“Life is full of barely-missed disasters, where misfortune strikes a place recently occupied. It’s almost enough to compel the consistently-lucky to believe in fate.” – Old Sean
With the Dawn
Time has fled us again, and we have finally left Grass Valley. On this particular occasion, however, we were not alone. A friend from Hawaii, K’na, joined Ari and I for the trip.
It took a bit of Tetris-gerrymandering regarding the equipment in the car, but we (and by we, I mean the expert herself, Ari) managed to carve out a sizeable chunk of space that K’na was able to nestle into.
We woke up to leave Flinn’s house, departing her small, exquisitely comfortable country abode to begin our daily, somewhat-grinding drive. We wove out of the mountains easily enough and made it to Grass Valley again, where we got gas, said goodbye to the departed and sent a few letters by mail.
Overall, very efficient and effective morning.
Heat and Hunt
The next few hours were a bit of a challenge and slog. Our small trio, with me at the helm, started driving towards a location known as Hallelujah Junction, located in the northwest nook of California.
Part of this trip ended up taking us through Reno, where we grabbed a light lunch and continued winding back into California. At Hallelujah Junction, we had planned on mining crystals at claimed mine sites near the Petersen Mountains.
However, we hit a few rather stalling snags. The first; the directions we had been given could generously be called “shaky.” The second issue was our choice of vehicle. Our brave little Kia Soul is a hardy vehicle with new tires, but it’s also burdened by all of our worldly goods and three people. Sitting low, with no four wheel drive, our ability to traverse the rugged, often-steep desert terrain was crippled.
For hours, we carefully bumbled through dry-brush, dusty roads with sharp rocks. The air smelled heavenly, with strong wafts of sagebrush baking slowly in the desert heat.
However, we never made it to the mining site. Our somewhat late start, constant lost wandering and the sheer difficulty of the road on the Kia ran out the clock. We ended up traipsing around the desert, swinging our pickaxe at random loose dirt and dodging enormous ant mounds.
Forefront on Flames
We were happy to get back on the road. The heat bearing down was no joke, and this trip through the US has been defined by an outlandish dryness. The heat, the lack of rain, the stale air has all factored into a noticeable absence of moisture.
The western portion of the US largely feels like a primed tinderbox. A mere two days later, we found this was true. The area around Hallelujah Junction is currently ablaze in an inferno known as the North Fire.
We were lucky to leave the area before the blaze started. Our luck, thus far, is holding.
Spots of Pristine
Either way, after leaving Hallelujah Junction we wound further north, striving to escape California and its daunting gas prices.
We were not successful that night.
That being said, driving through Northern California has been, perhaps, the most beautiful aspect of our drive. We wove through Plumas and Lassen National Forests and a drove around Mt. Shasta, a unique, snow-capped specter with the same gravity and visual harmony I usually associate with Mt. Fuji.
Great fields of dusky, dry grass stretched across flat lands for hundreds of yards, spearing into dense, straight trees which framed every field. Cows and deer ruled these plains calmly, and K’na ended up finally snoozing in the back seat.
With our internal energy reserves running low, we stopped in a small town called Yreka, California. This turned out to be a terrible decision. Yreka is a shady, sketchy town with large wandering populations just kind of chilling in the dark. We ended up grabbing a swift dinner at a Carl’s Jr. but otherwise were eager to get out of town.
Later that night, we managed to find a truly splendid campsite. Up in near Lake Copco I wove under the full moon, over large, motionless lakes while occasionally passing free range horses which dominated the twilight roads.
We pulled into a BLM campsite and hastily set up our tent. Tomorrow morning, we’re finishing our push into Oregon.
Until then,
Best regards and excellent trails,
Old Sean
Written August 2nd 2020
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I bought this Horizon Hound Trek Blanket for a late-autumn trek in the United States. Since then, it’s gone everywhere with me. The blanket is lightweight, stuff-able, warm and durable. But my favorite features are the buttons. The blanket can be buttoned up the sides, turning it into a long thermal poncho when I don’t want to leave the warmth of my bed.
