My first ex-wife texted me that a sheriff in Siskiyou contacted her to find his next of kin. However, I'm not sure he has any he was still in contact with. He lived alone since around 1972 on his land at around 4000 feet on Mt. Shasta. I used to own land that I built an A-Frame on with my 2nd wife and home schooled our kids there because it was too far away from any school to drive them to one and no school buses came that far because it was too remote.
I remember he liked to Cross country ski a lot and had this thing that looked like sort of a motorcycle side car that he towed with his cross country skis. When my oldest biological son was 5 he used to tow him before my son learned to Cross country ski. I don't think we had bought him skis yet. So, it was very sweet of him to tow my son around while we skied alongside of him then. It was fun for my son when he was 5 years old to. This was around 1980.
My friend passed away recently around age 82 years of age while living alone on his 2 1/2 acres of land with his dog (a chow) and a cat. I asked him recently why he didn't let his dog come in while it was snowing at night and he told me he didn't want his chow to eat his cat. So, he built a big doghouse outside in the snow for his dog (a chow). Recently because he had a knee replacement he was worried he couldn't take food to his dog through the snow because he was afraid he might fall down in the snow because a knee replacement is not the same as a natural human knee (but it is better than being a cripple on crutches or in a wheelchair). So, he was proud he could make it over the snow to feed his dog.
I saw him last in September while I was traveling through on my way to visit my oldest biological son in Portland ORegon and his family.
I knew at the time that this was the last time I was ever going to see my 82 year old friend because I knew he was too frail to survive another winter so far from any town in the wilderness in many feet of snow by himself. However, I also knew he would never leave his home willingly for assisted living anywhere else. He had reverse mortgaged his house and land so this gave him more money to live on as a retiree so he was okay to survive financially with his 4 wheel drive Truck.
I once saw him put his dry suit on and go into lake Siskiyou in a storm by himself and swim across within the last few years. He told me he also wore this dry suit in Castle Lake at 6000 feet and would break the ice there to swim when it was icy. So, this is a mountain man since 1972. He also believed that Mt. Shasta was a sacred mountain and so it was like his church in some ways too.
I first met him at Pearl Dorris' house where he went to visit her like many younger people did then because she was a spiritual teacher who had directly studied with Mr. Ballard in the 1930s before he passed away in 1939. So, I think I met my friend in the 1970s some time before Pearl retired and moved and then passed away there in Mt. Shasta.
He had told me about the land that I bought in 1980 where I bought my land about 10 miles from the nearest gas station or ranger station then.
I'm writing this to help me say goodbye to an old friend who was very eccentric to say the least but always very polite but also very intelligent but also a little Kooky too.
Even your kooky friends are still your friends and he helped me and my family then a lot and often drove us up to 10,000 feet on Mt. Shasta with his 4 wheel drive truck with our children then that were about 5 to 8 years old the 3 of them then. Now those kids are all 50 to 53 years old and living in Montana, and Oregon with their spouses and my son has his own 10 year old son now.
I'm writing this to say goodbye to my friend because I likely cannot go to his memorial in Shasta but I likely will be paying for his cremation because we offered to do that for him.
Goodbye old Friend!
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