Big & Tall

The sun had set by the time we pulled into the R Ranch, a group of cabins located in the Sequioa National Forest. The beauty of the surroundings more than made up for the strangely inadequate ranch name as we settled into a cabin that was much closer to 'nature' than Jennifer prefers to get. It is a strange tradition that any trip into the 'wilderness' (well compared to LA) must be accompanied by the consumption of sufficent alcohol to fill a small swimming pool. This aside, the next day we set off on our hike through the Trail of 100 Giants...a stunningly beautiful path that provided sufficient time and natural splendour to make us all feel wonderfully and rightfully insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Convening with nature is an exhausting task...and thus we returned to our cabin and made our way to the swimming pool to greet our fellow nature lovers. Everyone has their own way of appreciating nature of course...the 15 year-old security guard for instance liked to show everyone the dead rat he had just found in the pool you got out of, while regailing you with local ghost stories...brillant. As night fell once more we were greeted by some more locals, including a fox and an over-confident racoon, and then it was back to civilization and reality.