"If
one advances confidently in the direction of one's dreams, and
endeavors to live the life which one has imagined, one will meet
with a success unexpected in common hours."
Henry David Thoreau
The Mount Shasta road at 7,000 feet ~ April 27, 2004
04/25/04
- Slow Fast
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The
weather continued wet and miserable the whole time I was
fasting. Cabin fever drove me into town several times to
socialize and log onto the Internet at the Snowcrest
Cafe. This photo (click thumbnail) shows a morning snow
flurry outside my door at Twin Arrows.
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The entire
process of fasting lasted 12 days, including the easing in and
out. At the heart of it was a full week without solid foods.
During this period I mostly drank grape and prune juices, tea
and water. The apex was 30 hours on just water, and at that time
I had a high colonic at a clinic in town, something I've never
tried before. Boy, that'll wake you up in the morning! I guess
at that point my digestive tract was about as clean and empty as
it has ever been in my adult life.
I didn't
feel hungry at all, but my body was beginning to do some strange
things. I was getting muscle cramps, and my head felt light and
foggy. Fasting releases toxins into the body as it loosens and
removes old residues and allows the liver to purge itself. I
believe the last of these toxins was the cause of my discomfort
and I needed to flush it from my system. It also seemed like
time to end the fast, so I resumed drinking juices and
immediately felt better. Two days later I ate some fresh fruit.
Wow, fresh strawberries and fresh orange tasted like manna! My
long-deprived taste buds were giggling.
That was
also the day the weather broke and the sun came out, and it was
the day I did the sweat I had prepared last week. It's hard to
say which made me higher - the food, the sun or the sweat. No
matter, it was a landmark day. By the weekend I had eased back
into eating cooked foods and was finished with the fast.
Earth
Day Party
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Saturday,
April 24th, there was an Earth Day celebration at Mount
Shasta City Park, a beautiful parcel of land at the edge
of town. The park is blessed with some mature trees,
pastoral fields and meadows, nature trails, several
community lodges, and a mountain spring that bursts from
the foot of Mount Shasta to become, according to the
sign there, the headwater of the Sacramento River.
(There seems to be more than one "official"
Sacramento River headwater.)
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The spring
forms a natural pool, which spills over to become a stream that
meanders through the park. Locals claim this water is the
finest, cleanest, purest, most healthful drinking water in the
world, imbued (some say) with some of the magic that permeates
Mount Shasta itself. The Dannon company has built a water
bottling plant a half-mile uphill from here that taps into the
same spring water. Magic or not, the water certainly is pure,
and this park spring is where I come to fill my RV's water tank.
The Earth
Day gathering was a hippy event right out of the 70's, with
chanting, music, dancing, eco-booths and a parade through the
park. Where else but in California could you still find so many
flower people?
04/28/04 - Wednesday
With the
fast behind me and the weather now sunny & warm I'm getting
back to a more normal life, hiking and mountain biking nearly
every day.
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I'm
also catching up with old friends. The guy in this
photo, Yari, was the very first person I met when I
first arrived in Mount Shasta 7 years ago. It was out at
Smiling Buddha in the National Forest. I was scouting
for a place to park my RV for the night and came across
this long-haired fellow camped down by the river. We
talked a bit and, as I recall, he got me high right then
and there. Then he told me about the less-visited Twin
Arrows campground up the road, which became one of my
favorite spots. Soon after that Yari and I connected in
town and, during the year-plus that I lived here, we
became good buddies.
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Yari wound
up inheriting a nice house on a beautiful piece of land on the
outskirts of Mount Shasta. Now he's selling that place to take
off traveling again - thinking about buying a sailboat to cruise
the Caribbean, he says. A kindred spirit.
I think
I'll stick around Mount Shasta thru this weekend. It's the
annual Wesak (pronounced "wee-sack") celebration, a
time when spiritual seekers and guru wannabees from around the
world come here to learn and teach, and to act enlightened. The
gathering promises to be no less colorful than last weekend's
Earth Day celebration. I'll keep my camera handy.
Next Entry: 05/08/04
