Charis: Burney was a bit of a change of pace for us, with Derek heading out to a teaching course at the nearby Hat Creek Observatory and me taking a couple of chill down days to work on my latest crochet project and have a mooch around a slice of small town America.
A bit of a change of vibe too, slipping from fancy cooking down to making tea in the microwave but definitely made us feel like we were properly traveling! The evenings remained nice and toasty, and on the first night we took some food just out of town into the forest for a little picnic and a wander. An odd thought that struck me was just how ‘survival video game’ it felt – I suppose a lot of game development is done in California and these are typical forests for around here, but they are so open and you see so much more wildlife here than I’ve noticed before in the UK!
Derek: I’d been to the Hat Creek Radio Observatory previously in 2019 for a GNU Radio hackfest which sowed the seeds of a collaboration with the SETI Institute which continues to this day. This week I assisted with a workshop where community college instructors were introduced to a new 13-week course on radio astronomy, based on the Allen Telescope Array and the search for life in the stars, using GNU Radio. Pictured here are the instructors who were able to attend in person as well as Dr Gajjar and Joel who have been creating the materials. I enjoyed meeting the instructors, learning more about community college teaching and the wide variety of resources and efforts including the NASA Community College Network and the Center for Astronomy Teaching. It takes a lot of work and skill to create and teach an engaging and successful class! I was also able to catch up briefly with some of the HCRO team who I work with remotely.
From Burney we made a short jump south to see the Subway Cave. This is a tube formed by hot lava from an eruption by Mt Lassen about 20,000 years ago. It is completely dark and stays a constant 46F/8C year round. We had only the light from our phones to see by, which was fine, but meant the only photo we could take was of the entrance. Walking through the tunnel was interesting and serenely enjoyable. We were the only visitors at the time so we took a moment to fit in a short meditation, and in the absence of any cell connection Charis stood in for Headspace with a quick narration.
Pulling a U turn and going north back past Burney we stopped in at Burney Falls, the first of what it turns out will be many waterfalls in the area. The main trails down to and around the falls are all closed this year for repairs due to the large number of annual visitors. We were still able to see the 129 foot/39 meter drop from an overlook and have lunch at the picnic tables. In the photo you can see some particularly interesting flows of water coming right out from the rocks mid way down the falls. The various layers of soil and rock in the area mean that water sinks in quickly from the surface, but then hits an impermeable layer and flows sideways until it comes out in the falls. For better photos from someone able to take the trails check out this post on the Geotrippers blog.
Charis: From Burney Falls we continued heading northward towards Mt Shasta, which greeted us in all its snow-capped glory on Friday evening. After dropping our things at the Sis-Q-Inn (in Weed, haha), we headed into the town of Mt Shasta and found a fabulous Thai restaurant (Andaman) to enjoy dinner before heading back to the motel for some much needed sleep.
Derek: All this driving around has been been possible thanks to the happy win-win deal mentioned in the first post. The first real week of driving the Z4 has gone very well with just a few minor fix-it items noted. I’ll be dealing with a few of them as we go along and then helping with more once we’re at our friend’s outside of Seattle. But there you go, first photo of our wheels!
Charis: The following morning we headed out to Lake Siskiyou for a glorious ~7 mile hike with bright sunshine and beautiful mountain views. The lake has a camping resort on the far shore with a domed store.
It did prove to be slightly more challenging than initially expected, with a bridge over a feeding river removed for the winter and not yet rebuilt! Luckily, a helpful hiker on AllTrails had written a comment describing a fallen tree that crossed the river about 50 feet upstream, and we made it across!
Afterwards, a trip to the laundromat (I weirdly quite enjoyed this but I’m sure the novelty will wear off!) and the car parts shop was in order to get a few bits spruced up, before we headed back to the motel for the night.
Derek: Leaving Mt Shasta behind our next destination is the Umpqua National Forest in Oregon. The drive took us past Pluto’s Cave which was underwhelming after the Subway Tunnel Cave just two days before, though Charis did get visited by a lovely butterfly.
We were unfazed by the graffiti, smell, and generally collapsed state of Pluto’s Cave since just a few hours down the road was Crater Lake. Created by a truly enormous eruption of Mt Mazama around 7,700 years ago the lake is the deepest in the USA at 1,949 feet (594 m) and a road runs all the way around the caldera’s 22 mile (35 km) perimeter. I visited 20 years ago on the way to starting high school and remember it being an amazing sight. However, this is the view that we got.
Winter continues at this altitude, with snow up to 14 feet deep still. A late season rain storm is moving across northern California and at 7000 feet (2100 meters) altitude, the clouds have completely hidden the lake and the panoramic view of the rim. At least the chili and french fries at the rim lodge weren’t bad, and we did catch a documentary at the visitor’s center.
Charis: Quick dip into crochet chronicles part II – my first ever attempt at amigurumi, kit courtesy of the lovely Cyndi! I really enjoyed making this and look forward to trying lots of others in the future.
Next stop, Umpqua National Forest!