Village Clinic Ride Day 20: Photos Do Not Do the Trees Justice

Redwood Park, CA to Loleta, CA

We've spent most of the past two days cycling around Redwood National Park. While the main road through Redwood park can be slightly challenging due to narrow shoulders, the side roads are a cyclist’s dream. They have low traffic and they provide the most sublime visual backdrop you could imagine, featuring old-growth redwood forests.

Photos do not do the trees justice, and words certainly can’t do them justice either. Unless you actually walk among them, it’s hard to appreciate how massive these trees are. You can read that redwoods can reach nearly 400 feet in height, or that they have a circumference of over 70 feet, or that they live for 1500 years. But all those factoids don’t convey the sheer massiveness of these life forms. Over 95% of old-growth redwoods have been cut down. Fortunately, our nation had the good sense to protect the last 5%. And thank goodness for that, as seeing them and walking among them is a life-enriching experience.

We could have stayed at Redwood park longer, for a whole week even, but we had to move on, so we hit a lot of side roads along with some brief stints on the freeway (it’s the only option in places), and we continued on to the small town of Loleta. On we go!

Donate now to help us reach our goal of $75,000 to build a village medical clinic in Majok Goi, South Sudan: https://www.gemsdevelopment.org/2022-clinic-project