I got in a car Saturday morning, having had 2.5 hours of sleep, facing a 4-hour drive to the mountains and a weekend of camping and hiking. Generally, I am not a morning person ~ I do not get up if I do not want to, I do not stay up until 4:30 am if I do not want to. This weekend, I did both. You know I mentioned in my last post that I was going to drive up to Lassen Volcanic National Park. Mostly, I needed to get away, needed to clear my head, was dying to sleep outdoors, and missed camping. This week had also been marked by events that caught my eye, or rather, my thoughts ~~ Wednesday marked the first day of Autumn, the end of a traumatic summer for me ~ Friday was Yom Kippur, day of atonement, which many of my friends commemorated ~ and the moon is on its way to being Full on Tuesday. So, I had a lot to think about on the drive, but most importantly, I needed to stare out over a forest and get lost in a moment of not seeing it, for all the trees ~~ trying to find the "big picture" you see? The first day of Spring this year was March 20, and June 21 was the first day of Summer ~~ for me, those dates are like bookends: marking a surprising, exciting, explosive Spring etched into my memory like fire, and a sad Summer I'd rather forget; I want to make my Autumn something in between ~ or, who knows, maybe I want to forget Spring and Summer, and wipe the slate clean..
And so I drove. As I absentmindedly directed the car in a straight path, my mind wandered, wrapping itself around some unwanted enlightenment ~~ the warm sun was streaming in through the windshield, warming my face, cooling my anxiety ~ and crooning out of the speakers was this new CD someone just recommended to me, Twentysomething by Jamie Cullum, this amazing, young, English singer-pianist ~~ his CD is full of modern jazz twists on classic standards like two of my favorites, "I Get A Kick Out of You" and "What A Difference a Day Made," mixed with some beautiful original pieces ~~ his voice is lovely and he can hit the jazz, swing, classic, and crooner vibe all at once. Anyway, somewhere along Highway 36, when the dreary scenery of Highway 5 gave way to an amazing volcanic landscape, Cullum's "Van Morrison-esque summer anthem" came on, his song entitled "These Are The Days":
These are the days that I’ve been missing
Give me the taste give me the joy of summer wine
These are the days that bring new meaning
I feel the stillness of the sun and I feel fine
Sometimes when the nights are closing early
I remember you and I start to smile
Even though now you don’t want to know me
I get on by, and I go the extra mile
These are the times of love and meaning
Ice of the heart has melted away and found the light
These are the days of endless dreaming
Troubles of life are floating away like a bird in flight
These are the days that I’ve been missing
Give me the taste give me the joy of summer wine
These are the days that bring new meaning
I feel the stillness of the sun and I feel fine
It was a perfect soundtrack to the end of the road, the beginning of the camping trip, and the middle of many thoughts ~ it was almost sensory overload......the sight of Lassen Peak off in the distance as I drove up Highway 36, surrounded by this amazing volcanic landscape ~~ rock fragments scattered everywhere, interspersed by dunes of ash, tinted yellow and red from minerals; trees seared by forest fires; and unique vegetation squinting and peeking out from underneath massive rock formations; driving through the tiny towns of Mineral and Chester, in the middle of California's Volcano Country ~ so, the way the music felt and sounded, the way Cullum's lyrics and voice wash over you slowly like maple syrup, the way the landscape filled my eyes and imagination, the sound of the air blowing through the open window, the way my crazy curls felt whipping around in the wind, the sight of Lassen Peak towering over it all. And, the lyrics resonate......
My friend Sara and I camped at the Juniper Lake campground, which is 6,792-feet above sea level, and beautiful. Juniper Lake is the largest and deepest of all the lakes in the Park, and we literally camped a few feet away from its tiny pebble "beach". After we pitched our tent, we boiled water and sipped hot cocoa as we watched the sun set over the Lake ~~ silence between us, no need to say a word about Mother Nature doin' her thing ~~ only the wind in the trees and Bluebirds had something to say about the scene. Every aspect of camping is amazing to me ~~ wandering the hillside gathering wood for the fire, the way food tastes so good out there, the smell of campfire smoke in your hair. watching the clouds move above you, listening to the critters around you talking to each other, stoking the fire and feeling its warmth on your face, remembering that you forgot the flask of whiskey at home, and not minding. When it was time to go to sleep, in the tent, Sara played with the flashlight while I made puppet shadows ~~ it was so cold, but I had forgotten my mittens, so I put socks on my hands, and then made their shadows dance and sing on the side of the tent ~~ Sara and I called it performance art: "Socks on Ecstasy at BurningMan." We left the skyflap open on the tent and watched the stars, and watched the moon rise, its rays lighting up the Lake; as I dozed off, I remember mentioning that I felt like Gumby, zipped up in my cocoon-like down sleeping bag. I fell asleep to the sound of waves lapping up at the edge of the Lake ...... and socks on my hands. Imagine the dreams I had.....
We woke up around 6:30 am....to 33-degrees weather! It had been in the high-70's when we arrived Saturday, and now, we were frozen. For me, that's OK ~ you roll with the punches and laugh at your frozen fingers as you struggle to make a cup o'coffee on a propane stove, praying for the sun to hurry up and warm you up. It was too cold to eat outside, so we ate our freeze-dried eggs and bell peppers, wrapped in flour tortillas, in the car, with the heat and NPR on full-blast, listening to an interview with Jay Rayner, about his new book, The Apologist aka Eating Crow, and the "Apology Log" it spawned on the web. It was hilarious. And I loved it.
We then packed up and drove over to the Bumpass Hell Trail in the Park. At the entrance, I asked the cute ranger how to get to "Bump-ASS Trail," and he said, "Bumpus? (rhymes with "rumpus") Straight ahead." I smiled as he corrected me, knowing full well that the guy's name, the reason for the trail's name, was Bump-ASS. As we drove through the Park, on our way to the trail head, Cesaria Evora played on the CD-player ~~ her song "amor di mundo" from her Café Atlantico CD ~~ where Cullum's voice was smooth as silk, Cesaria's was luscious like licorice ~~ and the landscape around me took on that hue as I recognized what she was singing ~~~ Nh'amor é doce, Nh'amor é certo, Nh'amor tá longe, Nh'amor tá perto, El tá na mim, 'M ca ta sozim, Ness mundo.... (my love is sweet, my love is certain, my love is distant, my love is close, it is within me, I am not alone, in this world....). This CD's title, Café Atlantico, refers to the imaginary café at the world's end, perched on the edge of the ocean sheltered from storms ~ it's a sanctuary for wandering or troubled souls and symbolizes all the world's harbour bars, and the bars where Cesaria made her debut in Mindelo, Cape Verde. And well, Lassen feels like the edge of the world in places, and I touched boulders perched on the edge of cliffs, trying to unburden my troubled soul ~~ and so you can see why I had such a visceral reaction to this song, playing as it was, as I wound my way up the mountain. The same reaction I had to the Cullum lyrics ~ same themes, same reaction, such widely different language/artist/music.
On our hike along the Bumpass Hell Trail, we saw rocks marked by glacial striations, last year's snow still in patches all over the landscape, and whitebark pine ~ telling us how high up we were, at 8,200-feet above sea level. Once we reached the steaming, fuming hydrothermal area of Bumpass Hell, we saw boiling mud pots, smelly fumaroles emitting huge clouds of steam and gas, dacite lava walls, basalt lava that flowed from nearby Mt. Harkness, and andesite lava from ancient Mt. Tehama. It was incredible...and smelly!
I uploaded a few pictures from the trip, here ~~ the photos don't do justice to the awesome landscape!
Before this little camping trip, I saw Lila Downs in concert at the Palace of Fine Arts on Friday night. She is amazing ~ she wears her heart on her sleeve and her soul in her smile. Lila is a revolutionary, and a singing sensation, and she is sexy suffused with sweetness. She mesmerized the shouting, adoring crowd with her tragically beautiful song, La Llorona ~ My friend Nick said on Friday that before Lila, simply her voice existed, and that all the molecules in the universe came together to crystallize around her beautiful voice ~~ she seemed so tiny on stage, and her voice so huge ~ I wanted to pick her up, put in her my shirt-pocket, and walk around with her whispering sweet nothings in my ear.
And so this weekend's soundtrack was interesting indeed.......
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