10/29/21
Hey all, I’m still alive! I just have very minimal internet access here in northern California.
A brief catch-up of the past few days:
I wrote the previous post from the balcony of my cousin Nathalie’s place in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. We enjoyed another all-too-brief visit of fun-filled conversation, after which I accepted a car ride from my gracious Warmshowers host to the delightful mid-century-styled house he shares with his wife in the neighboring Mount Washington area. I was very thankful for the lift; those hills were unbelievable! He was accustomed to scaling them, and in fact he had recently returned from his own cross-country bicycle trip: seven weeks from Santa Monica to Washington, DC! Much different pace, and level of athletic prowess, from me.
I biked down those scenic Mt. Washington hills the next morning, on my way to LA’s Union Station. (I love the aesthetics of that station, so I’m also sharing a few of those photos here.)
That bike ride led into a nice long trip on the train from LA up to the tiny northern California town of Dunsmuir, where I arrived at 4:58 am(!)
My also-gracious host Michael was kind enough to wake up at 3 am in order to pick me up from there, and drive me back in the dark over deeply rain-potholed roads into his gorgeous, remote off-grid cabin near Mount Shasta. (Check out the solar panel! Remind you of anything?)
We went up to the mountain yesterday, where I encountered snow!
We also serendipitously ran into a friend of Michael’s, who is one of the kind of people I was just writing about wanting to meet: Lewis Elbinger, who describes himself on Facebook as a “Multidimensional grandfather, yogi, poet, artist, traveler, diplomat, planetary citizen, [and] evolutionary.” He had worked as a diplomat for many years in Pakistan, as well as several other countries. He gave me a copy of the book he had recently published, “Meditation for Prisoners.”
How perfect!
I told him about Johnny and his work building the healing garden at the Oregon State Penitentiary.
It’s unbelievably beautiful and serene here. Please enjoy these photos, until I have the time and internet connection to share more in a few days.
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I grew up in Santa Cruz California and have been in Alaska 20 years. I am wanting to live very simply now in Shasta up high so I can run my sled dogs still. Is this even feasible? Just a thought but I am a very spiritual native woman and just thinking about what is next. Loved your blog.
Oh, wow! Unfortunately I have almost zero experience with Mt. Shasta (and zero with Alaska!) so I can’t answer your question, but thank you for your comment, and I’m glad you enjoyed the blog. I wish you all the best in finding your next chapter!