I would have loved to offer a beautiful image of Mt. Shasta, however with the nearby fires, I never saw the mountain.  It was so covered in a smokey haze.

I stopped in the City of Shasta to stock up on supplies at the Natural Food Store and then headed toward McCloud.  About eight miles past McCloud was Fowler campground and there was actually some blue sky there.  I was tired.  I had just driven from Gold Beach, Oregon, down the Redwood Hwy and up I-5.  I was ready to stop for the night.

This is a favorite campground of mine as I have stayed here several times.  I booked a site for the weekend so I didn’t have to deal with weekend traffic or camping issues.   I did a lot of hiking along the river, visiting, the lower, middle and upper falls.  The weather was perfect.  Other than having a group of rowdy men camping next to me, it was a great weekend.  Well, the men were actually pretty respectful, always engaging me in conversation and asking if they were too loud.  They seemed conscientious about not being too disturbing to other campers.  This was their annual men’s camping trip.  Far be it for me to put a damper on that.  I just surrendered and enjoyed my time there.

Prior to stopping at Fowler, I had spent four nights fourteen miles down the Rogue River out of Gold Beach, Oregon.

Since I was in my work week, I had to drive the fourteen miles every morning to Gold Beach to work.  There was no reception down the river.

This was a bit of a rough week for me.  The weather in Gold Beach was cold and gloomy and I was doing some heavy duty emotional processing.  I had to switch campsites three times due to reservation issues and while carrying a heavy bag, I badly hurt my neck.  Driving the long, windy road along the river with the bad neck made me car sick.

My Van had become my cave and I spent more time in it then out.  I wasn’t hiking or spending much time in nature, although I was camping in nature.  I was doing a lot of writing in my journal and dealing with some archaic pain coming to the surface as well as a lot of physical pain.  I don’t think I took one picture during this four day stay.

It felt like I had gone deep into the cave where there was no sunlight or fresh air.  The deeper into the cave I went, the deeper into my own subconscious I went.

The drive from Gold Beach to Shasta was equally heavy.  It was cloudy with thick, dense fog way into the Redwood Forest, which was beautiful, but I didn’t feel like stopping this time.

Once the clouds lifted the smoke started.  There was really thick, dense smoke from the top of the mountain all the way to Mcloud, California and it never let up.  I felt the sadness of all the forests burning, which seemed to match my current mood.  I released so much of the pain I was holding onto and what followed was a calm, peaceful state.

Once I found my camp spot, everything shifted.  It was like the clouds cleared away and I felt happy and connected again.  I had integrated some things that needed to be integrated, and cleared what needed to be cleared.  My connection with the earth and the nature around me was powerful over the weekend.

It is said that the ocean is where we go to get in touch with our emotions.  I was deeply in touch but happy to drive away from the Ocean and back to the Mountains.