Friday 20th March

First off today we took the car to a tire (tyre) garage and the guy that gave it the OK, he said that the damage was only cosmetic. This was good news, as the hassle in getting the money back from the hire company would probably have been huge. We left Ashland on the I-5, headed for Mount Shasta. We noticed that it was getting much warmer as we headed south and away from the coast. Into CaliMount Shasta came dramatically into view as we headed down the freeway. We arrived in Mount Shasta City, which was definitely more of a town, as with many of the “cities” over here. Greg dutifully purchased a Mount Shasta baseball cap, and we began the drive up the mountain. As it was winter, the furthest we could go was up to Bunny Flats at 6950 feet, the road had only been ploughed that far. There were awesome views up to the peak and down to the surrounding mountains and countryside. It was very strange being surrounded by snow but feeling very warm in the sunlight. We headed back down to a café in the town where we lunched on clam chowder and cinnamon coffee, and checked on the internet to find the location of the next port of call.
We took the 89 heading east and south to find the Lake Britton Bridge railroad where it crosses the McCloud river. It felt like we were heading into the middle of nowhere. When we got there, the bridge really was in the middle of nowhere. The bridge features in one of my favourite childhood films, Stand By Me. The boys are crossing it and a train comes, and they have to run like crazy. We were not even sure if it would still be there, there was talk of it being destroyed. In fact, the rails had been taken up but the bridge was still standing. It was a beautiful day, and a wonderful sentimental place to be, I’m very proud of the pictures of me there in my Stand By Me T-shirt! A man and a lady showed up in their car, they were checking their crawfish traps down by the river. They showed us what they had caught, and I held my first crawfish! The guy was called Free(!), and he fitted the typical hick/hillbilly stereotype, but was actually really nice and friendly. He told us about some caves that were in the hills just behind us, and said he would show them to us. After some searching he discovered the location of one of them, and in we went. It almost seemed man-made, it was more of a tunnel that went back into the hillside with a sandy floor. It was a bit scary but quite a rush, especially when we found the bats at the end of the cave. We didn’t stick about in there for too long, but it was very exciting. Then he showed us a much bigger and shallower one, with evidence of fires and parties that had gone on in there. The whole thing was a very un-guidebook-like experience, which we were pleased about.
Then we had a long journey back to the coast on the 299, a very windy road through hills and forest, it was dark and foggy but dealt with by some good solid driving by Greg. We stayed in the town of Arcata, a very left-wing college town on the coast, just north of Eureka. There were lots of people hanging around on the streets, it was hard to tell which were students and which were bums. We stayed in a Super 8 motel on the edge of town, and took a taxi into the centre. We ate in a place called The Alibi, I had a Monte Cristo sandwich which was ham, turkey, cheese and optional strawberry jam! We went next door to a bar called The Sidelines which was full of students. We managed to make friends with the the only older guy in there, called David Bastable. He was very proud of his Devonshire roots, and kept informing us of our brotherhood. He meant well and was a nice guy despite being very drunk, he was obviously envious of what we were doing, it was quite touching and slightly depressing. We ended up chatting with people on the streets after the bar had closed, there were a lot of interesting characters. We all got moved along from the Plaza by the police, which seemed to be quite symbolic of the way things are in this left-wing free-thinking pocket of Northern California. Now we are back on the coast, tomorrow will bring a day of some serious southerly travelling!