The Sequoias

Chapter 16

I dried off, hung my towel, and followed Lizzie to bed. I turned down my side of the bed and crawled on in. Once I checked the alarms, I rolled over and kissed Lizzie. "Goodnight. See you in the morning."

I kissed him back. "Goodnight." I closed my eyes and slept dreamlessly until about 3 am when I had to get up and go to the bathroom. I took care of business and settled back into his arms and back to sleep.

I woke with the alarm. Lazily kissed Lizzie and untangled myself from her arms so I could get out of bed. I called in a pick-up order for breakfast and took a very brief shower.

I rolled over and clung to his pillow. "Hmph." Sleep felt good and it was all that I wanted, besides the warm body that had been next to me.

"Are you going to get out of bed today?"

I turned to look at him with a smile on my face, but I shook my head. "I think you should come back in." I giggled. I knew it was out of the question. I sat up slowly and stretched.

"Later, I promise." I smiled at her early morning playfulness. "I'm going to go get breakfast here in a little bit. Did you want to take a quick shower or go with me to pick it up? We could just get ready to go, eat it there and head up into the hills after we get some extra water and lunch. PB&J again sound good?"

I nodded. "I don't need a shower." I undid my braid and gathered my hair into a messy bun and got up to get clothes out. I ended up in one of my running bras, a loose tank top, a pair of running shorts, no show socks, and sneakers. I went to the bathroom real quick. I grabbed my sunglasses. "Ready when you are."

"Alright then. Let's do this. More adventures in the trees. I love the trees. Today I think we shall avoid the tourist spots and just wander among the giants." I reached for her hand. Stole a Kiss and headed for the door. I stopped and grabbed the keys along the way. "I tried to forget these. That would have been bad." I put my sunglasses on and grabbed my backpack. I had pulled my hair up into a bun on the top of my head and thrown on some sweats and a tee-shirt. I was not going for incognito today.

I smiled at him and let him lead me out to the car. I was looking forward to seeing the non-touristy spots. "Do I get to see your writing tree?"

"It's along the way." We picked up breakfast and ended up just eating it in the restaurant. I apologize for making the staff do extra work because I changed my mind. We got lunch and got on the road.

We ended up going further than most of the other cars. It seemed like I was basically getting a private tour. It didn't feel like we were in the car for as long either before he stopped and parked. I took some pictures and then slid my phone in my pocket while I waited for him to get us on our trail.

We drove past all of the tourist stops and the named trees and trails, but I became a virtual chatterbox as I drove. Traffic was good so that helped to reduce the drive time significantly and it made it feel like we were in the car a lot less time then we were the day before. "We're a lot further out than we were yesterday, but traffic was actually good. It likely won't be when we head back and we'll get a better sense of how far we've actually driven into the forest." I smiled and considered telling her about the likelihood of snakes and spiders, then I decided that she needed to know. "So this is a lot more wild than the trails. Nothing is marked and you just have to know where you are and have a compass, which I have in my pack. Since it is wild there are more likely to be snakes and spiders. People don't come here nearly as often as they do the other places. Most snakes here are brown or black, some have stripes those are garter snakes mostly harmless they have small mouths. They are non-venomous. If you see a snake, stop moving. Just stop. Sudden movements scare the poor things and they will defend themselves. Just let me know. There's not a lot of rocks and nooks around where we are going and in the dozens of years that I have been coming up here, I have only ever seen one. So, awareness is essential snakes are not fires. Freeze not stop drop and roll. Are you okay? I'll lead and we'll go slow."

I know my eyes got wide at the mention of snakes, but I nodded and let him lead the way. We were the only ones out there and there were no signs or marked trails. I stayed fairly close to him for a while, but it wasn't long before I got lost in our surroundings. I stood absolutely still and just listened to the sounds of nature. I heard bugs, and birds, the leaves blowing in the breeze. "Is there a creek nearby?" I was sure that I could hear running water. "Can we go to it? Is it accessible?"

"There is a stream but it is in the bottom of a ravine. It runs into one of the waterfalls that can be seen in the spring. I'm surprised that there is water still in it given the time of year it should be a trickle by now." I watched her absorb the nature around her and smiled. "This is one of my favorite places. Come over this way." I offered her my hand. We didn't have much more time to spend out in the quiet. I still had the biggest tree in the world to show her. "Just over here. There is a tree that I just love. No other way to say it. I love this tree. It's old, but compared to the others it is young, still a baby. It's seen a couple of fires and is almost old enough to start making new trees."

I followed him easily. I understood why he came here as often as he did. I felt more at peace in the last two days than I had felt in quite a while. I didn't worry about the next day or even the next hour. I was living in the moment and taking in my surroundings. I was finally getting it.

I smiled as she took my hand and followed me to the tree. "You still can't see the top of it, but it is so young compared to the others around it. And look over here, one has grown so old that it died and fell over. I wonder how loud that was, was anyone here? Did humans even exist? Then here, look at these saplings. This, this amazes me, leaves me absolutely beside myself; humbled" I stood excited and awestruck. The cycle of life was all around me beautiful and true. I took several long slow breaths and just lived for those moments. "This is home."

"I can see that." I had tears in my eyes as he spoke. He had a relationship with this place that I was only beginning to understand. "Is this why you stay in California?"

"Yes. I haven't found another place that inspires me or recharges me like this place does."

I hugged him. I couldn't help myself. "It is so beautiful. Thank you for taking the time to show it to me."

I just held her, resting my chin on the top of her head and breathed it all in. There was nothing to say. No need to speak. We stood that way for a long while before I started us moving again. "We should get going. Big tree to show you today. One more time."

"Mmmkay." I nodded and let him lead me on the trail. There was so much life around us. I was in awe of it all, but I didn't let it take me over. I stayed present. "These are big. How much bigger do they get?"

"Bigger. We'll stop by and see The General Sherman on our way out. You can't get close to the tree but you'll be able to read the signs about it and we can take a picture in front of it."

"Okay. Lead on. I want to see whatever you want to show me."