Best is Yet to Come

Big ol' redwood with what appears to be a  small western hemlock growing off it.

Spent a great, although exhausting Sunday, looking around another section of forest I've never been to. Personally, it was a significant one. The realization hit home hard once again, that as far as the redwood journey is concerned, the best is still yet to come, and that is very exciting. The realization also hit home, that the best is going to have to wait, as it's now one month until I hit the road for the East Coast to begin a southbound thru hike of the Appalachian Trail.

One of the highlights of yesterdays wanderings was finding a freshly eaten, decapitated fish. I know that doesn't sound much like a highlight, but it definitely was the first fish I've ever seen lying on the forest floor. It was lying next to a tree that was particularly striking. I thought maybe I scared off a bear before he finished his morning snack. While taking photos of the tree, I heard high pitched shrieking coming from the canopy. After backing up several hundred feet, I finally could see the top of the tree through a few openings in the forest. There at the top, at least three hundred feet from the forest floor, was a giant osprey nest, with one of the parents perched on a dead reiterated top next to the nest. They must have dropped the fish, or discarded the remains...