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May 24, 2005
Mount Shasta, Here We Come!
Weekend of July 1-4, my wife Dinah, her mother Pauline, our son Jackson, and I will be headed to Mount Shasta for a rendezvous with mystery and light. I say mystery and light because Shasta is almost the exact southern terminus of the Cascades, a range of volcanic mountains always rumbling, whose splendor takes one's breath away. You only need a minute of seing their snowy peaks and majestic shields to discover this experience.
This trip to Shasta is also about visiting the dead. Dinah's brother (Pauline's son) is buried here--a veteran of Vietnam. He died as a fully disabled vet (of course made so by war, which continues to make many more disabled). Near his gravesite is a small organic farm store. I look forward to stopping there for some Shasta fruit or vegetables. Wonder and beauty surround this region, despite its rocky soil of lava. And yet it is still not the hotspot of Californians, who prefer Tahoe or Reno or Yosemite over Shasta--and yet Shasta is so much grander.
After Dinah's father died in Missouri, she and her mother moved to Mount Shasta (actually Weed, CA--"Get High on Weed" was the motto for years). Now we're visiting old stomping grounds, a sacred place not just because of the Native American history, but also because of the almost magnetic pull of the mountain. Interesting how many physicists go there to live, as well as mystics. In fact there's a Buddhist monastery called Shasta Abbey nearby, one I've retreated to before. While the abbey is hard to find, the mountain sticks out like God's nose. But travelers can drive right up to the mountain, by it and past it and never notice it. Strange. Strange indeed.
Posted by wjbailes at May 24, 2005 01:16 PM
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Comments
Awesome. I love the Cascades, and the Olympics too. Mt. Shasta is a great physical beauty.
Posted by: joe at May 24, 2005 08:30 PM
And Ashland is just up the road for good Shakespearean theater.
Posted by: Bailes at May 24, 2005 11:53 PM