The Modoc Trip
Jun. 19th, 2003 09:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cyan_blueSo this past weekend,
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emmett_the_sane and I went on a road trip that we are referring to as the Modoc Trip. We actually only spent about a minute in Modoc County, as we turned the corner in the teensy town (pop. 500) of Adin from Route 299 to Route 139. But Emmett was hoping to see a bit of Modoc county, and technically we did, and so the trip is being named in honor of his achieved goal. Sort of...ANYWAY. Most of our trip was spent in Lassen County, and we wanted to show off our photos of it, and recommend it as a northern California road trip.
This photo is of Mt. Lassen, which the county kind of centers around.
We took off Friday night, which is about the silliest time there is to try to go from the Peninsula to anywhere else. It took about 2 hours for us to get through the traffic from our home in Pacifica to I-5 in Tracy, a trip that would normally take us a shade over 1 hour. We were more than ready to take a break at The Old Spaghetti Factory in Stockton, where they have this delicacy known as mizithra cheese that mingles lovingly with brown butter to adorn a heaping plate of spaghetti. Yup, that's a picture of it there on their website.
Cheerfully stuffed, we continued up the I-5. Stopping for gas, we encountered a true marvel: a gas-station food-mart that serves fresh tempura! Sadly, it was closed, and we were full in any case, but we will just have to stop there again some time. We contemplated picking up trip snacks at the beloved Granzella's Deli in Williams, but we got there pretty late too, and so we just continued north to Red Bluff, where we found our hotel for the night.
We hit the road again around noon, and shortly we were turning off of the I-5 in Redding, onto the 299. A pretty road, with quirky houses and rolling golden fields and long white fences. Presently we came upon a series of bright pink signs advertising a Really Huge Yard Sale, and Emmett and I are fond of those, so we turned off the road and stopped in to look at knick knacks and old clothes and such.
And as I was looking, I could have sworn I heard a little "meow!" I looked around but didn't see anything feline in evidence. Turned back to the clothes rack... and there it was again! "Meow..."
The owners saw me looking, and said "You want to adopt a free kitten?" and opened a box (box?!?!) to reveal this little beauty:
Oh, gods. We have been thinking of adopting a second cat, since Preia's been needing a playmate, and here was a very adoptable one right before us. Not a Siberian, of course, but truthfully my allergies around other cats haven't been so bad since we got Preia. So we've been considering adopting a regular cat.
I held her and played with her for an hour, mulling. We really needed a second cat, but Emmett and I also really needed a vacation together. And we could get this kitten, but that would pretty much cut short the vacation. Emmett was leaving the decision up to me, but he was pretty clearly favoring the vacation. Time off together has seemed more scarce than cute kittens, lately.
And then there was the question, was this kitten the right one? Definitely a great personality (inquisitive and affectionate), and I was enjoying playing with her, but there wasn't *quite* an insta-bond. And, she was clearly an outdoor cat, and we keep our cat indoors. If she was adopted by her local rural neighbors, she could continue her outdoor life.
Still, she was compelling. Aargh! We finally settled on this compromise - we'd leave without the kitten, and if we found that we couldn't get her out of our minds, we'd turn back and grab her. We would also stop by on our way back Sunday night to see if she was still available (the Free Kitten sign had a pretty visible crossed-out S on the end of the word Kitten, which meant that her siblings had been going fast), and if she was, we'd consider that to be a Sign that she was meant for us.
So with the decision left firmly up to Fate, we headed again on our way.
Burney Falls was our next stop. After we got over the shock of being greeted on our windshield by a grasshopper whose antennae were as long as my little finger, we proceeded to the set of switchbacks that leads down into the small canyon surrounding the Falls. Here is what we saw:
And here is a picture of Emmett:
We admired it for a while and then talked about whether to go back up the way we came (a shorter trip) or try the mile-plus loop across the stream and around the upper side of the falls. We decided to be intrepid about it, and I'm darn proud of myself for managing the uphill parts.
Along the way, we saw this bizarre alien-looking landscape, which was really a set of tumbled rocks covered over by moss:
It was getting well into the evening by the time we arrived back to our car. We drove around the nearby scenic hills and woods and fields until it got dark, and then we considered our options for the night. We decided to drive to Susanville, an hour or two south. We figured that we'd stop for dinner along the way, but after we passed through the tiny towns of Bieber and Nubieber, we realized that even aside from the matter of it being past 8:30pm on a Sunday, there weren't any restaurants *available* to be worried about the closing times of. At this point I decided that the fridge section of the nearest gas station / general store was where we were going to find our provisions for the night, and I did decently, finding a microwaveable package of vegetarian refritos, corn bread and rice. Emmett held out in the hopes that there would still be a late-night Taco Bell open in Susanville by the time we arrived.
Onward, through Adin and then southward along the remote Route 139. We entertained ourselves for a bit by playing "I Spy," but it was really too dark to spy much of anything; we could make out some fields and scrub-brush along the roadside, and the occasional shadows of hill.
Until the moon came up, in its breathtaking, large, low-to-the-horizon orange glory. We were awed. We pulled over as soon as we could to photograph it, but our camera just doesn't seem to do well with something so distant as the moon, so alas we can't share with you what we saw. But it was wondrous.
We did get to Susanville in time to find a Taco Bell that was still open, and also in time to find a motel that wasn't all ready sold out. Emmett turned on the TV as we munched our dinners, and we got drawn into a silly and fun movie, "A Very Brady Sequel," and stayed up 'til 2am. We left at 11am, after Emmett delivered a heartfelt soliloquy about how hotel check-out times discriminate against those who live on geek standard time, to the front desk woman who had earlier declined our late checkout request. Her response was that perhaps he could adjust his lifestyle to conform to the early-bird uber-culture. Needless to say, a meeting of minds was not had.
We spent the next hour ascertaining that there was no restaurant in Susanville that appealed to us, and we stopped at the local Safeway for more microwaveables. I found palak paneer in the freezer aisle, and Emmett found a big yummy pickle and some fresh veggies and grapes, and we were reasonably smug about our success in locating such healthy veg fare in such an 80's-Americana small town. We had our lunch in the car, beneath a shady tree on a pretty street.
Headed northwest along the 44, and Emmett noticed on the map that there was something called Crater Lake right up ahead. Sure enough, we came upon a discreet sign pointing offroad towards just such a thing, and we drove a slow 7 miles up a very gravelly volcano hillside. At the summit, we were rewarded with this gorgeous view:
I have a weakness for water bodies that are vibrant shades of green, and this one fit the bill. It was beautiful. It wasn't crowded, either; there were some families camping, but it was a pretty secluded spot. The water was clean, reflecting trees and sky perfectly, and giving clear views to the earth and pebbles below the water in the shallow end.
And there was wildlife. Here are some of the photos we took:
An orange butterfly, and a periwinkle one...
And a water snake:
And also a dragonfly and a crawdad and multitudinous blackflies, which I will spare you from having to see any photographs of. (Yup, we took some.)
Drove onward, and where the 44 joins with the 89, there is this phenomenon called the Subway Cave. It's a cave that has a dried up lava flow as its floor. Here's what the opening of the cave looks like:
The ground atop the cave was grassy and gravelly by turns, and it is quite amazing what can grow out of a patch of gravel:
Further along the 44 we saw some more of that kind of thing:
We also got some closer views of Mt. Lassen, amidst a soothing drizzle:
And then it was Sunday evening, and it was time to go see if that kitten was still available. Unfortunately, she wasn't. I feel sad, but I know that in Lassen County she will be able to continue her life as a free-roaming outdoor cat. And now we'll have the opportunity to rescue a shelter-kitty, who will like having an apartment as its home. We'll look for Preia's new companion after the current spate of travels eases off in July.
Last stop was the lushly-gardened Italian Cottage in Chico, where we gorged ourselves on roasted garlic and blue cheese crostini, tomato and cheese tortellini, and 2 desserts: cinnamon bread pudding and a chocolate volcano cake with oozy chocolate lava, a la mode. Here's what the Italian Cottage looks like on the outside:
We drove the rest of the way home under a second large orange moon, this one all the more dramatic for the clouds swirling about it, giving it the look of having Saturn's rings.
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no subject
Date: 2003-06-19 11:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-21 08:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-20 01:07 am (UTC)Just, wow.
And if you do want to adopt a kitten, please get in touch with Beth -- we have a trio of foster kitties at the moment who are just getting on towards being big enough to adopt. I think Branwen might be good for your home.
no subject
Date: 2003-06-21 08:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-20 06:27 am (UTC)Your journal with its awesome photos and engaging commentary first caught my eye one day as I was friend-of-friend browsing. I'm glad I stuck around 3-).
This post was also of special interest to me since we're going to be road trippping from the South of California way up till Seattle in August. Thanks 3-)
no subject
Date: 2003-06-21 08:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-20 06:36 am (UTC)And I have no idea how old I was when I first saw Burney Falls. The headwaters trail leads to (what is, in the summer) the spring where it starts, only half a mile above the lip of the falls. It grows to 100 million (in the summer) gallons per day when it comes over the edge.
*sigh*
That area's one of the most beautiful places in the world.
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Date: 2003-06-21 08:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-21 11:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-20 07:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-21 08:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-20 07:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-21 08:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-20 11:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-21 08:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-21 01:37 pm (UTC)no subject
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