Shasta and Tahoe

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.

New Zealand: Last Days

During our Lost World tour i spoke to our guide about some other things in the area i had heard about. I had wanted to visit a small coastal town nearby but the road was closed, so he told me about a nice black sand beach down another nearby road. It was our last free afternoon in New Zealand, and although the Lost World had been a good workout we were motivated to do as much as possible.

This was a very cool waterfall, one of the best i've seen anywhere. You could go swimming if you wanted, but it created a large amount of cold misty wind.

A short distance from the Waitomo Caves area are numerous points of interest. There are several great forest hikes, and i wish i could have done one of them but our time was running out. We did stop at a place called Marokopa Falls. A five minute walk through the forest opens up to a fantastic view of an impressive wide cascading falls. It reminded me of Rescuers Down Under. We wanted to go swimming, but getting down proved the area to be more rugged than it looked from above. The official trail ended at the overlook so we had to carefully make our way down a steep, muddy, eternally wet path to the water. At the bottom the rocks were less inviting than i'd expected and the pools a bit less calm than i'd prefer. And i was no longer hot, so swimming was less important.

We left the pools and went to nearby Mangapohue Natural Bridge. The trail to the bridge was short and completely level, with a suspension bridge and an elevated pathway. It too, turned out to be really cool. The funny thing about it was that this bridge was in the middle of a small hill that could easily be walked around. The tiny little stream just chose to cut straight through it. There were two weird men there who got into a debate with me about whether or not that waterfall up the road was worth seeing. They hadn't seen it but claimed to have seen many waterfalls, and were extremely suspicious about my own claims that i'd seen a lot of waterfalls too, and that the one down the road was worth seeing. They almost seemed angry about it, which was just crazy. I think they were just tired.

The double bridge from below next to a viewing platform, with Maree in the upper window.

Switching positions, Maree is down on the lower platform and i'm standing on top of the lower bridge.

A grove of fern trees.

We decided to check out the beach. It took much longer than i'd guessed from looking at the map. Even though no one was on it, it took us forever because the road was extremely twisty. Eventually it opened up into farmland and deforested hillsides populated with cows and interesting limestone pillars. The road ended in a tiny community with no services right on the beach. As we got out of the car a little Jack Russel Terrier jumped out of his yard over a white picket fence and began to run next to us. He was super friendly, and i started to wonder if he jumps out of his yard and gives himself walks with whoever comes by walking along the shore.

The beach was very relaxing and entirely vacant except for a local who seemed to be meditating on a big rock. The waves were large and violent. We walked way down it until our little companion gave pause and started looking back at home. I got the sense we were taking him past his routine boundaries. He came along the whole time. He was an exceptional patrol dog, and took endless delight in not allowing seagulls to land anywhere.

Nobody around to the south or the north.

The tide began to come in, and local on the rock headed home. Just as we got back to the car and an old lady was furiously yelling her dogs name out her front door. I can't remember what is was anymore, but the doggie got that i'm in trouble look on his face, and jumping over the fence he went back inside to get scolded. I still had the feeling he did that all the time. The old lady was certainly unable to give him enough exercise.

I had a great time in New Zealand, and with some superficial modifications to my lifestyle, i think i could be happy living there. It's a great vacation destination, and not as expensive as i had imagined. Things have already changed drastically since then (way back in February), but at the time the most expensive element of the whole trip was the plane ticket. The rental car was reasonable, the hotels, which almost always had a kitchen (and included milk!?) came out on average to around $85 U.S.. Food was cheaper than it seemed at the time, once i got my credit card statements. Tours were not cheap but in most cases they were well done with exceptionally friendly (and likable) guides. If i personally were to go again i'd like to spend a week doing a multi-day cross country "Track" in Fjordlands and spend time visiting some of the nice northern beaches and forests. We came away having done almost everything we had planned on, but now that we've been there we know of many more things to be done.

Good memories.

Thompson Pass and Valdez

After leaving McCarthy we ended up getting to the end of the 60 mile dirt road at roughly the same time that we entered the road the day before. We didn't see much at the pass that evening because of typically thick fog and rain, but the next day was perfect, at least at the pass. Valdez was rainy the whole time but seemed to be improving as we left. Kinda strange, but we stayed at a bed and breakfast at a Mexican restaurant called Ernesto's. I was surprised at how good it was.


Me taking a picture of tucked away Liberty Falls


Me taking a picture of can't miss it Bridal Veil Falls


This was at Valdez Glacier, which is the first glacier I've seen where the terminus is a municipal gravel quarry. You have to admit though, glaciers are great at making gravel.

I knew Valdez was small, but man, it is really incredibly small. It must only be about 1 square mile, and everywhere a non resident would be interested in going is contained within an area the size of about 3 or 4 blocks. It's in a spectacularly beautiful location, which i did not photograph because of the weather. A month later i returned with my brother, but the weather was pretty much the same.


Keystone Canyon is very impressive


The road as it enters Keystone Canyon on the way to Valdez





I had hoped to go hiking at a place called Mineral King Valley but we were turned around because of a flooded road. There were actually numerous flooded roads around Valdez, and now i can say that has become the trademark symbol of this entire summer.


On the way up to Thompson Pass from Valdez


Worthington Glacier dominates the pass. I really like this one.



This was taken right next to the Alaska Pipeline which also crosses over Thompson Pass. It was underground, I guess as protection from avalanches, but you can see it at the very far left side of the photo, above the leftmost snowfield in the foreground.