Shasta Journey

These first five are shots of Mount Shasta from the small town of McCloud, where Robin & I were this weekend, selling her mushroom t-shirts & other mushroom artwork at their annual mushroom festival. This year it was noticeably bigger than last year, in terms of attendance & number of vendors. Culinary vendors had a much better selection of mushroom items, and there were many more vendors and displays on all aspects of fungus. 

McCloud is an old Mill Town with an interesting history. Those houses across the street from the Burgers & Shakes sign I gather were where laborers moved once they got married. Prior to this, they lived in dorms in what is now known as the McCloud Hotel, a much fancier affair now than back in the day (although many celebrities from the 1910s-1920s stayed there). 

Well, here's the interesting part. The Mill Owner & management hired the Pinkerton Detective Agency to go undercover to figure out which labourers were stealing. Soon, they started disrupting activities of the IWW, who were organizing throughout Northern California, again at the behest of the Mill Owner.

Shot of Shasta at the end of day one. I just took my first shower in a few days as we were roughing it, first staying at the site of the festival in our canopy (just like the ones in the foreground, but with sidewalls, & the all-important air mattress we got on the cheap), then on National Forest land with mushroom foragers. 

Like last year, it was very hot in McCloud, but the challenge to roughing it was staying warm at night, because it got really cold. We spent last night in deep wilderness, with mushroom foragers we know, in Shasta-Trinity National Forest, way, way off the beaten path. Almost hit an adult coyote on the way there, who leapt across the highway right in front of us. We got lost and turned down a road that used to be a rail line, and had to reverse all the way back to the entrance.

When we finally found the campsite, I saw bear and bobcat tracks. Our foraging friends brought all kinds of interesting things to the party in front of the campfire, including Porcini Huaraches, and freshly caught & grilled trout. Haven't had trout that good since my grandparents took me camping in the Sierras in 1969. Pretty certain that was the first time I saw a forest, and decided my favorite color was green. The air smells different, and the water is otherworldly.

Shot of Shasta, Sunday morning. Covered in snow, plenty of snow melt in creeks and rivers. We went to the springs in Shasta City when we first arrived, then re-filled our 3 gallon jug this morning before heading back south. All the other major mountains in the area we could see (Trinity Alps & Lassen) were also covered in snow. Shasta Lake is utterly transformed, full as it should be, quite unlike the first time I saw it, in 2014, during the depths of the drought.

Above & below, shots of Shasta during the festival. Live music had interesting moments. Saturday was mostly Reggae & Funk, with the latter band doing a very good version of "Cissy Strut." On Sunday, it was all Bluegrass & Country, which the locals were really into. At one point, before the Bluegrass, the sound guy had some Hiphop on, and I've gotta say McCloud is about as un-Hiphop as any place I've been, but don't tell that to the 15 year old boys riding skateboards blasting contemporary gangsta rap.

Just remembered: some little girl this morning asked if I was Santa Claus. I told her I was training to become Santa Claus, but still have to do years of journeyman internship training in Finland and Norway. She looked baffled but her mom liked the joke. I saw them later and burst out with a "Ho! Ho! Ho! MERRY CHRISTMAS!" I made her day.

Trinity Alps in the distance, from City Park in Shasta City.

Plenty of old buildings and vehicles around McCloud.

Speaking of vestiges from another era, check this out, from the front of a vacant building.

Table from one of the new vendors: The Mushroom Authority. They had mushrooms, grow kits, and something that blew away all of Robin's mycology fanatic buddies: a cheese bread using Lion's Mane mushrooms! We were staying in a camp with those folks last night, and passed it around the campfire, a real hit with them. There's more and more people we're finding who are serious about wild and cultivated mushrooms.

Easily the best food at the event, served by Chef's Lounge, Risotto with Morels & Asparagus (above) and Chicken Skewers with Porcini Pesto (below). Gotta say, I was impressed that every food vendor had some sort of mushroom ingredient.

Breakfast at White Mountain Cafe. Bacon Avocado Spinach Benedict with hash browns. Hollandaise Sauce tasted very fresh. Also had an impressive breakfast at Seven Suns Coffee in Shasta, and outstanding Thai/Lao at Champa Garden in Redding. The Sage Restaurant at the McCloud Hotel looks compelling, maybe next year we'll check it out. Will blog more about those later.