It had been a while we had wanted to go. We finally decided it was going to be this weekend, which was also the fee free weekend in most national parks. I was up as soon as the alarm sounded at 5am. It’s amazing, on normal working days, it takes a series of alarms spaced at 15 minute intervals to get me going. The giant sequoias beckoned. We packed a small backpack with the basic necessities, a towel, caps, water, gatorade and sunscreen. We took the longer but “scenic” CA-198 route to the sequoias, ignoring the several annoying attempts of the GPS to lead us onto CA-180. It was almost noon when we finally arrived at our first stop. The General Sherman Tree is the largest living tree in the world by volume, about 2300 years old. The top of the tree is dead, and so it has ceased growing taller, but it continues to add enough volume for a whole new tree each year. From the parking at the Upper Sherman parking lot, it’s a 0.4 mile hike down (212 feet elevation change) to the Sherman tree. ...