Hunting Bears in the Wilderness

The tent that was lacking in all respects. Eric did a good job working with what we had, though.
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We headed out for Sequoia early Sunday morning, and the drive up was nothing special. When we arrived at the park, the first thing we did was be surprised at how large our campsite was, and then we set up camp. One of the tents we borrowed was missing a cover, and the zipper to the front door did not work (thanks Michelle...), but we made do with what we had and everything turned out pretty well. Good thing it did not rain.

We did a lot of hikes and sightseeing while we were there. We saw a lot of huge trees, including the General Sherman tree, which is supposedly the largest living thing on the planet. It was pretty impressive. We visited a lot of meadows, particularly Crescent Meadow, which we went back to again and again in hopes of seeing a bear. Despite many hours sitting on a fallen log in the meadow, the coolest wildlife we saw was a buck, who didn't really pay us much attention. One of the trails took us to Heather Lake, which was breathtaking. Michael, Maggie and I went into the water. It was really clean and refreshing, but practically freezing. One important thing that everyone should know before going to Sequoia is that they say they have public showers, but they don't tell you that they will charge you an arm and a leg for a couple minutes of cold water. It was a lot more fun cleaning off in the creek near our campground. Nonetheless, the first thing we all did when we got back home was take an hour-long shower.

As we were leaving the park, we finally ran into a bear!

A group of trees named "The Senate." We saw these trees along the Congress Trail, which is a fairly easy hike.
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As we were leaving the park, we finally ran into a bear! In fact, a mother bear and her two cubs were leisurely crossing the road almost directly in front of us as we were driving down the mountain. It was a really cool thing to see so up close.

Overall, it was a good experience. We picked up a lot of important camping and hiking tips, and we got to see a lot of the amazing views and beauties that California has to offer.