!” It did force a smile out of her. After warming ourselves near the campfire, most of us went to sleep. I wonder why the nearby campers did not complain about some of us who decided to make the most of the night, enjoying a game of ‘antakshari’ singing every song in the loudest tone possible. The enthusiasm died down as exhaustion took over.
I took the responsibility of irritating my friends enough to wake them up much earlier than they would have liked to, to set out for the Kings Canyon national park which lies alongside the Sequoia national park. The beautiful drive was disrupted and lengthened again, by my motion sickness, which was not as bad as the previous day. Our first and only sightseeing stop for the day was at Hume lake. It was so beautiful that all I could remember after getting into the car again was that I forgot to rest my eyes on the abundant natural splendor and only spent the entire time trying to capture it in photographs. My resolve to not use my phone camera a lot, was weakened while surrounded by people with phones that have a much better camera. We did do something fun in the lake… We tried to see who could stay barefoot the longest in the water which was extremely cold. I participated and acted like the cold did not bother me, hoping that I would not get a cold later. We bid adieu to all our friends from LA a while later and drove back, stopping at a city called Fresno for a sumptuous meal which I think was our lunch and dinner. I hope to make another, much elaborate trip to these national parks to savour all the grandeur that we missed.
