Four miles from my front door is a grove of bright neon green sequoia trees. The trees are the most insane neon color set against the army green drab of the Buck’s Brush and the office grey of the boulders that sit in the loose sand. The massive trees stand out in this forest of Junipers, white pine and cedars. Most people in my neighborhood have never seen this grove before and do not know they exist.
This grove of Penny Pines is a easy hike or run from Keller’s Peak Road. They are down a unused dirt road that hasn’t seen car traffic in probably twenty years. This Penny Pines Plantation is so beautiful on a cold February day; the lush green of the sequoia’s just poking out of the fresh snow. Manzanita bush grow all over this part of the mountain and they are thick along this area of the trail Even in winter they are full of angry bees and I hear them buzzing in the dense bushes as my feet crunch over the snow, weeks old now and frozen. The manzanita bark is a rust red against the dark green of the manzanita leaves. The Penny Pine’s are pretty close to Snow Valley Resort, but I’m sure none of the skiers and boarders who whiz down the mountainside even know they exist. They tend to stick to the boundaries and bars of the slopes, where Budweiser and margaritas are more common then deet and SPF 50.
It’s easy to find the Sequoia grove if you know where to look. They sit merely a few miles from camp site six off of Kellers Peak Road. The road is flat, if a little buggy from the campsite on up so it’s not a hard hike or run, but I bet very few people have ever laid eyes on this band of neon giants reaching into a clear blue sky. It feels like I am running to nowhere as I pant my way through the empty forest, sultry Shelby Lynne wailing through the speakers of my smart phone. It’s my own damn fault I never see any deer; I always have the music on. I prefer to play the music on speaker phone and not with my ear buds in. I think it helps my situation awareness should any large or potentially bitey and poisonous animals be around the corners.
The Penny Pines Road dead ends at many of the service roads that cross the Snow Valley Ski Resort, about half a mile after you have left the majestic Penny Pines behind. Going farther up Penny Pines Road is a pain in the ass in the winter. The snow is deep, slippery and will cut your ankles and give you bloody snow rash on your muscular runners legs if you attempt this in the winter months like some one I know.
I mean me.
The girl with the bloody chapped ankles is I.
You run this in the spring ands its more passable but the bugs are merciless. The best idea is to wear a mosquito mask that covers your entire face with netting. Yes, some days the bugs are Alaska bad here. Deet seems to help. They were not biting me; just buzzing in my ears, my nose and trying to get in my mouth, sneaky little bastards.
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| You can see the Keller’s Peak Ranger Station in the distance |
I can run up Keller’s Peak, to the Penny Pines and back seven miles round trip from my front door, so it really is a perfect morning run.
Especially when I run it with this girl!
Aww the mountains, love showing my friends how majestic they are in every season.
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| BFFF (Best Farty Friends Forever) |
