My first Redwoods
After a couple of days on the coast, we drove over to Redwoods Regional Park up in the hills west of Oakland. Gregg, a friend of mine who was a kayak guide for a couple seasons in '98 & '99 had invited me via Facebook to a Shinrin Yoku Forest Therapy Walk. Gregg is currently a nurse and still guides occasional kayak trips. Most recently he was co-guide with a Prescott College group on a 2.5 month trip to the Sea of Cortez.
Gregg was working towards some credentials or certification for this type of Japanese forest therapy and is soon headed to Japan to further his pursuit. He is hoping to eventually convince certain doctors to prescribe this kind of therapy to patients suffering from an inadequate connection to the natural world. Anyway, it was interesting and great to see Gregg again. I'd last seen Gregg around 2003 when he stopped in Grand Marais on his way to Alaska where he worked as a nurse for a few years. At some point he moved to the Bay Area of California where he now lives. This trip is about getting onboard the sailboat I'm crewing on, not sight seeing so I won't be getting up to Redwood National Park etc.. I'll be back this way soon on a road trip with plenty of time for camping and backpacking.
According to a sign on the path, the ordinal huge and ancient Redwood trees in this area were clear cut from 1840 - 1860. The current redwood trees are up to 175 years old I guess but many are much larger than the biggest white pine you'll see in northern Minnesota. Many are 2' to 3' in diameter and a few were closer to 4' in diameter. I never knew that redwood trees would sprout from the cut stumps but they do. You could see circular clumps of 2' - 3' diameter trees around the remains of a really huge ancient tree's stump....
Gregg was working towards some credentials or certification for this type of Japanese forest therapy and is soon headed to Japan to further his pursuit. He is hoping to eventually convince certain doctors to prescribe this kind of therapy to patients suffering from an inadequate connection to the natural world. Anyway, it was interesting and great to see Gregg again. I'd last seen Gregg around 2003 when he stopped in Grand Marais on his way to Alaska where he worked as a nurse for a few years. At some point he moved to the Bay Area of California where he now lives. This trip is about getting onboard the sailboat I'm crewing on, not sight seeing so I won't be getting up to Redwood National Park etc.. I'll be back this way soon on a road trip with plenty of time for camping and backpacking.
According to a sign on the path, the ordinal huge and ancient Redwood trees in this area were clear cut from 1840 - 1860. The current redwood trees are up to 175 years old I guess but many are much larger than the biggest white pine you'll see in northern Minnesota. Many are 2' to 3' in diameter and a few were closer to 4' in diameter. I never knew that redwood trees would sprout from the cut stumps but they do. You could see circular clumps of 2' - 3' diameter trees around the remains of a really huge ancient tree's stump....
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