Got good sleep again...this time tho dreaming hard...so the sleeping had to be good to do that.
838am.... off to breakfast at Burger King.
Learned there is a Starbucks up in Yreka (north of here)....so I can update there more. They'll be open till 9pm.
Seems like a lot of nicely busted and older women here...love that.
It's freezing in this Burger King here in the truck center area. I told the manager...and the reply was that she'll talk to her manager....and I thought she can't change the temp.....go figure. Spineless.
Considering to change the trip to go from here to Yreka, then Ashland, than Medford to 238 to Jacksonville to Grants Pass and back to I-5 and head up towards Roseburg.
Population in Mt Shasta is 3600 something.
Went to Lake Siskiyou. Saw a sign up there past the dam that said: Congested Area 500 ft....and I'm thinking yeah right. Did the guy that put this up just not realize he was out in the middle of nowhere??? Gotta be one of those installs where they have to spend the money or lose it.
It's nice out...warmer.
Saw two really beautiful homes up on the hillside (past the dam) so took a pick there of the wooden framed entrance....learned later the two homes were built by a cement mogul and are for lease for vacation uses....and I'm thinking for play....especially once I learned what's inside them. Here's that entrance tho.....
1140am..... Went way up WA Barr Road westside of the lake past the signs that tell you it's county maintained. Here is a picture of looking at a mountain to the southwest....so many natural colors here...
And then getting up to the rocky areas and high creek alongside...where the road really climbs up into the mountains. Stopped a few places to look around. There is a bit of petrified wood rocks and soap stones. Here is one of those high rocky areas with creek alongside.....
Drove up to where the road gets up to a Y split....left is the 40N37 forest road and right is the national forest road NF 26 (NF 26 is the main road that is also called WA Barr Road). So near this was this tree that I took a picture of....so pretty there all alone and rather unique....
Anyway....at the Y are two paper plates nailed to a tree....one says '714' with an arrow pointing to the right....and below it on the other one it says 'D. Bickel' with an arrow pointing to the right, but has an arrow pointing to the 'D.' with this written above the tail of the arrow 'Hil'. So I took the "D" route....it's a 40Nxx (something...there was sign...I just missed marking it down....the HERE map lists the road being called 'Gumboot Tie'). Here's the picture of the pie plates that were there....
Got up to a lake....Gumboot Lake (about 6300-feet up)...about 3/4-miles form the Bickel sign, parked and took a look around. There was a camper up there and lady there I talked to....and in the back of mind I'm thinking and wondering if she's safe now that I am up here where hunters and who knows who is around. I had mentioned that her clothing was nice with the red colors...outdoorsy...and she mentioned that she wears it so she isn't mistaken to be animal because of hunters up and about. She had asked me when hunting season starts. Older gal...maybe in her 70s. The camper was decent, not too old. She wanted to know about the hunters so if they weren't up and around that she could wear her green and brown outfits. That was interesting. I had told her that hunters hunt up here whenever they wish...she didn't like that much. Tho her being up here and all....I would think she would have checked with the forest service station before getting up here. Perhaps she travels a bit and lives in her camper....which isn't such a bad idea to see and be in places like this.
Gumboot is a small lake, but clear, green...a peaceful place to be for a bit. See the picture of it below.....
I think that when I lived here I couldn't go up this WA Barr Rd this high...it was blocked off. I did learn later that one can take this road go up to as far as the Trinity Lake area way west to highway 3 ....about 46 miles and according to Google map directions would take about 2 hours or so. I wish I had known this when I lived in Mt Shasta, but like I said the forest route might have been blocked off or gated. I did see a bit of a few cars traveling this high up so maybe some of those are going up that route. I could see it for some shopping in the Mt. Shasta area for those out in the middle of nowhere....perhaps better than say going from Trinity Lake to Weaverville....this route might be good for those at the north end of the lake or out by Callahan.
There was a sign at the Gumboot Lake area that said: 'Quiet 10pm - 6am'....ya think....I really can't imagine kids coming up this far to party.
There was a little bit of tree fog right by the lake.
Side Note: I looked at some old notes about the time when I lived there and it turns out that back in '84 that Duane (he lived at the Mt Shasta Ranch in the cottage house where I lived too) and I had went up to Gumboot to fish. I don't remember that now...but that's pretty interesting. I'm glad I wrote that down back then and kept my notes all these years. I didn't note if we caught anything.
Drove back down ....thought it was fun. I would like to do more exploring up here tho. On the way down I had seen a number of paper signs nailed to trees noting that area was a federal mining claim....such as: "ABC Diggins" and "Lucky Sacramento". I thought they were quite comical....like the movies.
Got down to Lake Siskiyou and went down toward the Mt. Shasta B&B and cut into the road that would take me to where Frances (the girl who was my girlfriend back when I lived here....very special person in my life for the short time she stuck around before moving back to the Los Angeles area) and I would go to go swimming....where I taught her how to swim. As soon as I parked there, on what was otherwise a no-raining day....it started to hail. I notice the water was way down. There were ropes connected to trees to ease getting down to the area where we would go.
I was suddenly overcome with a lot of emotion. We used to swim over to that tree in the center that was an island back then. The water was up a lot higher then too.
I noticed too that someone had built a suspension bridge just a few hundred feet west from here that was not there when I lived here. I felt the bridge was the wrong thing to put in this place...this wilderness...an intrusion of progress.
I stood about the area and imagined all that her and I had done there. I voiced about this place speaking to her wherever she might be. I dedicated this place to her and I....our swimming place...that she feels it too...at this moment. On the walk back up to the car I came apart. This place was filled with our memory markers still so strong. I had found yet another truly magical place....for part of 'us' was here. I hope one day I will find her so that we can share this place again....together. However, I learned later in the year of 2016 that Frances had passed in January of 2016 of ovarian cancer. I had just missed her. She had been living up in the Portland, OR area and perhaps some too at her sister's place in Grants Pass. She had been married for more than 20 years. To me tho....being in this place we shared....I can only hope she felt something before passing. I did contact one of her nephews in Portland who sent me a fairly recent picture of her and she looked amazingly of what I remembered. So that was nice.
I learned here....that it is these memory markers that speak to me the strongest, that gives me hope to move forward, to fill me with most joy, and that in these places of remembrance I am most fulfilled.
I didn't go on that bridge.
I remembered too that I didn't wear glasses back then. I don't think the rope was there back then either so it was kind of difficult to get down the slope.
I did learn how much more powerful it is to be where memory markers are then looking at maps or online maps.
Decided not to go back to visit the Mt Shasta B&B given my experience yesterday. I decided that at this point to treat it as a memory of only my past....untarnished by the new owners. I think the last emotional memory of it was during my visit there in 2010....so I can remember that experience when it was under the Larsen's ownership. I don't think the new owners were all that interested in meeting me. That would explain the business attitude in the conversation I had with the Karen who had answered the phone even tho I had emailed that I was coming and that I would be there another day then originally planned. I had thought they would at least tell the receptionist I was coming. Apparently, they did not. They played the courtesy game. A bit of a put off.
The red house is still here (at Ream and Palmer). I've always liked that house. It was here when I lived here and it was like a landmark ....so from the Carriage House at the ranch as I headed into town....if I saw the red house....I knew I was going in the right direction.....and then on the way back if I saw it I knew the ranch would be coming up soon.
I drove out to the motel at the south of town....the Swiss Lodge... I had stayed at when I had come up here on a Greyhound bus ....I had stayed there and from it roamed around the Mt Shasta area.....and yes...it's still here without much change. Very cool. Incredible when I think about how long of a bicycle ride that was from there to town and out to the ranch where I lived, out to Lake Siskiyou and up to Weed.
It's nice to have places I still around from when I lived here. It's like they are confirmation. And it's places that still hold the anchoring memory markers.....and I really needed that in this visit.
I do like it here....but perhaps to just visit. It does have that home feeling and I like that....a lot! I'm drawn to this area.
Managed to catch a gal coming out of the Over Bakery in Mt. Shasta as she was going to her car after I had parked....just south of the police station....and asked her if they made the organic bread I might have bought back in '84, but no she said, they hadn't back then.....that the store had only started up 14 years ago.
I stopped at the crystal store 'Shambhala Center and Specialty Store' on the corner in town next to The Secret Garden. It used to be a gas station tho I don't think it was when I lived there. I talked to one of the sales ladies there...she hadn't heard of the yellow raincoat gal, but did mention that she hadn't known that the owner had 'traveled' like I had mentioned. I think that she might have as she smiled about it possibly because others who have visited over these years have talked about that. She did say that she thinks that Dorothy is still around...but I later learned that Dorothy had already passed.
It was good tho to get confirmation of The Secret Garden being the book store I remembered. She did say that a few people show up every years asking about the book store. Made me feel like I am part of a kind of family in that way....special...which might be because I have given up on Christianity and can sense the spiritual of this place more than I have before. Curiosity tends to stick around longer than the more organized religions I think. That or my choosing to follow The Guides and Spirits has opened parts of this part of Mt Shasta more so for me to feel part of it more than I did when had lived here.
While I was in the store I was able to sense the energy of the crystals in the glass display cases that were on the tables by just holding my open palm about 2-4-inches over the glass....especially the quartz. There definitely is that draw here to that energy that flows throughout the area because of Mt Shasta and because of the many spirits here and the many memory markers here from my own time here.
There are lots of crystal shops here. I suspect I will return here another time and then I will take the time to visit them.
Side note: Dorothy Kingsdale opened the Golden Bough Books store back in 1977 and later sold it to another gal Missi and again to Otto and Jessie. The Internet Archive has more info here about the store's history: http://www.goldenboughbooks.com.
I believe Dorothy was the owner when I lived in Mt Shasta back in 1984. The store location was at 219 N. Mount Shasta Blvd, Mt Shasta, CA. It is a Bed and Breakfast these days called "The Secret Garden". I believe the store opened either on the side or behind it. I don't remember a front entrance. Nor do I remember if there was a gas station there....tho it might have been and the side entrance area was bigger.
It was a bit of a hang out in '84 and of course there were the many stories about the lady who wore the yellow raincoat and galoshes (even in the hot summer) always taking people on trips into other dimensions. I never met her, but I remember seeing her in town back then. Two gals at the College of the Siskiyous had once told me that one of their friends (all three had gone to the high school in Mt Shasta at the time) had disappeared one weekend such that no one could find her, but that she did return having been on a trip with the lady in the yellow raincoat and that all she could say was that it was wonderful and clearly not on this planet. According to the Internet Archive (Wayback Machine) history on the bookstore it's mentioned she was the one who 'traveled' a bit...so maybe she was the owner back then, but I am not sure on that. I think that Dorothy still owned the store then. I do remember she was older. Tho back then...everyone seemed a lot older than me.
I took a pic of the Secret Garden and found out later that I had caught two people walking toward town on the sidewalk in it of which one of them was wearing a yellow raincoat. Stuff like this just doesn't happen every day.
There is a theatrical place here for music and the fine arts. Forgot to write down the name of it.
There is still that organic earthy charm here and where everyone waves to you when you drive by them.....love that.
Vortex Adventures.
I do believe I will come again. I like it here. Not so sure what I would do here...but now that the Mount Shasta Ranch is a memory I can store away....I'd like to explore a bit more here...especially since not being a Christian anymore. I think that I would see it different too because I am older. I find it interesting that the energy here remains, but the Chrisitianity I felt when I lived here is just gone. The area still feels like home tho...so that means a lot to me....even tho the energy of the ranch is past. I think that the next time I drive down here I'll feel that I am coming home again. Will see. I look forward to finding that out.
I imagine that maybe a shop here selling jerky, chai and coffee beverages might be a good option instead of working here for someone else since jobs would still be hard to come by.
Time to leave while I still have light.
3pm....left Mt Shasta to start heading up to Yreka.
Got some food at McD's at the truck stop area there in Weed. Looks like a storm is going north.
The door going into McD's had this sticker on it: "push door pull door" ....no doubt donated by the school of the gifted.
Half way up to the top of Mt Shasta has been buried in the clouds the whole time around here.
And there there was the big down pour.
On those grassy, yellow, tan hills around the Louie Road turnoff from I-5 were the dotted orphaned trees amidst the small powder cones everywhere you could see.
Saw a sign "Wide Open Spaces".....ya think.
Saw a beautiful double rainbow that seemed to move as I approached and went past the Montagne turnoff. I could see it move across the hills. I don't think I have ever seen a rainbow do that quite like that.
It did clear up a bit, stopped raining....tho there were more white clouds about.
4pm ....arrived in Yreka.
Saw a sign on a building on the right side of the freeway: "Coming Soon....Police of Yreka". Appropriately, down from there a real estate office called "Richter Scale". Not too far from there is the "Y More Liquor" store that was called, so the sign indicates, "Yreka Liquor Barn". Guess the town is getting ready for the new police force.
Lots of late 1880-90s houses here....like this on Third Street at the corner of Yama and Third.....
But I gotta say this town knows how to decorate houses here for Halloween.....the best I saw was on N. Oregon Street near Ralston Road (a green street sign of the owner of the property) between the cross streets of W. Lennox St and Knapp Street. Of course kitty corner just behind this house is the Yreka Community Garden. Has to be where the bodies are buried! Here's a few pictures of this set up at this house....located at 525 N. Oregon Street....(it's the Melbourne Dunn House built in 1906...sign on the house, currently owned by Tom Ralston....who sets up his house every year for Halloween and invites, for free, anyone who wishes to come by and go through the haunted house there too...you'll find info on that on facebook).....
Another house up closer to the west hills was dressed up with haunting nun skulls there by the red brick.....
There was one house on S. Gold Street dated 1865.....I'm thinking it's full of gold.
Looks like the grocery stores around here have been replaced with drug stores and hardware stores......folks gotta keep things hidden I guess.
I did mention the cops are moving into Yreka didn't I.....
But clearly....it is a very dying town, run down....and the people I saw about were more of the undead along with some walking with others....not really related to each other. Kinda creepy. Thankfully, I was here during the day.
I'm guessing the population here shows themselves only during the month of October.
Get this....a garage with a garage door and a roof, but no finished walls on the other three sides....and in the middle of the garage inside....an out house and absolutely nothing else. Wanna bet the car is in the house next to the garage! You might wanna rethink who remodels your house around here.
I saw an older lady dressed like she just arrived on a city street from back in the '40's....hat and long dress and all....holding the hand of a curly blond haired little girl...both walking up the street passing nothing but empty windowed storefronts....and not looking related either....as if the woman has captured another child to take into the world of darkness.
Drove past a bar....this guy opened the door and stood outside looking at me as I drove down the street looking at him...he wore trousers from the '40's and a white t-shirt typical of men who wear such shirts long past their expiration date or from spending too much time deep in a mine. I honestly think he was the undertaker on his day off.....'Oh just great...someone else from outta town I'm gonna have to bury!"
Compared to when I lived in Mt Shasta in the mid-80s.....Yreka has really fallen off a cliff and has dropped well past the bottom.
Alright....off to Ashland. Hit into the Andersen Grade Summit area about 501pm.....elevation 3067-feet. And I am in the rusty mountain area now with dark green scrag trees everywhere.
Got gas in Hornbrook..... 1206.2 miles so far. Saw some hippies hitching for a ride there.
Going now to the next pass. Crossed into Oregon at 531pm. Hit the Siskiyou Summit ....elevation 3500-feet.
Between Yreka and Ashland is quite the climb into the high mountains.
Hit another summer....last one before coming in to Ashland....at 4310-ft. Then it's 7 miles downhill at 6% grade.
Hit Ashland at 543pm. Took Exit 11 into town so that I could go past the college here.
These west hills are greener here.
What a blessing of a place this Ashland. I've always loved it here. Good feeling coming into town and seeing the South Oregon University. Well kept old homes here and in the hillsides....I drove through some of those. Love the city center. Hilly town and neighborhoods here too. Sledding in the winter must be awesome.
Drove by the Minute Market....took maybe 2 seconds.
There's a Van Ness road here.....for the little bit of San Francisco in you.
I love the town here, busy, people about, compact, and terribly fun and inviting. I hope to spend more time here on another trip. It's a walker's paradise of a tiny town with lots of little shops....and no vacancies. Any day in the week in this town feels like a weekend.
So on the way to Medford, OR.....
615pm .....drove through Talent, Oregon. Companies are always looking for talent. Now I can tell them where to find it.
Two miles to Phoenix.....now that's talent!
Drove by a storage place where the sign says they have climate control. Maybe I should open a place up across the street and offer global warming.
625pm ....in Medford.....at a Starbucks across from Walmart....blogging.
I am in a shopping area of town....like a lot of stores....not a mall....just stores everywhere. Went to a Shari's there about 930pm-ish....can eat there and be on the net. And they are open all night....so no time worries. And power is available too.
I do love a good Starbucks. Love it even more if it's late night. Great Internet access, decent speeds, and I get a lot done in them.
Looks like Homecoming guys and gals coming into Shari's....all dolled up. Gotta a lot of looks form a gal who could pass for another Erica....a gal I used to a see a lot of in Seattle. Nice.
Got out of Shari's about midnight.
Slept at a Walmart parking lot. Some of the homecoming teens where there in their cars partying some.
End of this day.
