Mt. Shasta Memoirs

The drive down from Oregon through northern California is gorgeous. Everything is green and picturesque until about the time you hit Redding and then it just turns into the dry brown landscape that typifies much of the rest of the state. I guess I've really acclimated to the scenery in the Pacific Northwest because the sudden change was jarring and my once golden, rolling hills just felt hot and dusty. Kind of sad!
But before you get to that point you get to drive through Shasta country which is so so beautiful and carries some very meaningful childhood memories for me. When I was a kid I was invited by my friend Lorelei and her family to climb Mt. Shasta two times. I think I was around the ages of 9 and 11 and even though we were so young, we actually did some serious climbing. We didn't make the summit either time, but on the second trip two members of our group did. Granted, they were college boys (students of Lorelei's dad's), but we were all pretty jealous because they got to sign a book at the top and we had so wanted to do that.One of the most miserable nights of my life was spent at "Lake Helen," a frozen ice field (with no lake in sight, oddly enough) that marks the halfway point up the mountain. It features an open-air toilet and a view at such a height that you can actually see the curve of the earth on a totally clear day. It is nothing short of spectacular.

During the day on our way up to Lake Helen we had been hiking pretty hard and my legs got really sunburned up at that altitude. When we set up camp it turned out my sleeping bag wasn't nearly thick enough to insulate me from the snow pack underneath. I ended up totally freezing but my legs felt like they were on fire and I remember writhing all through the night. The hardships of a young adventurer!Even though it's been over 20 years since I've seen her, Shasta looks just the same as I remember. It was so good to get reacquainted. She is impressive and my pictures snapped from the highway as we drove past do her no justice.