Sunday, December 27, 2020

Made it to Mt. Shasta

 It's presently about 25 degrees Fahrenheit at about 10:30 Pm PT here in Mt. Shasta. My son in law missed the Alps this year where he's from so we drove north to Mt. Shasta so he and I could ski with friends. The lifts aren't open but you can still ski mountaineering cross country on Mt. Shasta and surrounding areas. In town there is black Ice now because of the temperatures so I really had to be careful where I drove getting back to the house on a couple of acres I'm renting for almost a week up here in Shasta. I don't feel safe staying in any hotel or flying in any plane or going to any restaurant unless it's for take out lately. There is about 6 inches of snow on the ground everywhere right now in Mt. Shasta including covering the land and surrounding the house where we are presently staying. 

Driving up was nice because I only had to drive a couple of hours because my son in law enjoyed driving my 4 wheel drive truck because it is a very different experience than driving his all wheel drive car that he and his wife have here in California. So, I even let him drive up the last hour from Redding since he was enjoying himself so much driving my big Tundra 4 wheel drive truck. Anyway, we will be okay even when it snows pretty hard up here on Wednesday and for about a week after that. It's supposed to snow solid for Wednesday and Thursday but I guess I'll believe it when I see it and then it's supposed to snow and rain for the next 4 or 5 days after that too. But, up on the mountain likely it will be continuous snow above 4 to 6 thousand feet in elevation.

He really liked the soft ride of the Tundra and being way up high off the ground like most 4 wheel drives are for extra ground clearance for being able to drive over at least 2 feet of snow even if it isn't plowed in 4 wheel drive. I had to already go into 4 wheel drive once in backing up in the snow off the land so that is always fun. But, having respect for black ice at night is how you stay alive in these conditions. Mostly, it's better not to drive at night at all when it gets much below 32 degrees or Freezing.

We saw the sun set on Mt. Shasta where it turned all pink from the sunset from about Red Bluff coming up Interstate 5 today.

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