Here we sit, in a lovely inn, in the even more lovely town of Shasta. Looking out the window, we see people coming and going as the sun winks on its way below the mountain. On the road, we meet many people from different places, eras and sometimes, from other planets, it seems. Not that we wish to judge? People say some funny things about us, too. We join in the laughter until we arrive home and then commiserate. We have spent more time at each establishment recently; we are almost semi-permanent residents as we hike in more depth at these places. It gives us the opportunity to study the hospitality industry and get a feel of what goes on in this business. Our editor says we’re too inquisitive. We just like to understand how things work and maybe suggest improvements—like an extra soft pillow for our hard head.
We decided that we would hike up to a certain point of Mount Shasta and get a better understanding of these 14,000 feet giants, especially the temperamental ones. We want to do it properly and besides, there is no rush—after all, our editor is still a ‘spring-chicken’. Every time we look at the lady (Shasta), we stop and compliment the Master Architect—it is a fascinating dormant volcano covered with glaciers. We often think these snow and ice covered mountains remind us of ‘killer whales’. Take another look. Anyway, we climbed a lot today, the latter part on some very rough terrain. When one gets up close, the lady’s makeup is unable to hide some of the desolation at the higher altitudes. We think, as a teenager, she suffered a terrible bout of acne.
We reached an altitude of 10,000 feet, which was actually further than planned. However, it has given us confidence that we believe we can reach the summit with proper planning and an early start. For the record, we gained nearly 4,000 feet in our approach to the turn-about. The going generally was, as they say in horseracing parlance, ‘good’. However, the last half-mile or so was rough, slippery and dangerous. Once we passed that section however, it became only strenuous. Our guidebook states it's the toughest section of the whole climb. That is indeed a confidence booster. The mountain face that's not covered in snow and ice is barren and desolate. Yet it is attractive reminding us of a less colorful Haleakala Crater on Maui.
It is difficult to explain the feeling of being so high up, on a fascinating mountain surrounded by glaciers, streams, waterfalls and snow patches while looking into the tree-filled valleys and the distant blue-mountains. A person feels fortunate to be alive—to have the energy, strength and health to be in that position. A little later, nearing completion of nine miles, the same person is tired and sore and can’t wait to get off the ‘bloody’ mountain.
In a country of many millions of people and thousands of cities, what is the chance of meeting two men on Mount Shasta at 9,400 feet on a Wednesday, the only two people seen all day and they happen to be from San Diego—all four of us from the same place. The only difference is they have ‘funny accents’. It’s about time people like Bill and Carl learned to speak properly.
Cheers,
Jenni and 'Shamu'
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