- Expedition: Dec 1-6, 2000
- Khaled
- Reseda and Tokay High Schools
- Hite's Cove
Living as a Giant Sequoia
The view from above is always sweeter. To grow for so many years and see so many living things live and dies makes me wonder how old shall I get. How fat and plump I live drinking water, eating soil. Yet this 3 feet nothing lives next to me and I know I will see it go away to give me food. And when I'm gone I will have done my duty to serve this forest the best I could. For the constant pounding against my bark where birds shall live and feed their young. For my seeds to feed that rodent that steals them from my branch. For I know this is the good life. Having front row seats to the sunrise and sunset. To see for miles and see my son across the hillside. To surpass all disasters, fires, floods and storms do me a lot of good. For when everything besides my brother sequoias are here in this forest and everything else is dead. It's even more beautiful cause we are the kings of this place and nothing can come over-compete us. UNTIL....
I've seen them before a long time ago, the animals call them the supreme killer. For they destroy everything in their way. They have marked some of us with an X and the first ones got murdered. So next time, I'm going to loosen my roots and fall on that big rock that cuts us down.
Arrival
Well, we have arrived here on this long 5 mile hike to a beach they call Hite's Cove. The journey was long and strenuous, but so exciting to see all this natural nature. No animals though only ravens and news. [I] hope to see a bear or even a mountain lion. But not too close!!! It's so beautiful. No cars, no streets, I don't know what's going on out there or even around that tree 100 yards away......
Well, found out what' by the tree. More tracks of deer, dead bushes, and some shallow rapids. I do want to go swimming, but I don't think the sun ever hits the water here. Wait till tomorrow, but at this moment would be prime fishing. [I] can't wait till tonight. I don't know why but out here makes me want to live to another day to see what happens next.
Hite's Cove: Past, Present, and Future
PAST- The white man don't respect my ways. They just come for the gold and destroy the land. They can't live in harmony with the land. They bring bad spirits with them that kill but they say we are just sick.
I can't help but notice my water turning bad by all the dead animals and I'm sick. They have set up their own town and made roads with bridges.
PRESENT- So wonderful. So raw and untamed. It makes me want to go back in time and actually live here the way the Indians did. Build a family and live off the land.
FUTURE- Like it to be exactly the same with no mining. No humans, just the wild.