"Shasta Snow
Trip"
page 7
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Saturday, 3-Feb-01...evening
Well, we found everything we needed (fish cooker...the fish-shaped, hinged type, some briquets, lighter fluid (real rustics, we..), some garlic salt, butter, pepper, and beer....), and we headed up the base of Mt. Shasta towards Bunny Flat, where we hoped to find a place to build a fire and cook our fish. Again, there's lots on video, but zilch on still, so...
After a nice drive up the forested part of the mountain (Everitt Memorial Hwy.), from which we saw a nice sunset, the neato effects of the ski park lights in the distance, and beautiful woods and snow, we were thrilled and overjoyed to find a fire that someone had left for us. It was a little weird, having a fire in the snow at the edge of the parking lot, but it seemed OK, so after some initial confused milling about, we all set out to do our parts in creating what was to become the new standard for the term "dining out".....Aaron graciously set about cleaning both the fish, Babs began setting up the Sundial for several people to eat in, cutting the seeded sourdough bread and pesto jack cheese, opening wine, helping to season the fish; Stuart took on the task of preparing the instant rice and curry which my Ma had "insisted" that we take on the trip (Thanks, Ma!), and was astute enough to catch me in conversation saying that I had canned red beans, which blended beautifully into the rice curry, Brian stoked the fire with some handy wood, setting up the Coleman lantern on my tripod braced from his roof rack, and cooked the fish one by one over the flames, and I basically helped everybody here and there. I think it worked out well....everyone had plenty of time to mill about between tasks, grooving to Brian's radio which was parked in a nearby snowbank...playing oldies....and somehow, it all came together....we only dropped a fish once (it slithered out of the handheld grill before we could close it), and the cold was not so much that we were uncomfortable, despite the altitude and snow...we were lucky, in that respect...had we been one week later, we would have had ourselves a weather challenge!
I was able to borrow Brian's cell phone and contact Michele at home, and assure her that we're all right, and still having a blast. It was cool to be able to communicate from there!
That sumptuous repast will be remembered for a long time (partially due to the fact that much of the preparations and all of the actual meal experience was captured on video). There's nothing like fresh trout, fire, spicy curry, bread, cheese, wine, and all of it in a Volkswagen camper bus with fun people. We took our time, and although we did consume every delicious bite, no-one went away unsatisfied. We had headed out that day, not knowing what to expect, and up that mountain, unsure of whether we'd be able to cook or hang out, and were blown away by what we ended up with. {silly little video: Fisheatingml.mpg }
After the dinner, we got out of the Sundial, proceeded to clean up, and got ready to depart. One thing that I noticed was that the inside and outside of my doublecab was strewn mightily with ash, and smelled of woodsmoke....that fire was something else...very kind of it to be there for us, but it tended to smite us with its smoke....but who's complaining, eh? Our next destination was the ski park that we had seen from the mountain, but first we had to stop at the motel to get Babs' and Brian's snowboarding gear. On the way down from Bunny Flat, I started to have problems getting heard on the CB....I looked at the unit askance (Transporter drivers' arms are akimbo already), and noticed that the battery light was on.....and having just changed to new batteries in the dark before we ate, it occurred to me that something may be wrong. I told the others what I was doing, and handed the radio to Stuart to have him check it out. And upon opening it up and removing one of the batteries, another one of the nine AA-size batteries exploded all over the place! Boy, did I ever feel dumb...I put one in backwarsd! Oh well, I learned something, the mess was survivable, and Stuart and the radio were both OK....
The ski park closed at 10:00, and we made it there with enough time for B&B to get three runs in, two of which I got glimpses of on videotape before I got slightly chilled and tired of standing around in the snow. I did have a conversation with a small tree! Aaron and Stuart were found lurking in the lounge, lapping libations, and B&B showed up soon thereafter, and we set out for the motel and sleep.
It was heading down toward I5 and Mt. Shasta on 89....long, straight, downhill stretches of road, that I got Bartholomew up to 70 mph (coulda gone faster, but I don't want to hurt him!), to determine the rpm at that speed. It's only 3800 rpm! I was just checking.... This stretch of road is also where I was trying to close my vent wing, thinking "This is how these latches get broken...", and I was right! Boy was I miffed! Yet another thing to fix! So I ("Oh gross!") siliconed it shut for now when I got back to the motel.
When we got back, it was back into our room...Babs hadn't seen yesterday's footage, and we all had to view the highlights of today.....basically another couple hours, and then we slept. The next day (Sunday) was our voyage back home, and we wanted to have fun then, too.....
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