Santa Cruz humorist Sven Davis is driving our clown car this morning, the other clowns being Laurence Bedford, Sleepy John Sandidge and me. We stop at the entrance kiosk to the world-famous Henry Cowell Old Redwood Grove Park in Felton and observe their sign: “Entrance fee $10, small bills please.”
The park attendant smiles brightly, but Sven looks crestfallen and his head sinks: “I’m so sorry. We don’t have the small bills, we only have the regular sized ones.” The attendant’s eyes move to her left and dart up and down like a malfunctioning robot unable to scan something that computes. Sven hands her a ten-dollar bill and we drive into the parking lot. We meet up with more of our hiking buddies, the legal power couple Tamara and Ben Rice, and Katherine Beiers, former three-term mayor of Santa Cruz.
About 150 feet from the parking lot we saunter into the 0.8-mile loop of the Redwood Grove of Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, home of the old-growth “virgin” Coast Redwood trees that extend into the 1,400- to 1,800-year-old-range. They can live more than 2,000 years. The walking trail passes within a few feet of some of the tallest trees in the world. The largest tree in the grove has a diameter of more than 17 feet and a height of 280 feet. They pull more carbon out of the air than any other tree species.
It is noon Wednesday and families, school groups and couples walking hand in hand pad slowly through the loop. I can imagine on weekends it would be crowded with the free, guided walks led by docents.
There is a nature center with stuffed local animals like a coyote and a mountain lion, and native plants. The center tells us about our coast redwoods: native with growth and longevity enhanced by proximity to the ocean and its fog, with a free-flowing, year-round stream to replenish these giants. Even the thick bark, 6 to 12 inches, is laden with tannin and offers protection from damage by wildfires and insects. It is the tannic acid that creates the red color.
We learn the trees were born before 1066, when the Battle of Hastings began all the Norman hijinks in England. My last name is Stockton, an old English name derived from “severed tree-trunk.” My hiking companions are pillars of the community. I am a stump.
The Unbelievable Lightness of Being Katherine Beiers
One of our community pillars is Katherine Beiers, and there is no other way to state her age than to say she is 92 years young. This woman’s physical feats are astonishing.
As we walk, Katherine tells me about walking the 500-mile Camino de Santiago in 2017. It starts in France, goes up the Pyrenees mountains and then across the north of Spain to Santiago de Compostela.
“Compostela” means field of stars, based on the stars of the Milky Way, and has been followed by pilgrims for a millennium to reach St. James’ tomb. The Camino de Santiago hike follows the pilgrim’s path, the hikers walking between six and 20 miles a day, staying in hostels at night.
Katherine says, “We walked almost all the way, but one day it rained hard for four hours and we went into a bar and after an extended drinking session we called a cab to finish the last 5 miles. I make friends on these Camino de Santiago hikes [she’s done it twice] that I get together with to this day. Two of them are coming from New York to visit me in Santa Cruz this weekend.”
She tells of one man who was walking the Camino de Santiago to kick his alcohol addiction. He had been struggling with his AA 12-step program. I like it: If the 12 steps are too hard, take 1,000,000 steps. Katherine says that he would not drink on the trail, but he would eat bags of candy—big bags every day—to satisfy his sugar craving.
Katherine says for the entire 500 miles she would meet new people on the hike who would always say, “Oh, you are the 84-year-old.” The next year, at 85, she ran the 26.2-mile Boston Marathon.
The Boston Globe ran a photo of her running through Newton, wearing a garbage bag to shed the pouring rain. The Globe reported, “Despite the near-freezing temps, heavy rain, and furious winds, Katherine Beiers crossed the finish line in seven hours, 50 minutes. Beiers ran her first marathon in 1984 in Napa, California, and has run the Boston 14 times.”
In her age category, Beiers has come in first every time. To prepare for it, she ran 45 miles per week around Santa Cruz. She ran the Boston Marathon with her son, who told CBS News that she always enjoys a postrace beer. Katherine says, “A beer is my recovery drink.”
More About the Redwoods
The loop can be completed in under an hour, and on summer weekends there are free docent-led walks. According to the park’s website, standout redwoods include one with albino growth lignotubers and the John C. Fremont tree (a tree hollowed out by fire that was once used as a resort honeymoon room).
Next to the entrance kiosk, all three known types of redwood trees—the coast redwood, the giant sequoia and the dawn redwood (the latter two are not native to our area)—are planted together, providing an opportunity to compare and contrast the members of the family.
Different habitats at the park include riparian, sandhill community, mixed evergreen and redwood forests.
How to get there: Redwood Grove Loop Trail is just south of Felton. Access begins off the Meadow Trail. The trailhead is located in the day use parking lot near the nature center.
