Historic "drive through" Sequoia knocked down in storm

[kkt]

The historic Pioneer Cabin Tree, a former "drive-through" giant sequoia in Calaveras Big Trees State Park in Calaveras County, was felled in California's weekend storms.

The tree was hollowed out in the 1880s to allow tourists to pass through it, and even allowed cars, but more recently has hosted only hikers. It was part of the "Big Trees Trail" at the state park.

More article and lots of pictures at:
http://www.seattlepi.com/bayarea/article/Historic-Pioneer-Cabin-Tree-toppled-in-California-10844206.php

[Max Rockatansky]

Yosemite Valley was actually evacuated last night, last I heard the Merced River was at 12 feet which was starting to cause floods.  Been a wild week with all this water up in the Sierras.

[gonealookin]

In northern Nevada, water took a nice gouge out of NV 446 near Pyramid Lake.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1253374721366621

Also, a bridge in Lockwood, east of Reno, has succumbed.

https://twitter.com/StoreyCounty/status/818615636184047616

[Henry]

What a shame! There goes one of the things I wanted to do as a roadgeek

[Buck87]

Dang.

I wonder, did the fact this tree was hollowed out cause it to not be able to withstand this storm, or would it have fallen either way. Interesting question after it stood that way for 130 years.

[briantroutman]

What a shame! There goes one of the things I wanted to do as a roadgeek

Don't get too worked up. It's not as if this was the only drive-through tree. There have been others in the past which have fallen, and other drive-through redwoods still exist.

What was perhaps the most famous of these trees fell over nearly 50 years ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wawona_Tree

[kkt]

What a shame! There goes one of the things I wanted to do as a roadgeek

There's a click-through list of other drive-through and walk-through trees at
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Historic-Pioneer-Cabin-Tree-toppled-in-California-10844206.php#photo-12161498

But the trend is definitely against making more of these trees, so cross it off your bucket list while you can.

It's hard to say how much hollowing the tree shortens its life.  Sequoias have shallow root systems for their size, so living to the extreme age and size some of them achieve is partly a matter of growing in a spot that's somewhat sheltered from the wind.

[Max Rockatansky]

Word on the news this morning is that the snow pack in the Sierras is near 200% of where it is usually is for this time of year.  Supposedly that might have brought a lot of the northern part of the state out of the drought.  Might be nice to have at least one year where people aren't complaining about no water in the reservoirs because of no rain....then me having to explain that most of the water comes from snow pack.  I'm sure regardless of what happens some scientist will be on the news every week talking about aquifer levels.  Regardless Glacier Point ought to be one hell of a site this year when it opens.

[coatimundi]

Saw on the news this morning that Loch Lomond - Santa Cruz's main reservoir - is at 100℅ and San Luis is just below its historic average.

[Rothman]

Saw on the news this morning that Loch Lomond - Santa Cruz's main reservoir - is at 100℅ and San Luis is just below its historic average.

...and the Northeast is now the one trapped in a drought:

http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/

[andy3175]

Saw on the news this morning that Loch Lomond - Santa Cruz's main reservoir - is at 100℅ and San Luis is just below its historic average.

...and the Northeast is now the one trapped in a drought:

http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/

In my limited experience monitoring weather across the country, it does seem like there's rarely a weather pattern that has no drought across the entire nation. Drought does seem to plague certain locations more than others, but there always seems to be at least one region in the U.S. that is within a drought at any given time.

Here's a wikipedia reference on this topic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Droughts_in_the_United_States

[Quillz]

Word on the news this morning is that the snow pack in the Sierras is near 200% of where it is usually is for this time of year.  Supposedly that might have brought a lot of the northern part of the state out of the drought.  Might be nice to have at least one year where people aren't complaining about no water in the reservoirs because of no rain....then me having to explain that most of the water comes from snow pack.  I'm sure regardless of what happens some scientist will be on the news every week talking about aquifer levels.  Regardless Glacier Point ought to be one hell of a site this year when it opens.

Fully-filled reservoirs may not even be a thing ever again, simply because we understand now they aren't ideal. The concept of "reverse wells" that directly recharge groundwater and aquifers will probably be more commonplace in the future.

[Max Rockatansky]

Word on the news this morning is that the snow pack in the Sierras is near 200% of where it is usually is for this time of year.  Supposedly that might have brought a lot of the northern part of the state out of the drought.  Might be nice to have at least one year where people aren't complaining about no water in the reservoirs because of no rain....then me having to explain that most of the water comes from snow pack.  I'm sure regardless of what happens some scientist will be on the news every week talking about aquifer levels.  Regardless Glacier Point ought to be one hell of a site this year when it opens.

Fully-filled reservoirs may not even be a thing ever again, simply because we understand now they aren't ideal. The concept of "reverse wells" that directly recharge groundwater and aquifers will probably be more commonplace in the future.

Well what I always found interesting was the general public perception here in California and really the west coast in general in regards to reservoir level somehow be an indicator of "environmental" health in arid regions.  I love to explain to people the saga of poor old Tulare Lake whenever I hear someone complain about water.  Blocking the Kings, Tule, Kaweah, and Kern River with irrigation diversion which includes reservoirs essentially killed off a almost 700 square mile inland lake.  It is fairly amusing to ponder over how readily pretty much everyone was in the early 20th century to kill off a lake of that size for "progress."  There is no way that something like that would happen in the post-EPA days.  I guess that it is just amusing to see people ask for "more water storage" on side of the road signage all over San Joaquin Valley like there is some secret watershed in the Sierras that has been kept secret all these years. 

Anyways, speaking of reservoirs....San Luis was looking a lot more full today after all the storms:

[Max Rockatansky]

The Park Service just posted this on Youtube:

[coatimundi]

https://www.gov.ca.gov/news.php?id=19668

The emergency proclamations issued due to January and December storms - for the counties of Alameda, Alpine, Butte, Calaveras, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Fresno, Humboldt, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Lake, Lassen, Los Angeles, Madera, Marin, Mendocino, Merced, Modoc, Monterey, Napa, Nevada, Orange, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento, San Benito, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity, Tulare, Tuolumne, Ventura, Yolo, Yuba and Del Norte - direct Caltrans to formally request immediate assistance through the Federal Highway Administration's Emergency Relief Program. The proclamations also direct the Office of Emergency Services to provide assistance to local governments.

I think that Colusa, Glenn and Imperial are the only ones left off of that list.

[kkt]

The Park Service just posted this on Youtube:

Thanks for the link!  Wow, some of those bridges are only a few inches above the water.

[Max Rockatansky]

The Park Service just posted this on Youtube:

Thanks for the link!  Wow, some of those bridges are only a few inches above the water.

Yeah if things stay status quo I might be heading up that way tomorrow.  It would be cool to see the water level high in the Merced but it probably has withdrawn substantially since.  There aren't any chain requirements in Yosemite Valley or on CA 140.  41 is up to R2 which really isn't something I want to deal with if I can avoid it.

[Max Rockatansky]

Here are a couple of photos I took on Old 198 (Jackson Avenue) the other day when the Kings River was full:





Kind of interesting, I bet the river resembles what it probably looked like before Pine Flat Dam and when Tulare Lake was still around.  Usually that river bed is dry as a bone and not a good 8-10 feet deep like that.  I'm to understand that is all from water run-off into the river bed and not anything being released upstream at the dam.

[Quillz]

Up here on the North Coast, every river seems near full capacity. The Mad River, Klamath River, Trinity River, all are very wide and moving fast. I don't live up here (not yet, anyway) so I don't know if this is normal or not. But several highways are closed or have winter weather advisories in effect (CA-299 is closed, CA-36 requires chains). I mentioned that US-101 near Crescent City is in bad shape right now, a lot of storm damage.

[gonealookin]

Road closures have been far too numerous to list, but it's notable that I-80 and US-50 have both been closed through the Sierra today due to mud and rock slides (can use CA-20 through Grass Valley to detour around the I-80 closure, but that two-lane road would be very slow with the traffic).  In the US-50 slide, somebody in a red Jeep Wrangler was driving by at a most unfortunate time:

https://www.facebook.com/CHPPlacerville/posts/1910857515814442

[coatimundi]

Highway 17 has closed two separate times this year, including earlier this week. That is a major drag for people, since that's essentially the only way to go between Santa Cruz and San Jose.
I noticed SR 59 is shut down south of Merced and has been for a few days. Flooding. The inland sea strikes back...
And the 101/37 interchange seems to have been completely shut down for at least a month now, detouring people through Novato.

A lot of the other stuff seems to be pretty typical, just a little worse this year. I don't know that they're even trying to keep Highway 1 south of Big Sur open anymore until the rains stop completely.

[Max Rockatansky]

Highway 17 has closed two separate times this year, including earlier this week. That is a major drag for people, since that's essentially the only way to go between Santa Cruz and San Jose.
I noticed SR 59 is shut down south of Merced and has been for a few days. Flooding. The inland sea strikes back...
And the 101/37 interchange seems to have been completely shut down for at least a month now, detouring people through Novato.

A lot of the other stuff seems to be pretty typical, just a little worse this year. I don't know that they're even trying to keep Highway 1 south of Big Sur open anymore until the rains stop completely.

Did 59 actually even reopen at all?   269 was in a similar situation, although that was actually much closer to where Summit Lake and Tulare Lake were located.  I was hoping maybe to see a huge puddle of water on the Tulare Lake bed when I went through Kettleman City...no such luck.

[coatimundi]

US 50 is still closed over the Sierras.
https://sacbee.relaymedia.com/amp/news/local/transportation/article132279379.html?_rmsrchost=sacbee.relaymedia.com

[roadfro]

MOD NOTE: By request, posts in this thread about the Oroville Dam situation have been merged into a separate thread and moved to "Off Topic". –Roadfro

[coatimundi]

MOD NOTE: By request, posts in this thread about the Oroville Dam situation have been merged into a separate thread and moved to "Off Topic". –Roadfro

Dam...