"Shasta Snow
Trip"
page 6
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Saturday, 3-Feb-01
Ah...the feeling of waking up in a body that has been behind the wheel of a split-window bus for about 18 hours the previous day is somethin' to be relished....Stu and I arose around 9:00, showered, and went to breakfast at the Black Bear Diner in Mt. Shasta, where the biscuits are mighty. The others in the entourage went later, having partaken more of "night life" the previous evening. Our plan, based on the fact that I "had" to go to Castle Lake, was to meet up there after they ate...
Stu and I went on ahead,
got some cool video footage of the seven-mile drive up to the lake with the camera mounted
on a tripod behind the bulkhead, and made "cowboy coffee" in the parking area at
the top. There were several ice-fisherpeople roaming around, most with dead fish.
Lots of dead fish.
The snow was piled high around the parking area, and rain was threatening, but the show must go on!
Love those gates!
In a relatively short amount of time, Brian, Babs, and Aaron showed up
in Brian's Sundial, and I was able to get it on video (Aaron was shooting
as well, so the edited trip tape will have multiple views!). We
looked around for a bit, and then some nice person who had reached his limit gave Brian
his remaining shrimp to use as bait. Since Brian and Aaron were prepared, they
decided to drop a couple lines in....
It sure was fun walking out onto that frozen lake....the stillness, the
crisp, clean air, the fragile-looking slush looking like the only thing between your
weight and that cold, cold water below....needless to say, it took a little nerve to do it
and get used to it!
Brian was getting lots of nibbles, but nothing hooked for quite a
while....and then, shouts of glee were heard, and I looked over to see a great struggle
ensuing! A very tense moment there for a second, but finally a rather large rainbow
trout lay gasping on the snow....it was then that the decision was made to have trout for
dinner!
Not too much later, Aaron hooked one, and was drawing it out of the hole, and the hook or line let loose, and the fish splashed back into the water. Not to be thwarted after so long, Aaron dropped to his knees and plunged his hands in after it! Almost....the fish was in his hands one moment, and then it slipped through....but the ice was in two layers, and it was confused...it disappeared for the time it takes for everyone to say "ah, bummer!", and then re-surfaced, trying to get its bearings....and Aaron went after his prey again, this time with renewed vigor, and managed to toss the thing up onto the snow. I got this sequence on video...yet another thing to share once I get the video capture card! {ok...here it is...a rather large MPEG sequence that you might as well start loading and then go play a nice game of chess...} Fishgrabbers.mpg
Eventually back to the Volkswagens, and down the road we went, taking various shots with the video cameras...both buses coming and going, from the perspective of each bus (while in motion). We stopped a third of the way down, and took a group photo....Here's that moment...Brian standing on his rack, which is on its first trip as a full-length rack, having been two smaller ones once (note the groovy ladder!), and me aiming the camera for the group shot...
And here's that shot...
We then stopped at the dam of Lake Siskiyou to get some "gorge-ous" shots of the gorge downstream, and then at the fish hatchery, where they make fish for people to catch. We fed many fish much, and watched them for a while....and then it was off to the frontage roads by the railroad tracks, where we splashed around quite a bit in the snow and mud....driving over a snow berm repeatedly, taking pointless side-trips along the tracks, and generally making a mess of our buses and having too much fun. Another big video: Berms1.mpg
Getting back to Mt. Shasta, it was time to head up the mountain itself, and cook ourselves some dinner...but first to the hardware store to get a fish roaster and some fire, and to the grocery store to get some butter, salt, etc....
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