A cougar in Big Basin Redwoods State Park

Cougar
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Fremont, 12-11-2002.

We drive up to Big Basin Redwoods State Park. It goes up and up with fir and cedar trees lining the road. Down below I can see Fremont whch from up here look quite a bit bigger as I at first suspected.

Camped under these ancient Redwoods with a six pack of Budweiser to keep me occupied

Pete is going on again about his big passion for the brunettes of this world even though there is not a single brunette in sight, nothing but trees, birds and more trees. I guess if it was up to Pete all these trees might as well be brunettes, that way he would be in paradise.

Just before we reach the park we see a small red colored cat crossing the road. Too big to be a stray house cat and not big enough to be a cougar, backtracking we see this elusive animal between the trees and bushes watching our actions with keen interest from inteligent eyes. It is a cougar after all, not yet fully grown, most likely a yearling.

Leaving our new found friend to his wild kingdom we drive on feeling highly excited about this sighting. Pete tells me this is the first time he sees a cougar though he has lived here most of his life.

Big Basin Redwoods State Park apperently contains the largest, biggest and oldest Redwood Trees in the southern coastal mountain range.

We leave pete`s truck behind keen on some walking on some of the many hiking trails that cross-cross the park, enjoying the sight and feel of 3000 year old trees.

A strange and mystifying energy radiating out of these huge and massive life forms whose excistence goes back all these long years. Must be strange to live such a long life, always standing in one and the same place, slowly growing older and bigger, eventually dwarving all the other trees around you, see the cold winters and warm summers come and go.....

The monotony of this weird tree excistence is totally beyond me.

I presume if I had cycled all the way up here, camped under these ancient Redwoods with a six pack of Budweiser to keep me occupied, my experiences would have been very different from now....probably a bit like my cycle trip up to Methusaleh, Forest of the Ancients last month when I cycled up Owen`s Valley.