You want some Klamath with that?

Good evening, Campers! It’s Silver Cliche’ here with you again.Tonight we’ve landed in Fort Klamath, Oregon. Under the Cliche’ Code of Conduct, we can’t add the sticker until we spend the night, so I’ll update the scorecard in tomorrow’s post.

The day actually started before the sun. We were the only campers on Caz’s MoonBeam Farm so I left the shade open on the window next to my side of the bed. I had shared the pic of the moon rising over the lavender last night. Well, this morning at 4:45 I opened my eyes to see how Zachary had managed to push my lower body out of my place in bed and into the cold, empty section of dog bed that he is supposed to occupy. I never answered that question because I looked out of the window to see the half-eclipsed moon. Thanks, Zach! Well, half thanks. I still want my space in the bed back.

Despite having a 3 3/4 hour driving day ahead of us, we were lazy this morning. Maybe the lavender calmed the nerves and clouded the brains. Or maybe it’s early onset old-timers disease. We were rolling at 11:15... back on I-5... compass needle on “N”... signs for “Redding”. We stopped in Redding to hand a package to FedEx then resumed our trip.

As I-5 nears Redding an uncomfortable feeling starts to set in. The Central Valley that we had been in and about for 10 days was wide in the south when we first crossed it. It was perhaps 50 or 60 miles of flat land between the coastal mountains and the Sierra Nevadas. In Redding you can feel that those mountains are converging and the sight of mountains ahead signals the end of the Valley.

A dramatic, distant sight begins appearing above trees and mountains to the north. It’s the snow covered, cloud wrapped summit of Mount Shasta. I’ve seen mountains all around the world. Some from the ground, some from their summits, some from the air. I have heard about Mount Shasta but was unprepared for two aspects. First, it stands alone. Unlike the Alps, the South Island of New Zealand, the Rockies, Smokies, Blue Ridge, Green or White Mountains where groups of high points are clustered, Shasta is singleton. I’ve never seen Kilamanjaro, but it is the same. So is Fujiyama. The second aspect is its height. It’s absolute height is impressive at over 14,000 feet. More significantly, the places we were driving and from which we could see Shasta the best were roughly 2,000 feet. That means the summit is over two miles above the viewing point. It’s a stunning effect! To put it in perspective, the Mount Everest base camp is 12,000 feet below the summit. While we were in the trusty Tundra enjoying cold drinks from the Airstream’s fridge, we were having the same view that Everest climbers have of their objective, 

Here are some pics Mrs. C’ snapped along the way.

We closed into Oregon at about 2:30 with an hour and a half ahead of us. The weather was nice. We started picking up the Klamath vibe. There was Klamath-this and Klamath-that. We saw Klamath Forest, Klamath River, Upper Klamath Lake (yes... there must be a Lower Klamath Lake... and maybe a Middle, too). We passed through Klamath Falls on the way to Fort Klamath. Look, I don’t know who this Klamath guy was, but he managed to put his name on more things than Trump did. I expect to stand at the intersection of Klamath Street and Klamath Avenue if we go in to Klamath Falls tomorrow.

So, long day. I’m tired. I’ll try to grab some pics around here to share with you tomorrow,

Later...