Wednesday, July 22, 2009

The Wild Trees by Richard Preston

Just finished updating my BOOK REVIEW page about The Wild Trees, written by Richard Preston. I upgraded the rating from 4 stars to 5 stars.

The Wild Trees Book Review

Even folks who have read the book, should find the review interesting - there is a "curve ball" with them in mind. When you have a moment, check it out.

There is other stuff you should find worthwhile on that page. Including one more redwood climber not commonly written about.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Grove of Titans

January 2008, I read an article online about 2 men who discovered enormous Titan redwood trees in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. The article was a single chapter from Richard Preston's book The Wild Trees. A few days later, I bought the book. I was already exploring parts of the redwoods, so it sounded like something worth reading.

The Grove of Titans mentioned in the book sounded like an interesting area to find and photograph. With plenty of prior exploring experience in that park, it was only a matter of time to look around and bridge the gap between curiosity and undisclosed location of the Grove of Titans (no map was available).

Before the end of February, I located this grove of enormous redwoods, as well as Atlas Grove in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park: with Atlas Tree and Iluvatar. Since the book had no photos, I decided to supply a webpage and albums so others could see what these redwoods look like. Use this link:

Grove of Titans, Atlas Grove and other Giant Redwoods

There are 3 photo albums, and and a lot of other information. The photos include some of the largest known coast redwoods like Lost Monarch, Del Norte Titan, Atlas Tree, Iluvatar, Melkor, Adventure, Sir Isaac Newton and others. There are photos of a lot of other stuff besides just the giant coast redwoods. Included are flowers, fungi, old stumps and logs. .

In 2009, I explored the forest along Redwood Creek and Larry Damn Creek and Lost Man Creek which led to some nice photos of Hyperion redwood, and one called Dog Soldier too. Hyperion is the tallest known redwood at present (2010). Dog Soldier was a new find, being one of the 50 largest that has been found and measured.