802am went to take a shower at Pilot and change clothes. Felt so good. The showers are always so clean in these truck centers. I used Pilot and Flying J locations.
Plan for the day....do Crater Lake and then head south to Mt. Shasta.
Got some water, jerky and gas....945am ....870 miles so far, 7.974 gallons, $18.33....at 2.299/gal.
Drove up to the industrial park right near here. ESI (big plant, tho parking lot empty), Asurion (parking lot full)....are just past the Oregon Institute of Technology...great view from the parking lot of ESI of Klamath Lake north end.
No Starbucks that I could find in Klamath Falls or a Shari's....so stopped for some food at Burger King.
Off to Crater Lake ....going to the south entrance.
It's about 1145am.
Heard a mexican kid in Burger King ask an adult there 'what's a Taco Time?'
Took 97 up to 62 to get to Crater Lake. Long drive some, but not bad.
At the sign that says "37009" is this toilet flower pot....I'm figuring that must be the Toilet Ranch....and I don't wanna know what they grow there.....but perhaps you can order a toilet bouquet for that special someone.
More of that ponderosa arid landscape....high dessert terrain, farmland, weedy, short trees.....ranches....saw a nice wood home. Went "A a a a a a a a a a a" at sheep and they all looked....'where can we get a car like he has?!'
Fish Hatchery at Crooked Creek......really! And it's on Weed Road.
Mountains up ahead and to the left .....and high hills to the right. Passed the Lake of the Woods turnoff. Well, they had to name it something....and it is in the woods.
Drove past Fort Klamath Ranch and the family of the Goodsons.....gotta believe that's one proud family.
Got into Fort Klamath....the town...and off the highway is an old late 1800s style steeple church, white, blue trim....and I stop to take a look and I wonder...where is Steven Wright looking through the windows to catch a glimpse of God without God knowing he's looking.....that scene is in the movie One Soldier. And by the way....I didn't catch God in there either. It's called the Fort Klamath Community Methodist Church....the guy that runs it is Pastor Shaffer. I figure the place holds maybe his family.
Saw a lot of trees changing colors like they often do in Colorado.....greens and yellows. I figure they're spreading.
Sign....Don't Burn When Windy......so I guess I gotta wait.
Reached this: Entering Crater Lake South Entrance.
Really tall trees here. I'm figuring it must be always windy here. Not sure if the trees here are redwoods. The bark is lighter and really big like scales of it.
Very deep canyons here and water too.
Going up fast on the roadway. Stopped to look around the Annie Falls area....tho the fall are way, way down there in the canyon. More rushing over terraces rather than a tall waterfall. Didn't see Annie anywhere. Guess she must have fallen before I got there....that or she's skinny dipping and the trees are in the way.
The area looks really great for hiking... lots of rock to climb.
Looks like some of the park employees can live up here.
Got to the official entrance....$15 to get in.
Drove by the Goodbye Picnic (named) area. It's right by a bridge over a deep canyon. Bet it's famous for breakups.
Do love it here tho....so gorgeous.
Skipped the visitor area shop that first came up. There were more later up at the lake.
There is one spot off the roadway where I could see all of the Klamath Falls area....from this far away.
Made it to the top....Rim Village Cafe and Gifts here.....parked....and walked up to see Crater Lake...and I am in awe......just Wow!!! So blue. I am so glad I came to see this.
Here is the northeast side of the lake....
And here is the northwest side of the lake including Wizard Island. You can see the Lady of Crater Lake there at the center right of the picture.
And here is the Lady of the Crater Lake in the center of this picture.... made of rock and talus formations at the north-northwest wall of the crater....she's definitely the punk lady of the lake.
Walked around a bit reading the signs about it and talking to other folks there. There were a whole bunch of kids here....so I asked some of the adults there and was told they are from the Medford School District (I had been talking to a teacher). The students are brought up here twice a year....I had said how precious is that...what an experience for them.
So much energy here....the really good kind....made me feel renewed and fresh. The energy sends a strong message....to take care of this place, be cautious, to take care of yourself while you are here. That came through a number of times with a kind of loving gesture and a reminder. It's as if it is the kind of message from very caring spirits.
At one time this was a mountain....Mt. Mazama some 12,000-feet elevation, the magma below came up in fissures causing then the top to drop into itself forming the lake.
Saw a really big RV come up here....Dutch Star.
Saw a guy wearing a t-shirt that said "Misfit". The gal next to him was pregnant.....early warning I guess.
Talked to folks about my Mt St Helens experience having gone up there to see if it would blow....like what was I thinking. But the people here were curious about my story. Also talked about the caldera inverted volcano at Yellowstone.
140pm....went back down the hill....oh but what a great place to go see. Definitely will come here again some day.
Saw a number of older couples dressed up for outdoor adventures here....rather aged for many of them. Good to see.
No barricades along the cliff parts of the road so not much room for looking around except for a few quick glimpses here and there.
In the canyons there were these conical spouts of sand....they are pinnacles....blow holes of the volcanic days...vents....and the top of the cones....that was actually at the surface of a flat area...and it was through erosion that these conical vents were formed and made more visible.
I did see some of those signs where usually a company says they've adopted that road area....but I saw one where some gal adopted it....so...I think I will only date gals who can prove they've adopted a road somewhere.
Driving along 97 toward Klamath Falls....along the lake....there's a railway down from the right side of the road and there is this fencing just above it....apparently cars can get hit by falling rocks, but not the railway. Figure that out.
3:18pm....I am passed Klamath Falls now.
Mileage sign: Dorris 7, Weed 59. Guess you gotta see Dorris before you get your weed.
330pm....carol called....so very nice of a conversation we had. Really loved hearing from her. I had told her tho that I hadn't called her because there wasn't any reception in Klamath Falls the day before.
I've drivin' into a beautiful valley....lots of green areas here just after the Siskiyou County sign.
Got to Butte Valley, then Dorris....I can see Mt. Shasta in the clouds. Drove by The Moody Brews. Went through the California state inspection station where they check if you have any fruit on you. It's an agriculture check station.
Very cloudy, lots of bright sun rays coming through.
Somehow missed the entry signs of getting into California, but I remembered later that it was that green field area where the entry happens. I think I had come into that once when I was living in Mt. Shasta and had taken a trip up to Ashland and then over the mountains into Klamath Falls and down 97 into that green area (where hwy 161 is just before Dorris) crossing into California.
Started really climbing a bit just past Mount Hebron. The trees are a bit taller here. Elevation is 5,000-feet. Thicker trunks on the trees. Still a dry area tho. Mount Hebron is 5202-feet high summit. Great view from here of Mt. Shasta tho heavily clouded over....very grey clouds.
28 miles to Weed now. I could see a lot of the area here burned....I had read about this fire. It was huge. Almost took out Weed, but it had stopped.
1036-miles so far on my trip. 434pm, at Grass Lake area ranger station, 5101-feet elevation sign.
I can see a really steep rise up from this point looking up at Mt. Shasta. Truly awesome area this side of Mt. Shasta.
Got a little bit of rain here. Took some pictures. Here's one I took of Shastina in front of Mt. Shasta....did it with camera on a tripod.....
Entered Shasta-Trinity National Forest.
$1000 fine if you litter here. Hey...that's less than in some places in Oregon. I wonder if it's less if the litter is burning.....
Stopped by the Living Memorial Sculpture Garden that lists the 2188 helicopter pilots who died in Vietnam.
This was new, not there when I lived in Mt. Shasta back in the 80s....and it was touching, incredible....had metal helicopter wire frames on top of the wall of the list of names. Powerful place of energy there. "A place to remember" is a poem written on the stone monument as you go into the area. The Marine Corps League of the 936 Siskiyou Detachment maintains this. There is also a labyrinth there...tho didn't go to see it.
Started raining a bit hard, lots of wind too at about Juniper Terrace Road.
(end of writings of the first book of notes for this trip)
(started the 2nd book of notes for the trip below)
At Juniper Terrace Road....looking to the left....I could see the rise of Mt. Shasta and to it's west side Shastina...and this stunningly beautiful rainbow overhead. I'll have to remember this viewpoint and come see when the sky is more clear.
It was at this point that a strong energy flow startled me a bit with a message that came up and through me...at first I could hear it inside me and then I voiced it: "I am coming home." It was as if I had been away a long, long time and I had finally returned. THIS was another magical moment....and I cherished it a great deal. I allowed this feeling to unfold and envelope me totally. "I am coming home. I am here. I am home," I said. And it lingered with me as I passed into this place. I was welcomed by many whom I had felt were there....whom I had driven into a passage of. It really felt that way. And I hadn't expected it.
I entered Weed with teary eyes.....512pm....still very emotional....I was entering into a area that holds a host of memory markers.....experiences too that I remember. I was coming home. That's what it felt like even here at this point.
I drove to the College of the Siskiyous....
and saw the dorms where I had worked when I was a Dorm Supervisor there on the weekends....lots of what I remember working there flooded my mind. I had worked at the Ponderosa Lodge dormitory. Next to this was the parking lot where I had sold my Electro-Voice speakers to a student. I remembered this one student Zenon (from Canada) who was this expert pool player. Nobody could beat him. And then the realist counselor in the other dorm who worked for the government for one of the security agencies who would go on various missions outside the country. Nice memories.....
Took I-5 to Mt Shasta.....525pm....stopped to use the bathroom and get some eats in the area where the Pilot truck stop was at....this is a newish area that wasn't there when I lived in Mt. Shasta back in the mid-80s.
I passed Black Butte remembering that I had climbed up the path to the top with Francis back when I lived here.
Took the first exit for Mt. Shasta to come in the north route into town. Saw some hikers and bicyclists....hippie variety....the kind that have never left Mt. Shasta....what I remember from back when I lived here....same style of dress...ragged hair.
Went to the Berryvale market tho didn't try to find that gal who wrote me back years ago about where the market was that I used to buy (with the roommates I had at the Mt. Shasta house when I lived here) organic bread....I just looked around....saw a lot of good food. It's a place I would shop for food in if I ever lived here again. They had Ovenbread....that seemed to ring a bell....it's made in Mt. Shasta....this might have been the bread that I used to buy up there at that place by the cemetery.
The people I saw in the parking lot of the store...it was like going back in time....hippies I would remember the look of....the vehicles....I could only imagine the conversations about good health, saving the environment, using used things....eating some things from what is found on the land.
Definitely better to visit now without all the tourists.
Before I decided to go up to the Mt. Shasta B&B (where I used to live back when I was 28 in 1984)....I pulled over (seeing the ranch there in front of me) to call Julian and Kachina Starr (the couple who had bought the ranch from Bill and Mary Larsen)....I got the receptionist Karen who was rather like she couldn't be bothered, I couldn't visit because they had locked up already, hadn't really remembered me and my name and the letter I sent until I further went into it....and I had called and wrote them that I was coming....but it was like they thought that was nice and all she said....but it was clear this was a business and nothing more. She said Julian and Kachina had left for the day and that she didn't know anything about when they might be back ....not even if over the next day or so...didn't even bother to want to take a message. To be honest....it was clear they didn't really care....I was pretty put off by the attitude. No openness at all ...not for tonight....not anytime.
When I had pulled over....and after the phone call...it was like a huge barrier went up between me and the ranch. I ventured forward anyway to see it from the outside. There was some energy there, but not much left compared to my visit there in 2010 when I was on my trip through the area as part of my trip to Virginia. I parked in the parking area there in front of the house. I noticed the grounds were not as well kept up....which was surprising since taken on by new owners. I thought they could use a gardener....but that wouldn't be me....I would not be able to work where I once lived since much of that energy that was there is gone...as if the spirits of the memory markers that were there ...that most of them have left. I think the Starrs won't take as good care of the place like what Bill and Mary Larsen did....for the Starrs this is a business and about keeping up the ratings to get more customers. Something about them was clearly lacking and perhaps it was that they clearly were not Christians. While I have left Christianity....it was who I was back when I lived there....and the focus of the ranch. That's now gone along with much of what the ranch spirit was what made it so special. I was bummed really ....I had thought the Larsen's would have been more discerning about who they would let buy their place, but perhaps they needed to unload it.
I had lived in the Carriage House behind the main house back in 1984 renting a room from Mary Larsen for $110/m....to which this Karen gal laughed as if in disbelief and certainly because it is so much more than that for just a night there. I didn't need the laugh....I had hoped for a compassionate answer...that's not what I got tho from her.
Bill is 72 these days, Mary is 74. They apparently were having health challenges and needed to sell the ranch. I had lived there before it became a B&B. I think, looking back, that it was a good time then....and that is what I will remember.
The Starrs made the website less of the country quaint and a lot more of the new age flair....something I would think that the Larsen's would have cringed at. In fact, much of the site looked to be more of the "I AM" crowd...that group in Mt. Shasta that was the folks who put on the so-called ressurection play in Dunsmuir. I am still put off by that arena of the "I AMers".
I'll keep the memory of what it was like when I lived there....but I won't seek to visit there on the grounds again....it's clear the 'gate' is closed...'not to enter, for it is not the same'.
I took the road behind the ranch that I used to walk on. The stream outside the fence of the lake on the north side...that's gone, covered up...I used to watch the fish that swam through it. The rest of the road are looked pretty much the same of what I remember.
I drove up to the area where the old organic store had been....I am still not totally convinced, but it has to be that one building there on the corner across from the cemetery...it just seems to me it was a brown house and I had to go up some twelve or so stairs to get into it. But there were memory markers there...maybe the house was demolished....just don't know. It's been so long.
The old Safeway in town is a Rite-Aid. Lots of crystal shops in town now. The backpack store Fifth Season moved down the street. The sandwich shop (that one of the church members from the ranch had opened) is gone. The mexican restaurant Lalo's is still there in the same location. The Secret Garden that was an eastern spiritual bookstore (under another name when I lived there) owned by the lady who wore the yellow raincoat who would take people to other worlds....that was still there, but the side entrance blocked....and the place had become a B&B sort of place....still rang of that energy that was there when I lived here....I needed that....landmarks that had memory markers I could connect with and feel what was special about when I had lived there.
I had dinner at Black Bear Diner in town across from the Rite-Aid store (old Safeway). The net was so heavily restricted I couldn't even get to my blog. Great food there tho. I trashed the restaurant on Twitter tho for having such terrible wi-fi. I saw eleven people there who mentioned they were unable to get to any of the sites they wanted to online. The excuse was that the corp of the restaurant didn't want people spending a lot of time eating there and being online. Tho I found it odd that Black Bear would say that wi-fi was unrestricted at The Treehouse. Are they kidding? It's like trying to lose business. So not coming back to eat in this diner or any of their other locations. The fish and chips I had were good...but without wifi to catch up on my blog ....the whole experience wasn't worth it.
904pm ....left the Black Bear Diner.
Went over to get some munchies and waters at Ray's Market.
I had planned to go down to Redding and over to Weaverville and up to Trinity Alps where me, John and Scott had backpacked....at least the campground....and then up 3, but decided to skip it....in part because I spent so much time in Bend and I wanted to make it to the Oregon coastline.
I crashed up at the Pilot truck center parking lot about 1030pm. I woke up at 2 and again at 5am. It was a very cold night. My lower legs felt like they were freezing. Leg warmers would be just perfect to have....I didn't ....so I used my arm warmers that carol had made for me. I eventually got some sleep, but it was an off and on night.
End of this day.
