charlie's blog

The Volcanoes

Last weekend was a really exciting one. It all started off when Mary won tickets on one of the christian rock stations to a christion rock festival in Quincy, CA. We decided to make a big trip out of it and visit her brother who is working at the fire air attack base in Chester, by Lake Almanor (and Lassen), and then go up to her trailer/cabin up in Sprague River, OR (near Klamath Falls), and then head home. She said it was tradition to go up to Oregon in her truck so we loaded it up and headed out friday night after work.

I recommend the frosty on the east side of town in Quincy, they make a really good hot pastrami. We hit the music festival at 6 or 7. Something didn't seem right though, we were able to park about 10 cars from the main entrance, and there didn't seem to be a lot of people milling around, but maybe that is because none of the big name bands got there till the next day, so we gave it a chance. Boy was it sad. There were 40 bands there, and three stages, with a really nice sound and light setup, but up until the last two bands, over half the audience was other band members. You would walk into the wharehouse where all the smaller groups were playing and there would be 5 people there listening to the music, but you were committed, they had already seen you, so you couldn't just leave, not when you made up a quarter of the audience. I started asking Mary how she won the tickets, the exchance went something like this: (we all know it didn't really, but it was vaguely like this)

me: "so you won the tickets on the radio"
her: "yeah"
me: "so you were like the 12th caller or something?"
her: "well, the third caller actually"
me: "so you just called, and you were the 3rd caller?"
her: "actually, i was the 1st caller, and then the 3rd caller"
me: "hmmm, interesting"

So we went over to stay at Mary's brothers (Fred's) trailer and then went and toured the new air attack base in Chester. It was really cool, they had the places for the tanker (their tanker is still in alaska fighting fires) and the air commanders planes, and the helitack unit who were working out of trailers while the air attack guys had a 2 million dollar facility to work out of, go figure.

We then went up to Lassen and drove around. We originally were going to hike up it, the only problem was that in April they got 182 inches of snow, 150 inches over the average, so our little hike didn't look as fun. We headed back to the music festival to see Nifty Tom 50. (apparently they used to be ska, back when ska was cool, hey, stop laughing, Mary is entitled to her opinion right? but now they aren't) They were okay, some the other bands were pretty cool though. Redcloud rapped about whatever you could hold up (apparently he was there because he was the rapper that didn't swear), Elkland made a pretty good 80's synthesizer sound, one of the groups looked like they were all about 16 and they jumped around a lot, i think mary and i were the only ones watching that show, superchick put on a really good show, they really got into the fact that there weren't many people there and seemed to be enjoying just chilling listening to other bands, which was cool. Just a few weeks ago they had played at Great America in front of a couple thousand people and now they were groving in front of about 80, but it was cool.

But the main event kind of sucked. Mary used to like Audio Adrenaline but she doesn't really anymore, and i didn't really get into them at all. The lead singer kept checking his watch and looked like he was all said that he was playing in front of 100 people and that half the audience was sitting in the bleachers, watching from behind the chain link fence that protects the audience durnig the destruction derby (yes, the main stage was on a dirt race track of sorts. The big fat kid riding around on the golf cart trying to stop the 4 kids from moshing (who i named Bryce) was pretty amusing. Also it was cool that some people in Quincy who normally wouldn't get to see any bands got a neat music festival. I think they should have either lowered the cost ($40) or made it closer to a big city. It also sucks that somebody lost a lot of money on this. Overall, most of the band seemed to appreciate even the small audience and the beautiful area around Quincy and i thought the fact that you could go hang with the bands (because there was nowhere else to go maybe?) was really cool, and for the most part we had a really great time.

We then headed north, we took a weird route up past lassen and on the left side of Lava Beds National Park. We were going to cut over to Medicine Lake and then hit the park from the southwest, but snow got in our way on the dirt road we were following. But what made it all worth it was the drive from the turnoff of highway 89 (or 44, whatever goes from susanville to shasta) up to Doris. We only encountered maybe 5 cars the whole way, and the scenery went from beautiful forest, to almost barren wasteland with scrubby little trees that looked like they were barely staying alive and in the ground, and then this huge hill of almost pure obsidian which we found out later is called little glass mountain, back into beautiful green farmland underneath the watch of shasta. It was a really incredible drive and i don't think either of us can wait to head back that way. I want to see Lava beds national park actually though, maybe tour some of the caves and such. It was really neat getting to see the different types of volcanic activity in northern cali though. Lassen, Shasta, the obsidian mountain, and then later crater lake.

One of the most interesting parts of the trip was Sprague River though. This is a tiny little town of about 60 people east of Klamath falls. It was a beautiful setting for a little town, right in the middle of a valley, with low rolling hills all around, and a little river meandering through the center. What makes it so unique is the people though. Up the road from Mary's place is a guy who run his own radio station. Her next door neighbor worked at Lawrence Livermore on the Cyclotron and the H bomb, and then went on to design all sorts of different concretes for caltrans, and he has an electron microscope in his garage. He seemed like a real hardened man (people had better be careful, i would put a bullet right between his eyes if he comes near my house, but as mary filled me in, he is the one who always sends cards at thanksgiving and stuff, not the lady he is living with, who seems all super nice and grandma ie but is really this die hard activists for research for the mentally handicap and other stuff) They are just and interesting couple is what i am trying to say. The guy got tired of the squirrels stealing the bird seed, so he electrified the roof and base of the bird feeder to keep them away. He said, "people in Sprague River aren't antisocial, it is just that you don't come to Sprague River to meet people." That about summed up the place.

Last but not least Crater Lake, which was beautiful as always. We then headed home, bypassed a big storm, i finally got to see Alturas and now Chuck is in town and we are hanging out and having a good time. Hopefully there are more adventures to follow.

Shasta

I had a great time hiking up shasta. i really need something like that every couple of weeks, just to try to take on nature. i normally end up realizing i don't have a chance and the only reason i got to the top was because the mountain decided to let me up that day. It is good to be put in your place every once and awhile.

We started off at about 7000+ ft at about 5 oclock, so we just hiked to the camp at 8000 with the plan of hiking to the top the next morning at 3 or so. Before we went to bed we were cooking dinner, about 7 oclock, telling stories, when a guy down the hill a little ways from us sticks his head out of the tent and asks if we could keep it down because there are people trying to sleep. That made since, so we quieted down and went to bed. The next morning they weren't really feeling like climbing so we slept in and then got a late start and headed up to the camp at 10000 ft. Before we left, at about 8 oclock though, the guy from the previous night hops out of his tent, packs up his stuff, and heads down the mountain. Mike had a few choice comments, but we figured at least we stayed around that way he couldn't trash our tents (apparently this happens, go figure).

I got thouroughly sunburned that morning (this would be an ongoing problem) because i forgot that snow reflects the sun at a really high percentage. We kind of just sat around most of the day and tried to save our energy, we only brought food for that first night and then the next day, so Uncle Hugh and i had to ration our bagels and cream cheese, and we drank Mike's Green Tea, although hugh wasn't into it at all. The snow started to fall at about 6 or 7 oclock that night, just as we were finishing up dinner (top ramen, two packs for three people), so we went to bed. i slept for a couple of hours then i woke up one time to go the bathroom and then the next time i wasn't really sure why i woke up. so i sat there and listened the snow fall. then all of the sudden i saw a really bright flash that looked like it was covering the whole sky. almost instantly i thought, Lightning, oh, lets see how far away it is, one missis... and then BAMMMM. it was really loud thunder, and then i started to get scared. the next time i saw a flash as quickly as i could clench my fists and close my eyes, it hit. This continued on for a couple of more times. i was about to pee my pants but i think hugh, mike, and josh slept through the whole thing, they are tough.

We headed up the next morning at about 5, for an hour it was nice, then we got into the clouds, and then out of the clouds and into the winds. I thought they were blowing like 80 mph, but Mike said only 50 or so. Needless to say i spent quite a bit of time trying just to stay standing up. I kept hiking though, i think living at 5000 feet helped me out a lot, the climb itself wasn't that hard. i was worried about stabbing myself with my crampons or falling and taking everybody, but everything went smoothly. We summitted about 11 oclock to a blueish brown hazy sky around and above and clouds below, but it was still cool. The wind was really strong so we headed down pretty quickly. we glissaded down quite a bit of the mountain (i love that mountainiers have a fancy name for slidding down on your but). We hit the cars that afternoon, headed to a hotel, ate a lot of food, said goodbye, wished them good luck on Hood and in Idaho, and i headed home. All my dreams that night were about falling into crevasses and avalanches and getting blown off the mountain, it sucked. But the trip was great, i want to go back up and do it in a day though, only 7000 feet up, that isn't so bad.

Hey, before i forget, here is the picture of pete at some party, he says he wasn't drunk but i think we can all see the truth, the picture speaks for itself, something about a 1000 words, i don't remember.

Andrew, what am i doing wrong with the picture?

Summer time

Wow, a lot has happened since we visited last. I hung out with pete and ham quite a bit last week since they were both in town, but sadly they are both gone now. I was the male chaperone for mary's youth group trip to great america, that seems kind of scary that i am reponsible for people. I am going to be moving back into my brothers house in july so that should be fun. I didn't have to move to Canada since the Nets didn't win the NBA title (i couldn't live in a country where teams from New Jersey won 2 major titles). Pete and i have a new quest that i don't think i can reveal, actually two new quests, but if you ask me about them i will probably tell you, cause they are super mega cool. Hint, what famous journey took place in 1789? I went and climbed Mt. Shasta last weekend, tomorrow i will try to write a little description of what happened.