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Travelogue
- 04/28/04
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"If one advances confidently in the
direction of one's dreams, and endeavors to live the life which one has
imagined, one will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."
Henry David Thoreau
The Mount Shasta road at 7,000 feet ~ April 27, 2004
04/25/04 - Slow Fast
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The weather continued wet and miserable the whole
time I was fasting. Cabin fever drove me into town several times to
socialize and log onto the Internet at the Snowcrest Cafe.
This photo (click thumbnail) shows a morning snow flurry outside my
door at Twin Arrows. |
The entire process of fasting lasted 12 days,
including the easing in and out. At the heart of it was a full week without solid foods. During this period I mostly drank grape and prune
juices, tea and water. The apex was 30 hours on just water, and at that
time I had a high colonic at a clinic in town, something I've never tried before. Boy, that'll
wake you up in the morning! I guess at that point my digestive tract was about as
clean and empty as it has ever been in my adult life.
I didn't feel hungry at all, but my
body was beginning to do some strange things. I was getting muscle
cramps, and my head felt light and foggy. Fasting releases toxins into the
body as it loosens and removes old residues and allows the liver to purge
itself. I believe the last of these toxins was the cause of my discomfort and I needed to flush
it from my system. It also seemed like time to end the
fast, so I resumed drinking juices and immediately felt
better. Two days later I ate some fresh fruit. Wow, fresh strawberries and
fresh orange tasted like manna! My long-deprived taste buds were giggling.
That was also the day the weather broke and the sun
came out, and it was the day I did the sweat I had prepared last week. It's hard to say which made me higher - the food, the
sun or the sweat. No matter, it was a landmark day. By the weekend I had
eased back into eating cooked foods and was finished with the fast.
Earth Day Party
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Saturday, April 24th, there was an Earth Day celebration at Mount Shasta City Park,
a beautiful parcel of land at the edge of town. The park is blessed with some
mature trees, pastoral fields and meadows, nature trails, several
community lodges, and a mountain spring that bursts from the foot of Mount
Shasta to become, according to the sign there, the headwater of the
Sacramento River. (There seems to be more than one "official"
Sacramento River headwater.) |
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The spring forms a natural pool, which spills over to
become a
stream that meanders
through the park. Locals claim this water is the finest, cleanest, purest,
most healthful drinking water in the world, imbued (some say) with some of
the magic that permeates Mount Shasta itself. The Dannon company has built a water
bottling plant a half-mile uphill
from here that taps into the same spring water. Magic or not, the water
certainly is pure, and this park spring is where I come to fill my RV's
water tank.
The Earth Day gathering was a hippy event right out of the 70's,
with chanting, music, dancing, eco-booths and a parade through the park.
Where else but in California could you still find so many flower people?
04/28/04 - Wednesday
With the fast behind me and the weather now sunny &
warm I'm getting back to a more normal
life, hiking and mountain biking nearly every day.
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I'm also catching up with old friends. The guy in
this photo, Yari,
was the very first person I met when I first arrived in Mount Shasta 7 years
ago. It was out at Smiling Buddha in the National Forest. I was
scouting for a place to park my RV for the night and came across
this long-haired fellow camped down by the river. We talked a bit and,
as I recall, he
got me high right then and there. Then he told me about
the less-visited Twin Arrows campground up the road, which became one
of my favorite spots. Soon after that Yari and I
connected in town and, during the year-plus that I lived here, we became good buddies.
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Yari wound up inheriting a nice house on a
beautiful piece of land on the outskirts of Mount Shasta. Now he's selling that place to take off traveling
again - thinking about buying a sailboat to cruise the Caribbean, he says. A
kindred spirit.
I think I'll stick around Mount Shasta thru this
weekend. It's the annual Wesak (pronounced "wee-sack") celebration, a time when spiritual
seekers and guru wannabees from around the world come here to learn and teach,
and to act enlightened.
The gathering promises to be no less colorful than
last weekend's Earth Day celebration. I'll keep my
camera handy.
Next Entry: 05/08/04
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