Backroad Odyssey : Travel, Van Life & Lost Locations
Traveling America's backroads, history and road trip enthusiasts - Noah and Noodles - unearth fascinating locations overlooked while traveling.
Living out of a van, they research and visit each story location to share the (often shocking) secrets held within.
If you love travel, history and thoughtful storytelling - join us on the road!
Backroad Odyssey : Travel, Van Life & Lost Locations
Van Life Diaries - Into the Redwoods : Realm of Giants
The Redwoods are home to the world’s tallest trees.
WHAT'S the secret to their staggering growth? Why is this unique ecosystem worth visiting?
Noodles and I hike deep into the Old-Growth Redwoods of Northern California to find out!
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As always, we'll answer listener question at the end, which include:
- Have you had any cryptid encounters on the road?
- Is is hard to drive your van?
- Any national parks you'd like to go back to?
- What have the trees been telling you? What's the tree tea?
- What's the wildest thing you've done for an episode?
My Recommendations (details in episode):
Avenue of the Giants:
https://www.visitredwoods.com/explore-the-redwoods/avenue-of-the-giants/
Trees of Mystery:
The Living Chimney Tree:
https://aveofthegiants.com/attractions/living-chimney-tree-attraction-grill/
Works Cited:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40608544?searchText=redwoods&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dredwoods%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3A63141d001987533dfa9a2e90fec5d121
https://www.nps.gov/redw/faqs.htm
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/tall-trees/2nd-grade/
https://medium.com/@treejer/the-story-of-the-redwood-trees-ac56d4730d9e
https://www.savetheredwoods.org/redwoods/why-redwoods/
https://californiacurated.com/2021/03/04/why-are-californias-redwoods-and-sequoias-so-big/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BVHSUMAWR4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9NDI5H2zZM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW9w6eCQQkU
Noah and Noodles here!
We want to extend a heartfelt thanks to every listener of Backroad Odyssey.
Your support fuels our passion and inspires us to keep sharing stories and discover overlooked locations.
Follow each adventure visually at:
https://www.instagram.com/backroadsodyssey/
Cruisin' down the street. I wonder where this road would lead so many possibilities. Care to share what you think. Oh Noondolls, what do you see? Back Road Odyssey.
Speaker 2:Van Life Diaries Into the Redwoods realm of giants. Welcome to Van Life Diaries. I'm your host, Noah, in the van today, along with my dog and co-host, noodles the Woodle. Let's get into it. The Redwoods along the Pacific coast are home to the world's tallest trees. What is the secret to their staggering growth? Why is this unique ecosystem even worth visiting? Noodles and I hike deep into the old growth redwoods of Northern California to find out. As long-time listeners know, van life diaries are relatively unscripted and impromptu and at the end, as always, we'll answer listener questions. For now, I've got a West Coast IPA on hand. I felt it appropriate. Feel free to join me, alcoholic or not. Sit back, relax and prepare yourself, because where we're going there be giants.
Speaker 2:It's our first night camping the Redwoods. We're near Elk Prairie Trailhead under some of the biggest trees I've seen in my entire life. A little fire's going. The sun just set. I'm going to be honest. It's strange being here. For me, the Redwoods, specifically, have always been this hazy dream, someplace that I'll go to eventually, the very distant future. So it's surreal being here now.
Speaker 2:Let me start with this Whether you've been to the Redwoods, would like to go or have thought about it. I've got three questions I'd like to answer in this episode that I think you'd find interesting. One, why are these trees so big? Two, how did this intricate system of parks and protected trees, groves come to be? And finally, most importantly maybe, why should you or I come to visit and appreciate this truly unique ecosystem? In other words, what's there to get?
Speaker 2:The Redwood is the glory of the coast range. It extends along the western slope in a nearly continuous belt, about 10 miles wide from beyond the Oregon Boundary to south of Santa Cruz, a distance of nearly 400 miles, and, in massive, sustained grandeur and closeness of growth, surpasses all of the other timber woods of the world. John Muir, the Redwoods are an expansive collection of state parks and a national park, all featuring unquestionably unique landscapes. These stretches of tree growth are often cited as among the most beautiful in the world. A redwood often grows more than 300 feet tall. The record is something like 380 feet. All right for context, the Statue of Liberty is 305 feet. So let's ask ourselves how is this possible? How and why do redwoods grow so tall? If you aren't in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?
Speaker 2:Ts Eliot, redwoods have a very specific collection of reasons for their staggering staggering height. So let's jump right in, shall we? First, let's talk climate. The stretch of redwoods in Northern California often receives as much as 100 inches of rainfall annually. This helps with growth, obviously, but the real secret to a redwood's long, sustained growth is not rainfall, it's fog. In the summer, when the cold Pacific air mingles with warm California temperatures, an annual thick fog descends upon the redwoods, blanketing them with moisture and preventing water loss. But where usually trees prepare themselves for periods without rain, without moisture, redwoods are unique in that they don't really have to do this. This fog prevents water loss, as we said, but, importantly, they've adapted to intake this water rich fog through their leaves, through their bark and even through root shoots that protrude from the ground. Let me put it like this so, rather than drinking half the glass of available water each year, drinking half of it and then stopping, redwoods continuously drink water throughout the year. For trees, more water means more growth. The second reason for their staggering height is how a redwood distributes the water once it's acquired. Redwoods have a unique vascular system that efficiently transports water and nutrients. This is the way I like to think about it, so, as simply as I can put it, the more distance you have to transport something, the harder it will be. So, where most trees have a height cap, because water distribution would be impossible after a certain height it would be too hard Redwoods' unique distribution system bypasses problems that would otherwise occur. It can transport nutrients from the bottom to the top and without getting into the dark rabbit hole on precisely how this water is transported. The key takeaway is this Redwoods grow tall because the readily available water can be absorbed and moved throughout its system despite its size.
Speaker 2:The next reason is they're wildly resilient To live a long time. For us, but for trees as well, it helps to be resistant to disasters, sickness and pests. More for the trees, I guess pests can get us as well, but a redwood is uniquely adapted to resist or deter all three of these things resistant to disasters, sickness and pests. In addition to both having fire resistant bark, having safeguards against disease, a redwood's high tannin content repels pests that would otherwise make it not as successful. So yeah, no sickness, no disaster, no pests. I'll make for a longer life for our friends the redwoods.
Speaker 2:Finally, let's list the remaining factors. Shall we? Redwoods have roots that extend up to 100 feet from the tree's base and intertwine with the roots of all nearby trees. Each tree then holds on to each other, which increases the collective stability of all of the trees. Combined and well intertwined, well connected, this system shares resources, allotting more nutrients to less healthy trees when needed. It's a great big community set on survival. And look, you get the idea. I could go on, but the fact is this these trees are remarkable they can live for more than 2,000 years, have a biological height limit of 420 feet, that's 40 feet more than Hyperion, the current tallest tree in the world, which is Redwood. And what makes this possible is just what we talked about the wet climate, their efficient water transportation system, resistance to fires, bugs, disease, complex root system, etc. But all of this fades away when you stand underneath them.
Speaker 2:At a Redwoods base, time stops. We hiked a ways into the forest. It's raining Wouldn't expect anything different here, I'm not mad and we've stopped now underneath a particularly massive tree. So, as a redwood ages, the lower limbs kind of fall away and what's left is a massive pillar that reaches into the sky until the upper branches appear that haven't fallen off. It's crazy tall, yeah, but it's also not blocked by this mass of leaves and branches, you can really stop and appreciate how massive this is. It would take a very rare person to not be in awe. Well, at the base of a redwood tree. They're bigger than us, they've lived before us and they will outlive us if we let them. A tree's wood is also its memoir, hope Jareen.
Speaker 2:Two million acres of old-growth redwoods once thrived along the Pacific coast. Today, 5% remains. How and why did this happen? To answer this, we'll go way back Before European expansion along the coast. Tribes the Yuric and Toloa included, called the Redwoods and surrounding area home. These tribes spoke a diverse collection of languages, maintained separate identities, but all reserved a deep respect for the redwoods. Traditional homes were made from fallen redwoods only, which still, they believed, contained in essence from the once alive tree, in essence to be cherished, to be respected.
Speaker 2:But this didn't last for long. Enter the gold rush and the subsequent influx of people hoping to strike it rich For these tribes. Treaties that normally allotted reservation land were never officially ratified, only done by administrative decree, and, predictably, the agreements that were verbally said were never fully implemented. As unfair as even those treaties would have been, it was a bad deal For the settlers. This land was too rich and too valuable to give away.
Speaker 2:The large number of Euro-Americans settling the area presented a massive supply issue. Timber was especially needed for homes, railroads, commercial buildings, you name it. And redwood is an ideal timber for building. It's strong and in the area it was readily available. Remember two million acres. And with that said, we all know what's coming now. Commercial logging quickly asserts its presence and timber harvesting becomes the top manufacturing industry in the American West West.
Speaker 2:By 1853, large strands of the once expansive forest disappear and by 1960, five percent of the once two million acres of old-growth redwoods remain. I found a place beside a friendly tree where I'll hide my face when the world hurts me, for the tree will never hurt. I shall love it to the end. I shall have a dear, dear name my true and silent friend, the Friendly Tree, by Annette Lyne. You might be wondering now how did the remaining redwoods survive At that rate of deforestation? Nothing really should have. The answer lies in a small group of concerned people and the establishment of a series of state parks and eventually one national park. Here's the spark notes National Park. Here's the spark notes At its peak.
Speaker 2:In 1890, logging operations owned most of the remaining redwood forests and groves. It was private land, land on which they could do with whatever they wanted to. By the early 20th century, the probable destruction of the remaining 5% of redwood groves became obvious. It was looming Groups like Save, the Redwoods League, formed in 1918 and dedicated themselves to buying tracks of Redwood groves for preservation. So between 1920 and 1960, the League bought 100,000 acres of Redwood forest. The League's admitted success led to the creation of many state parks, including Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park, del Norte Coast Redwood State Park and Prairie Creek Redwood State Park. I could go on. But it wasn't until 1969 that Redwood National Park was established. And then it wasn't until 1978 when the government purchased land from logging companies to secure an additional 10,000 acres to add to said national park. Today the majority of the over 100,000 remaining acres of old-growth redwoods are found in the assorted sections of different state, local and national land.
Speaker 2:The rain's still going. Noodles was soaked so I put her in the van, but I'm still walking. I'm still going through the damp ferns and decomposing logs here. That rain smell you get when you go outside after a storm is so present. It's ever-present. It's just beautiful. And here's a thought I had. I don't know about you. But for most of my life I thought it was Redwoods National Park. Just one park, one entity, preserving the Redwoods. But being here, camping this patchwork of state parks, local parks and the National Park, it just shows the slow and the messy nature of preserving resources. Preserving anything, it takes time, money, resources, effort. For me, still, walking underneath these trees, no cost for me seems too much, no effort seems too wasted. It's priceless.
Speaker 2:We started this diary today with three questions. We've already answered two. One, why are these trees so big? Two, how did this intricate system of parks and protected trees come to be? And finally, our unanswered question why should you or I come to visit, come to appreciate the Redwoods? What's there to gain? I'm going to be honest. Your answer might be different than mine, but I'll speak for myself.
Speaker 2:There are times in life when context is needed and walking beneath the redwoods, you come to realize that your world is small, it just is. You're not that important. Your problems disappear underneath things that are much bigger than you, live longer than you, are calmer than you and probably wiser than you. It's a strange comfort to feel insignificant but be happy about it. But under the redwoods we're not the center of the world and that, in a weird way, is comforting. Life for me is simpler under the giants.
Speaker 2:Let's get into listener questions, shall we? Did you have any cryptid encounters? Great question. I read this and I had to think about it. So there have been a lot of times in the van where I hear noises, when I'm in the woods or what have you. But one moment stands out as the closest thing I can think of to a cryptid encounter while on the road.
Speaker 2:So Noodles and I were in the middle of the desert in Nevada, so we're camping for the night and Noodles had to go to the bathroom it was maybe one in the morning, it was a new moon, so it was pitch dark. Go to the bathroom it was maybe 1 in the morning, it was a new moon, so it was pitch dark, except for the stars, which were absolutely beautiful. But we went outside and where before it was totally silent, we heard it almost sounded like laughter from a lot of different entities or things far, far away. Different entities or things far, far away and you know now it's definitely a group of coyotes or something. But it felt very pointed. It felt like we were kind of surrounded and it was one of those times when you take your dog out and you know they have to go, but they're just taking their time, so I was really uncomfortable hearing all of this like wolf chatter or coyote chatter in the distance, and I'm like, all right, noodles come on.
Speaker 2:And I took her back in. But then I woke up again at a couple hours later, three in the morning, because noodles had to go outside again. We went outside and it felt like, sounded like they were closer. You know obviously, coyotes in retrospect, but it's one of those moments and this is why cryptids are so fascinating. When you're in the moment and you hear this and you're by yourself and you're relatively scared, your imagination runs wild and it could be anything. What you hear, what you see, could be anything. So I'd say that's the closest answer I have in terms of cryptid encounters. That is a really, really good question. Thank you. Is it hard to drive your van? You know, not, really, not really. I thought it might be before I got it, but I've got a rear view camera. It's only 21 feet, so it's not massive. I can see everything from my windows. It's. It's been great. Yeah, I love driving my van. Actually, I prefer it over a car or something. Um yeah no.
Speaker 2:So if you're looking into getting one, it's not hard to drive at all. Any national parks you'd like to go back to, that's such a hard, hard question. I'll always go back to Tetons National Park. That's my favorite place in the country. But in terms of a place that I only kind of briefly visited is Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. I went on a brief hike there. I'd like to spend a week around there and really look into it. It's such a such a beautiful location and I didn't explore it as much as it deserved. So I'd say Critter Lake in Oregon is what I'd like to go back to.
Speaker 2:What have the trees been telling you? What's the tree tea? Fantastic question, fantastic question. You know, sometimes I feel like we think we're the only thing that can communicate. And walking amongst the redwoods, you know, you really feel almost like they're conscious In a weird way. It's really hard to describe In terms of tea. I mean, I bet they like gossip. They share resources with each other through their roots. I'm sure gossip travels like wildfire, particularly in the redwood groves of Northern California. But yeah, they didn't share any of the tea with me, unfortunately. Maybe next time I'll listen harder, really good question. What's the wildest thing you've done for an episode? First thing that comes to mind is I had a beer podcast for about a year and a half before Backroad, odyssey and Van Life Diaries and all that, and I paired a beer with skydiving. So that's probably the wildest thing I've done for an episode. But hey, who knows what the future holds.
Speaker 1:It's Noah here.
Speaker 2:Thank you everyone for listening to Van Life Diaries. As always, let's get some recommendations in. There'll be a link to everything I mentioned for recommendations in the show notes. So, first off, avenue of the giants is great. It's a, it's a drive through a redwood grove and it's surreal. It's beautiful. There's places to pull off, to take, take pictures, to stop to look. I really, really would recommend that, even if you're just passing through and you don't have even a half a day, taking the time to go and drive through Avenue of the Giants is the Sparknotes version of what you should do in the Redwoods.
Speaker 2:Beyond that, there's this place called Trees of Mystery, which is a collection of unique, huge and different redwoods, different carvings. They have a series of hanging bridges between redwoods, so they go all the way up probably three-fourths of the way up a redwood and connect them through a bridge. Let me tell you you truly don't appreciate the scale of these things until you venture between all the trees on these bridges that connect them. It also has a lot of great information about the forest, about redwoods in general. There's a small fee but in my mind I mean, it's 100% worth it and a great experience.
Speaker 2:Also around there is the Living Chimney Tree. It's a live tree. You can walk in and look up to see the sky. You feel like a little Keebler elf. It's really great and it just shows how resilient these trees are. Its entire midsection is cut out, but it's still thriving. It's still living, and that's why redwoods are just so cool. As far as camping goes, you can drive in for the day, relatively easily find camping outside of the state parks, outside of the national parks, but I'd recommend spending at least one night under a series of redwood trees. There's a bunch of camping in the state parks, in the national park, and you won't. I usually don't pay for camping, but I did and it was well worth it.
Speaker 1:Finally, finally, finally for recommendations.
Speaker 2:Make sure you do at least one hike while you're there. It's great driving it really is but to appreciate it fully, find a hike and to do this for any national park, you go to the visitor center, tell them what you're looking for and you go to where they recommend you go. I've tried many times to find my own hikes, but that's just the easiest, quickest way to find a hike that you'll enjoy, that fits what you'd like to do in terms of the show. It takes a village and by village I mean myself, noodles and everybody who listens um, to keep the show going. If you value the work that we put into each episode and to all the research, taking a second to rate and review wherever you're listening now means the world to me and I appreciate you taking the time to listen. With that said, check out the Redwoods. Be good to each other. Where to next.
