BURNEY, CALIFORNIA

Alex and Linda Colvin

    I left Muir Wood at 10:30 and got $17 worth of $1.899 gas in Mill Valley and back onto to 101. Into country territory, rounded hills, mostly covered with grass, some short rounded-out trees, a bit of water. California 37 (the El Camino Real) at 11:08, flat country to my right, hills to my left, family houses on them, squat little trees, grass. Sonoma County Line over a bridge with a lot of water down there underneath me on the right, less to my left, one lane each way, separated by a Jersey barrier. A lot of boats off to my right. Now I'm on a kind of dyke or something that cuts across a large bay with a bit of marsh to my right. Mare Island. Onto to I-80 at 11:32. Sky is blue with straight streaks of white, not cirrus or cumulus, a collection of houses, some city or town or whatever to my left, rolling grass- and tree-colored hills with some cattle to my right.
    Onto I-505 north at 11:55, 65 degrees. Flat country, fields off to my right, more houses to my left, beyond them are mountains some away, low one-story houses. Fruit orchards, a Spanish style house with a square tower, fields yellow something. Lots and lots of sheep, a few of them black, pretty much flat country except for mountains off to my left. Rows and rows of something planted, white sticks marking the rows, something green between the sticks, lots of brown, a yellow field, sky of cirrus clouds, a solitary naked tree alongside the road.
    I-5 north at 12:25, still going through green fields, the mountains to my left moving further off. There's a fair amount snow on one of those bluish purple-gray mountains in the distance, otherwise just flat farm country. No doubt about it--this road is deadening and I have a hard time keeping my eyes open. Glenn County Line. Not a lot of houses out here, storage tanks. Willows at 1:05, where I had slept one night in 1966. Now there are mountains off to my right as well, one of them snow-capped, further away than those to my left. There seems to be a very huge very snow-covered mountain up ahead of me. At first I thought it couldn't be a mountain but a cloud but now it's taking form as a mountain with snow going down and down and down its slopes, covering the whole mountain, not just the peak. A whole ridge of snow-topped mountains ahead of me as I cross the Sacramento River. A turkey vulture circling hopefully over the road. It is now very clear that that is a mountain not a cloud, rising high and white over everything else, the culmination of a ridge of peaks, some with snow, some without, none anywhere near as big as whatever peak that is. The Shasta County Line so that it's probably Mount Shasta. Lots of horses, maybe some donkeys, out in a field.
    Leaving I-505 for California 299 and Burney at 2:35, temp 70. Turn Creek Road. Mount Shasta now off to my left. Out of civilization now, no houses visible, a curving road with a falloff to my right, a bare steep hillside to my left, a creek down there to my right, lots of pines, some naked trees, some kind of evergreen with oblong leaves, the Sugar Pine Conservation Camp, the town of Ingot, pop 31. Another rusted tin roof. Montgomery Creek. An overturned trailer truck. Pines just marching up and down alongside me.
    Burney at 3:45, temp 56, to spend the night at Alex and Linda Colvin's, a house that belonged to his mother, the town where his father had run a logging company. I met Alex at the Year of the Rabbit Coffeehouse in Bowie, Maryland. I had never talked much with Linda until now. She's a very gracious woman. We talked till way too late.

Wednesday, February 24
In 1962, I moved into 6139A Parkview Gardens.
Burney
    Alex and I went around town a bit, to the mechanic's (fluids okay), the library, the post office, and H&R Block (none of whom had tax instructions and H&R Block says they're no longer available), maybe some other places. In the daytime you can see Mount Burney hovering over the town. In the evening, we went to the Pit River Indian Casino, where I bought everybody $10 steak dinners, which were pretty good.


Mount Burney

Thursday, February 25
1962: "There is a trappedness in me. I have signed a year's lease and that makes the whole thing seem rather permanent."
Burney
    In the afternoon, Alex and Linda and I went to Burney Falls, where I learned my new camera had to have its battery recharged. Alex and I talked the evening away while watching the Republican debate.

Friday, February 26
1974: "I had trouble getting out of my apartment because of the gasoline line in front of it."
Burney to the Oregon line
    Left at 10:52, temp 47, odometer 122460, getting gas at the Pit River Indian Reservation, up California 299, sky almost completely clouded over. Through pine woods, trees scattered from each other, blue mountains to my right and left, Lassen State National Park, to California 89, 11:00. More Douglas firs, which Alex had pointed out to me. Dead Horse Summit, 4524 feet, driving down a corridor with pines of various shades of green, some almost a lime green and some that look like blue spruce, everything in between, fair amount of snow on both sides of the road, sky has cleared, mostly blue sky ahead of me, a huge bank of clouds hovering over a mountain ridge. Shasta Trinity National Forest, Cloud River Area, at 11:35. Beginning to cloud over at McCloud at 11:49.
    The town of Mount Shasta at 12:09. Biscuits & gravy at the Black Bear Diner and onto I-5 at 12:56. The town of Weed at 1:07. Elevation 3000 feet, Mount Shasta behind me shrouded in cloud, mountains on either side, mostly cloudy with patches of blue and the sun is shining, yellow grass on either side of the road, scrub-covered hills on either side, distant mountains behind them on either side with mountains behind them. All socked in again, mountains to my left, mountains ahead of me, mountains to my right. Bright but overcast. Yreka California. Over the Shasta River at 2:02, more incredible land with mountains and hills, valleys, a road going off to the side, houses in distant valley, snow-covered slopes way off to my left, bare slopes to my right but quite high, pastureland, some patches of blue up ahead as the sky keeps changing and the scenery is incredible. Curving road down from the Anderson Gap summit down to 3000 feet, snow-covered mountains to left, 6% grade, going through hills not mountains. Clouded over again at 2:11. Serious rain as we go down from Siskiyou Summit elevation 2500. Have been plagued by diarrhea all day.
    Weed to the Oregon border. Sky almost completely clouded over now.