Tom's Past Adventures

Our return home from Northern California took us to the coast.  We wanted to see the Redwoods, plus the coast itself is always nice, too.  We got about half way up the Oregon coast when fatigue got the best of us ... so we headed inland to I-5 and made a beeline to home. California Coast Fern canyon Redwoods Oregon Coast Waves Sand design Photos More Photos 

Next stop on our exploration of Northern California was Caribou Lakes in the Trinity Alps.  The name sounded worthy, but we honestly didn't know exactly what to expect.  It delivered in spades!  Wildflowers, lakes, big granite peaks! Random Scenes Hanging out on the ridge above Caribou Lakes with storm clouds brewing, when all of a sudden, an enormous thunderclap blammed seemingly right on top of us!  Needless to say, we scurried down as quick as we could move!!  And we even reached out tent before the heavens opened up! A group of campers at Caribou Lakes had a fire during forest fire season, when the area was in the midst of a 2-year drought!  The area had received something like 10% of the rain/snow they normally get.  The heather would just snap at the lightest touch!  I felt the need to chastise them, but can't remember if I actually did. We came across a couple of 20ish women, who ended up were spending a bunch of time up there doing a censu...

With the kids still out of the country, we headed off to Northern California to check out some new terrain.  First on the list was the Mt Shasta area, where we took in a couple of super-nice waterfalls, and did a partial climb of Mt Shasta, itself.  Then we headed off to Mt Lassen National Park, where we did multiple hikes (though not to the summit), to views, lakes, and thermal mud pools. Random Scenes Three dudes cliff jumping into the pool at the bottom of McCloud Falls. Karen swimming under McCloud Falls. Throwing a rainfly over our camping neighbor's tent (in Mt Lassen) when an afternoon thunderstorm rolled in.  They were very grateful, and bestowed some home-made smoked salmon on us.  Yum!! Writing more bad poetry for Brian! "Oh Wow!" Moments McCloud Falls!  Spectacular! Storm clouds rolling in over the bubbling craziness of Bumpass Hell in Mt Lassen! MIddle McCloud Falls Enjoying a beer by Lower McCloud Falls Climbing the flanks of Mt Shasta 11,000 ft pea...