Dog Soldier | Coast Redwood

Continued from: Coast Redwoods

Copyright 2009 by Mario Vaden

This is a coast redwood that Michael Taylor and I found in 2008, near Lost Man Creek in Redwood National Park. This redwood also is not an illuvial or creekside redwood. It's upslope a ways, near Larry Damn Creek. It lost a good portion of the top from storms over the years.

This redwood and Hyperion were two of the more interesting bushwhacks of 2008 while exploring the wide swath of Redwood National and State Parks east of Hy. 101. FTR, Taylor never showed me Hyperion, but we did discover Dog Soldier together, and he found the really tall Spiral Stovepipe within hundreds of yards from it (my exploration locating Hyperion was virtually back to back for time frame, in the same neck of woods).

For reference, 2009 data for Dog Soldier redwood is 285' or 86.86 meters tall, 23' diameter, and 21,000 cubic feet wood volume, listing this as the 35th largest known coast redwood.

The image below is not showing the whole base. Michael Taylor is not standing on the ground, but up on the trunk flare. The trunk extends several feet outside the photo on both sides where it meets the earth. The trunk on the opposite side of this redwood is about 10' below his feet.

One nice pocket knife of mine is still up there somewhere. One of the large logs must have pulled the clip from my pocket as I slid down to the ground. The reason for the name has to do with the history of the Cheyenne Dog Soldier to stand their ground. Not many redwoods of this size remained for so long in that area. Michael also found a very tall redwood up there, that I recall being named Spiral Stovepipe.