We came back to Mt. Shasta

We've been back under the mountain for a week now.  Our lovely Dolores has enjoyed being here and mostly so have we.  

We woke up at Castle Lake the first morning back to heavy snow falling and about 3" already on the ground.  A blessing I first thought and later experienced but there is something about wet spring snow which complicates van life.  It is not just the fact that if you go out skiing and getting very wet that you have a wet inner van.  There is also no source of warmth except what our hearts create.  Lying around on the couch is cramped for 2 and when cabin fever wakes up we are in just such a small space.  

So we finally faced up to the wet out side and went skiing.  Lo and behold the skies part and the sun shines on our magnificent ski outing for great spring powder.  At Castle Lake you can ski all aspects of mountains with ease.  I took 2 runs before we packed up to head into town.

We've been camping most of the night by driving Dolores out of town to the west along the no. fork the Sacramento River.  Beautiful Forest Service land with primitive sites.  We park and walk about 200' to the roaring river and views of Mt. Shasta scraping the heavens.  We have been cooking a good deal of our dinners and even some breakfasts over a fire.  The nights are still cold and we sometimes add a sleeping bag to our blankets to stay cozy.  

The effort we made to reconnect and plug into community life here has, in actuality, gone well.  We have met a cow and the rest of the animals and people who live on a little homestead here in town.  Haddie, the milking cow, is a Jersey and has 2 new friends who will be freshening soon.  There are 3 goats, a kid, chickens, ducks, pigs; oh and a family of Dexter cows, who do the lawn mowing and eventually providing beef.  Jacob, Shawna and their 4 children loving tend to the needs of the farmstead and make wonderful food from the harvest.  Yesterday Julie and I took turns milking Haddie.  Hand milking takes a while when you are out of practice.  I milked the other day with Jacob in tandem.  My first time team milking (Jacob sat behind Haddie, a daring position, but he is so positive about everything that even if Haddie had let lose her digested lunch, there would have been no big deal.)  

We also had a nice time at the Earth Day festival last Saturday in the Mt Shasta City Park.  Met lots of nice folks.  Built a demo of a cob wood fired oven with Toni.  Yoj told us all about the herb Horse tail and how it helps build the crystal body we are becoming as advanced beings.  And various other great conversations.  With all this interesting stuff to write about I am kind of shocked to say that we are not really FEELING the vibe that we are wanting.  After a few moments of clarity and time to let the emotions flow we are just not digging Mt. Shasta the way we thought we would like to.  (Julie's B-day (27) was on of the wildest no-so fun days we have experienced in a while.)  So we let all this chill a little.  We got some great advice to just be with  our limbo living.  And . . . 

. . . we woke up to 5 inches of powder on Mt. Shasta.  We both went for a great ski.  

The next day we were going to go back to the mountain but Jacob invited us to go white water rafting in the spring melt water!  What a fun trip down the sparkling Sacramento.  We are still in limbo about our place, community and work but we are having a blast now that we just let it be!

Where are you?  How is the journey progressing?  These are the questions, along with the other day to day concerns, into which we are excitedly digging.  Where on the planet?, is Arcata, CA.  We have been here for seven days now and wonder is rolling out like a red carpet at a gala ball.  The outdoor activities include a lot of beach walking listening to the roaring pacific, kayaking on river sloughs with tidal flows and tons of bird life, a small bit of biking on a loaner, and the star in the crown:  hiking into the old growth of the coastal red wood.  We did two days in the forests of Prairie Creek State Park, adjunct to Redwood National Park.  The state park is beautiful and a local favorite.  We hiked, with our packs, 5 miles into a wonderful campsite.  The first night we shared the space with Andres,  who understood our need to spontaneously leave the mountains to see the coast.  “Sometimes you just need to be moving on to something new.” he said.  This vibe prevailed as the magic of the giant trees and lush ecosystem lulled us into a coastal stupor,  the effects of which we are still feeling.  We came out of the forest in love with life and wondering if our plan to continue up the coast to the Smith River and over to Ashland, OR was really for us.  So as the Humboldt fog settled onto the sunny forests we hatched a new plan.  Farmers market in Arcata on Saturday morning, and give some more time for the town to show itself to us.  

We had eaten all our fresh food on a perfectly packed meal plan in the backcountry.  By perfectly packed I mean we ate all our meals feeling satisfied at the end and the food ran out at our last meal so the hike out was light and easy.  To clarify further,  Julie and I like to eat real food in the backcountry.  This means that dinner on the first night is usually steak stir-fry as a one pot meal (we don’t eat too many grains since we have adapted to the Vreeland’s Mycotoxin Cleanse.)  Eggs, sausages; both fresh and cured, and fresh veggies make up the bulk of the rest.  We did enjoy fire baked potatoes with sour cream, salt and pepper for dinner on the second night.  They were topped with asparagus and a red sweet pepper sauteed in butter all of which followed grilled, sweet Italian sausages.  And for dessert - just kidding, we were stuffed after that feast, and Julie wants me to say that we did forget the chocolate altogether.  This is our only oversight on the culinary front and we got by on raisins and almonds.  Our packs were still heavy but not nearly the weight they carried into the Taos backcountry for the snow camping.  The spring sunshine of the California coast is about 5-6 weeks ahead of the Vermont spring bloom.  

Back in Arcata, the farmer market has begun by the ring of the bell and we were ready having arrived 30 minutes early. (Wow for Julie and Zach.)  The market is set up around the town square very similar to Burlington, VT’s market.  Lots of potted plants from trees to lettuce starts.   The fresh veggies are mostly leafy greens (our favorite) and there are beaucoup de eggs.  Also we bought a dozen oysters, a 1.3lb of grass-fed organic ground beef, and local hulled oats (a very rare find.)  After that round of shopping and soaking it all in we unload at the van.  While I am unpacking and Julie is sipping her coffee, up walks Joan who asks “Are you really from Vermont?”  Before I say “Yah” I ask her if she was really raised by wolves like her bumper sticker claims.  She says “Yes” and we say “yes” and that is how we met Joan.

Is it possible that we will "land" here in Arcata?  Yes . . . but we still cannot yet say it is a firm plan.  We are headed back toward Mt. Shasta for a regroup with snow and our friends on the mountain.  love and peace zach.

Today Julie and I made it to the Pacific Ocean!  We walked on the beach under the vast dunes forming Arcata Bay.  Arcata, CA is a fun university town we are exploring today.  Dolores de Glorious has gotten through her spring clean out and is running like a good VW can.  Today German Motors reset her timing and idle after the car genius, Larry met and healed her with the diagnosis of a faulty Double Relay last week.  

We are catching the Banff Mountain Film Festival tonight before we continue our coast foray in the morning with agate beaches and the most anticipated event of the year, Julie's introduction to really, really big trees.   Love and Gratitude to all.  Zach

. . .  Continued from before.

After the the 6 hours of up hill momentum I returned to the Mt. Shasta parking lot tired but smiling.  Julie had grilled up some wonderful organic grass-fed cheese burgers.  Yumm!  When we finally got ready to head back down the road to town and visit with our fun friends, Kate and Jen, the van would not start.  ?   So; try again.  Nothing.  Well no big deal, we'll just give her a little push and coast start her down the 12 miles of mountain road.  Only Dolores gave no response to the friction against her gears.  ?  

She is now parked out front of Kate and Jen's house hoping to be fixed by someone.  I tired for the last few days to little avail (with the help of numerous passer-bys and a friend-of- a-friend who knows VW's.)  The promise of tomorrow is Larry's Mobil Service.  We (myself and all that help) think it is a fuel delivery issue but there are powerful energies at work from Mt. Shasta and the abruptness of the not starting is very mysterious.  I am not really happy about the stalled van but I am trying to be as up beat as possible about the situation in which Julie and I are landing in Mt. Shasta.  I normally would not have under taken so much to the "try to fix it myself" responsibility these days but I was hoping it would be simple, quick and cheap.  Instead it has lead to a less than ideal experience of my reality.  My dislike of working on broken contraptions gets many opportunities to rear its head into my consciousness.  This time around I have enjoyed some parts of "the ride" more than on previous fix-its.  It is amazing the layers of Karma which need to be unfolded for the spirit to continue finding freedom.  I am not quite sure what fear I hold about things not working in my world.  Does it have partly to do with the financial responsibility of fixing things and maintaining a comfortable life?  Can the part of me that needs to do everything myself because I've got to get it perfect let go and forgive so I can more fully enjoy the experience at hand?  These "fix it" parts of my ego keep getting activated at new levels as I free different parts of my being.  So I still do hold on to identities of Zach which are no longer serving me to my fullest.  Surrendering to the moment and letting joy guide my experience as the layers of fear peel off my ego, is a bigger trust than I have been able to manage recently.  

 Now that Julie and I are thinking of landing somewhere and the road trip has ended I need to let go of more identities.  The irony is that the identity of the traveler is not the heavy one.  All the fear is around the job and the safe space to live.  Already I have put limits on myself by claiming most of May for playing and celebrating.   So without the van to drive around and live in I feel somewhat inadequate.  Thankfully I can lean on the shoulders of our new friends Kate and Jen (Julie too.)  They are so supportive, welcoming and fun.  Sharing their home is a blessing.  I know things will work out and there will be lots to laugh about remembering our landing here in Mt. Shasta.  I wanted to give you all a view into life which is not the outdoor adventure with amazing fun.  Well it really is still amazing fun because the cleaning out of karma is the most fascinating process of life.  Thanks, love Zach.

Mt Shasta is a wonderously beautiful mountain.  We arrived here on a sunny Sunday with lots of activity on the mountain.  Lots of skiers were just finishing up their tours and returning to the parking lot at Bunny Flats where the snow banks are still 6' high.  Monday was an even nicer day with spring corn snow on all the sunny slopes of the entire mountain.  Starting at the bunny flats parking lot (6,800') at 10:00 am I made it up to about 11,200' by 4:00 pm (my turn around time,) and looked out over the vast country below.  I put on my skis and had a glorious ride all the way down to Julie and Dolores; 4:31 pm.  Ski descents are amazing.  To be continued.

This morning in Cali.

We rolled into Bishop, CA last night and found Tim at Sierra German Auto.  Delores really loves him because he threw off the alien tractor beam from the Nevada Extraterrestrial Hwy and changed the points in her engine.  An easy fix in less than 15 min.  Tim you are a wizard, our van drives wonderfully again.  This morning we soaked in HOT springs with a vista of the full Sierra.  What lovely happenings isness is.  Headed north to Mt. Shasta by the week-end.  I'm writing from June, CA.  love zach.

  

3 + 1 favorites from the Taos Adventure.

Here are the visuals for Taos.  

We made it to California!

Yesterday we made it in the Golden state, limping at 45 mph under an alien tractor beam, which sucks in cool beings as they cross the Silver state.  Luckily Dolores (our van's new name, discovered from rock images above a hot springs in NM,) had enough power in reserve to putt her way up and over the numerous passes on route 6.  We took a rest stop at Warm Springs, junction of Hwy 93 and Rt 6.  A beautiful hot springs, (I guess 93' F) flowing into a swimming pool behind barbwire, chain link.  We found the hole in the fence that Scott and Patricia, friends in Albuquerque we visited, told us about.  Perfect for soaking and cleaning up, for tired canyoneers.  

We are fresh out of Utah's canyon country.  We drove thru Page, AZ on route from Durango in search of Paria Canyon.  This is a 30 mile slot canyon which feeds into the Grand Canyon.  The backcountry permits needed to overnight in the canyon were all taken (thankfully says Julie as she has been hot to get to Cali,) so we only geared up for a full day hike.  We made 3 # of burgers, roasted garlic, and steamed mustard greens for lunch, and went to bed as the 50 mph wind blew in a 70' F weather change with snow squalls.  Waking up a 5:00 am to clear cold skies we dressed and drove 3 miles to our trailhead.  3 boiled eggs and left over elk stir fry got us going for a 7:00 am start.  (No the speediest of a.m. starts but perfect as you  shall see.)  The trail into Paria (pronounced par-ee-uh) is the river bed.  We are so thankful to have our muck boots as most hikers are traveling in low boots or sneakers with neoprene socks and expecting cold feet.  We crunch along the frozen river edge and water with warm feet witnessing the spectactular dessert dawn unfold over the red rock canyons.  This is a magical day and something that has been on my "life list" since I read about it in a hiking magazine years ago.  (I really don't have a formal life list but having now see this canyon that I dreamed about has turned me on to making one.)  I will not be able to describe the whimsical flow and shape of what I experienced in color, texture, and depth in the slot canyons of Paria and Buckskin.  Here are some pictures.

     
.   The day ended at 5 pm back at Dolores after 20 miles in the sandy Paria river.  Our feet hurt and our legs were sore.  Julie's knee is still tender and stiff.  We loved every minute of it.  Our camp site that night was 1/2 mile away under some old cotton woods along the Paria River, and we slept for 13 hours!  Fantastic adventure.  love zach.