Thursday, October 2, 2014

Up to Crater Lake, October 2

We woke up this morning to frost everywhere.  It motivated us to get moving and on the road.  We got out of camp within an hour and went to the nearby post office to pick up a package.  We will be enjoying the goodies for weeks!  Thanks, mom!
Then we headed south on highway 97.  We had been anxious about the 30-mile stretch of this big road that we could not avoid, but it wasn't so bad.  We had a decent shoulder and even a tailwind for some of it!
The miles passed quickly, but we were still relieved to turn onto a smaller road up to Crater Lake National Park.  We ate a quick lunch at the junction then headed up the road.  We were greeted by a big hill up to Cascade Summit at about 6,000 feet.  
It looks steep, but it was really just very straight.  At the top we turned onto another road and, tired but excited, we entered the park!  The lake is only 7% of the actual park, so it took us awhile to reach it.  On the way, we talked with a touring cyclist who had come from Maine and spent the day riding the 33 mile road around the lake, and we passed through the Pumice Desert, which looked exactly as it sounds.  Up and up we climbed.  
The lake level is around 6,100 feet, and the caldera containing it rises up steeply to the edge.  So we had to go above 7,000 feet to see the lake.  But it was worth it once we got there.  
The lake was stunning: steep cliffs rising straight out of the rich, blue water, their reflections mirrored in the surface.  Furthermore, because we were up so high, we had a great vista of the surrounding mountains with the sun setting over them. A great way to end the day!


1 comment:

  1. Hi Friends! Here's that poem I promised you. It's called "Underwear" by Lawrence Ferlinghetti (it's not supposed to have the big spaces between the lines, but that's the way it copied, so oh well):

    I didn’t get much sleep last night

    thinking about underwear

    Have you ever stopped to consider

    underwear in the abstract

    When you really dig into it

    some shocking problems are raised

    Underwear is something

    we all have to deal with

    Everyone wears

    some kind of underwear

    The Pope wears underwear I hope

    The Governor of Louisiana

    wears underwear

    I saw him on TV

    He must have had tight underwear

    He squirmed a lot

    Underwear can really get you in a bind

    You have seen the underwear ads

    for men and women

    so alike but so different

    Women’s underwear holds things up

    Men’s underwear holds things down

    Underwear is one thing

    men and women have in common

    Underwear is all we have between us

    You have seen the three-color pictures

    with crotches encircled

    to show the areas of extra strength

    and three-way stretch

    promising full freedom of action

    Don’t be deceived

    It’s all based on the two-party system

    which doesn’t allow much freedom of choice

    the way things are set up

    America in its Underwear

    struggles thru the night

    Underwear controls everything in the end

    Take foundation garments for instance

    They are really fascist forms

    of underground government

    making people believe

    something but the truth

    telling you what you can or can’t do

    Did you ever try to get around a girdle

    Perhaps Non-Violent Action

    is the only answer

    Did Gandhi wear a girdle?

    Did Lady Macbeth wear a girdle?

    Was that why Macbeth murdered sleep?

    And that spot she was always rubbing—

    Was it really in her underwear?

    Modern anglosaxon ladies

    must have huge guilt complexes

    always washing and washing and washing

    Out damned spot

    Underwear with spots very suspicious

    Underwear with bulges very shocking

    Underwear on clothesline a great flag of freedom

    Someone has escaped his Underwear

    May be naked somewhere

    Help!

    But don’t worry

    Everybody’s still hung up in it

    There won’t be no real revolution

    And poetry still the underwear of the soul

    And underwear still covering

    a multitude of faults

    in the geological sense—

    strange sedimentary stones, inscrutable cracks!

    If I were you I’d keep aside

    an oversize pair of winter underwear

    Do not go naked into that good night

    And in the meantime

    keep calm and warm and dry

    No use stirring ourselves up prematurely

    ‘over Nothing’

    Move forward with dignity

    hand in vest

    Don’t get emotional

    And death shall have no dominion

    There’s plenty of time my darling

    Are we not still young and easy

    Don’t shout

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