After my desert excursion i headed back to Las Vegas to catch a plane to San Francisco. I planned on visiting my brother John and going up into Northern California, where neither of us had been. I showed up at the casino in Vegas at about 11pm and found out they had sold my room to someone else. All they had to offer me was a 3 room penthouse suite, which sounded great, except that it was a smoking room.
John is ready to climb Mt. Shasta.
Here's a picture of John falling straight out of a tall tree.
While in the desert i got some kind of eye infection, and by the time i got to the casino my eyes were extremely blood red. That, combined with being unshaven, wearing my preferred fashion style of old raggy shirts and being completely covered in dirt (along with my luggage that had been in the dust storm) made me look so grizzly that people wouldn't look at me. So then i had this fun little experience getting into the elevator.
Looks like an old lava dike.
Shoe skiing back down the mountain after reaching the summit in only 30 minutes!
For some reason a ton of people all dressed up to hit the town were getting into the elevator. They all hit their buttons and then i noticed that there was no button for the floor i was on, just a button that indicated "Penthouse". They had all looked at me like i made them uneasy as they piled in (and i couldn't blame them, i looked like a maniac redneck demon) and i had to reach forward through them to hit the penthouse button because no one else had a room that high. Their reactions were amusing. I should have gone to a really nice restaurant before showering. Instead i'd eaten at a Taco Bell in the interesting town of Pahrump. It looked like it was dinner time for the cast of Mad Max in there, so i fit right in.
This cinder cone jumps out at you on the highway. It's a tempting location but driving up Shasta will get you much higher with no effort, and soon enough you'll be looking down on it.
The air quality was pure and pleasant in the town of Shasta.
Mt. Shasta looks even more impressive at night after too many beers.
On the plane to San Francisco i was lucky enough to have a window seat, and delighted that the plane flew right over all the places i had visited over the past few days. I was even able to pick out Titus Canyon, which i thought would be unlikely. That was great information for piecing together an accurate mental map of the relationships in the area.
Some trail workers told us that during summertime teenagers jump off the cliff next to the falls. It looked thrilling, and was already almost hot enough to do so, but the water was far too cold for swimming.
After seeing other people's photos, i realize now that the falls here is pretty swollen with spring melt water from the mountains. The ground is much greener in summer too.
John and i were very busy for a few days. We hit Shasta first, which unfortunately was still buried in snow enough that the road was closed halfway to it's end. Shasta definitely marked the end of the typical California mountain terrain and the beginning of the Cascades, along with the transitory forests that would become the Pacific Northwest later up the chain. The town below the mountain was nice laid back place with good water, food and beer, although there were far too many crystals in windows.
The entrance is just a collapsed part of the roof.
On the official trail the tunnel is spacious.
From Shasta we were going to Lassen Volcanoes National Park. After a noticeable drive we were disappointed to find that it too, was snowed under, and the road through the park was closed just inside the boundary. So we had to make a detour on our way to Tahoe. On the way we passed a place called McCloud Falls and the Subway. The Subway was a lava tube named so because of it's shape and it turned out to be a fun diversion. We had to buy a really cruddy flashlight from a gas station to go into it.
The unofficial route is much rougher and began to look like we were walking down a long tongue inside a throat.
The exit.
The landscape above the tunnel was ideal mountain lion territory.
Subway Cave was formed 20,000 years ago inside a 16 mile long lava flow that erupted from fissures on the surface. The public trail enters at a collapsed area of the roof and is 1,300 feet long, with interpretive signs along the route. It's very easy walking, but what we were more interested in doing was the non-public route. After walking through a huge hole in an underground chain link fence we walked far into the dark. I was really surprised how far the other half of the tube went. It kept going and going and eventually started going downhill. I still can't find any information on how long the whole tube is, just the public section. From what i saw i'd say it's the longest tube i've been in other than Ape Cave by St. Hellens. Eventually i started to doubt the quality of our flashlight, and since it was the only one we had we turned around.
Lake Tahoe lives up to the hype.
Late in the day, close to sunset, we made it to Lake Tahoe. I've been listening to people rave about Tahoe for so many years i was sick of it, and had decided it was one of those places that was simply overrated because most of the people who brag about it haven't been many other places. I had theorized that it must be like Vale or Park City, maybe great for skiing or outdoor mall shopping but not much else.
Unlike those places though, Lake Tahoe lives up to the hype. Sure, it's got the fancy outdoor mall shopping for consumer citizens and plenty of convenient skiing, but it's got a lot more too. The lake is clear, large and beautiful and the surrounding mountains are still part of the Sierra Nevadas. I saw numerous places i'd like to go, trail or not, just from the road while we drove along the lake to South Tahoe.
I didn't know Tahoe had a beach.
There was a hike here, right on the highway, that looked cool and followed this stream up to some lakes.
Like everywhere else, we were there right between seasons, so activities were limited. John was excited to show me some places on the ridges but the ski lifts had closed just 3 days prior, and the ground was too slushy and spotty to get anywhere. On the west side of the mountains there were some hiking opportunities we could have done had we been more prepared but we were running out of time. I was glad to see it though and now i won't put up a fight if anyone wants me to go there with them.
An excellent bear-proof camping tent. Man would i sleep safe and sound in one of those.
I don't know what this is but i want one.
The drive to Reno offered some excellent bill collecting prospects.
