Trip Pics 5 - Still heading home

This is a cool cat I met named Don. We rode together for a couple of days and stopped at lots of breathtaking scenic views and sudden natural wonders. He rode a Concours and rode it well-of course he used to race bikes back in the day. Don was kicking off the 21st annual West Coast Twisties Tour and it has only three rules: 1. Ride the twistiest roads you can find 2. Have a good time 3. No sniveling. Don is from Denver and was on his way to Portland to meet up with the rest of the group. Ironically, I met up with Don heading north in the same part of the world as the guy I rode with on the way south. Don I met at the south entrance to Lassen Volcanic National Park and Aaron I met at the north entrance to the same park. Serendipity or just a popular road?

In an alpine meadow where we stopped for a break, the ground was littered with a salt-and-pepper mix of white pumice and black obsidian. I grabbed a couple of the more outstanding specimens. We also saw a white crane there. We didn't notice it at first, but the ground and the little pond were just saturated with tiny little frogs. My pictures of them didn't turn out.

Camping somewhere high in the Sierra Nevadas next to a lake. **Free again!!** Didn't go swimming. My dinner this night was a bottle of bloody mary mix and most of a fifth of Smirnoff. It was a guy eating a chili dog on the front porch of the store where I bought the bottles who told me about this campground.

There was a pair of 20-30 something year old gals next door and I borrowed some ice from them for my dinner. It was a good "icebreaker" and I ended up hanging out there for a few hours. I feel a little guilty now, we were a good example of the bad campers next door. They backed their car in and turned on the music; it wasn't that loud, but in the still calm of the wilderness, a pinecone falling is loud. And then there was the singing, laughing, squealing and general merrymaking. Fell asleep next to their fire, but only had about 20 feet to navigate to my tent and warm sleeping bag. They were nurses from Sacramento and a little odd, but then again so am I. I didn't leave until about noon the next day, had a relaxing morning with a novel that really sucked me in. It was worth every minute and I took great pleasure at not having to be anywhere.