Trip 9 - California Dreamin'

On this trip we set out to immerse ourselves in the culture and the nature of California. To discover its textures and see some of its natural wonders. We discover that California is very big. It is not a state that you can just pass through, it is, more than any other place we have visited, more like another country. It is a land dominated by mountains, the spaces between and like nowhere else, water.
Our start in the heavily populated area to the East of Los Angeles, known as the Inland Empire, is crowded into the lowlands surrounded by magnificent mountains. The feeling is of a cauldron which is trying to boil over the mountains to the fresh air of the rest of the state.
To the South is a band of Desert, which is the buffer to Mexico, which we did not explore on this trip.
We travelled North through the mountains (everywhere in California you can see mountains) to the desert, and on again to the huge Central Valley, mile after mile of intensive agriculture. Culture here is dominated by food, flatness, low income and trying to impact on the 'sameness' of the flat lands through music and festival. It is the communication and administrative corridor that links all other areas of California.
To the East is the huge mountain chain of the Sierra Nevada which clearly demonstrates the magnificence of the natural world, both in its geology and nature, reflected in the pysche and pride of most Californians. It is Eldorado, dominated by Gold!
To the West of the Central Valley are the coastal mountains, San Francisco and the magnificent coast. More isolated cultures, from mixed resources, communities seperated by mountains.
To the North of the Central Valley more mountains and a culture which looks more North towards Oregon than South to Sacremento.
This blog details our journey through California, where we pick and choose, or just scratch the surface, of this diverse and beautiful state.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

On our Way to Weed!

Sunday 23rd

Having had a great day at Burney Falls we pressed on to Weed, where our friends Steve and Mary live.
On the way we stopped at a small town called McCloud.
Since leaving Lassen we have been firmly in Lumber Country. Although some gold mining happened here it has been lumber that has shaped the economy and the lives of the people who live here.
Burney, McCloud, Shasta City and Weed are all lumber towns, although the industry is now much a smaller employer than in the past it has had a significant effect on the town layout and communications.
So having decided to stop in McCloud for a morning coffee/tea we left the highway and cruised through the town, past the beautiful PollyAnna style clapperboard houses and trim gardens with white picket fences and parked by the now defunct railroad built to haul lumber. At the railhead is a small tourist community with coffee and gift shops. We chose the Mountain View Café (as we sat in a window booth we could see Mt Shasta looming in the distance), here we had a great welcome, a pleasant drink and a very nice Apple Crisp Muffin. After a short walk on the covered sidewalk and a long chat to some of the locals we got underway again. The road took us round the base of Mt Shasta.
Mt Shasta dominates this area in every way. It is volcano which has erupted roughly every 450 years for the last 5000 years. It is a single mountain which rises to 14,100ft. The surrounding area is made up of igneous rocks, volcanoes, lava flows, basalt extrusions, ash cones, etc, but none of them rise above 5000 ft. The area around Mt Shasta sits at about 4000ft, so the mountain rises a clear 10,000ft above the surrounding land. Mt Shasta has a double peak, Mt Shastina, a peak which only a little shorter. The whole mountain is permanently covered with snow and boasts 5 permanent glaciers. We first saw it at a distance of 120 miles and photographed it at Red Bluff, 114 miles away.
So having driven round Mt Shasta we arrived at our friends. Their house is just 7 miles from the peak of Mt Shasta, so we could see it very clearly against the bright blue sky of Northern California.
Posted by fastrak at 8:57 AM

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