Alba Road Revisited

As if last Saturday was not enough to proof my lack of mental capacity -- heavy storms, downed trees, power outage, driving in the dark -- I went back to the area on Monday in an attempt to take some pictures of the big redwood tree that we drove under.

First is a map of the area the Quacker Center gave me before they led me out (click on the picture to see a bigger version). The little block in the lower right corner marked DL is the lodge we were in. QC is Quacker Center. We'd go up the fire road and catch Alba Road (the 45 degree slope was somewhere there), and the downed redwood tree is at the end of Alba Road, right before Highway 9, which is the main road we need to take. If my car couldn't get under the tree, we'd have to turn back on Alba Road, follow the Empire Grade, Jamison Creek, Highway 236 route, which would add an extra 45 minutes of driving on mountain roads in pitch black.

My little green engine saves lives.




Got there just a tad too late and Caltrans just cut the tree down, so all I saw was a tree stump. It's still pretty impressive, and from the picture you can see how low it is compare to the pick up truck.



The house on the other side of the road got a neat slice in the side. The lady of the house was sitting under the skylight when the tree fell so she was not injured. What a lucky lady!



Last one, it hailed in the early afternoon. This picture was taken from inside the lodge. Not golfball size, but hail nonetheless.