Mount Mazama, once over 12,000 feet in elevation, went through a half-million years of alternating eruptions and quietude. Between seven and eight thousand years ago, Mount Mazama erupted violently numerous times, covering eight states and three Canadian provinces with six inches of ash. These eruptions produced 150 times the ash as the Mount St. Helens eruption in 1980.
This is a re-post from about a year ago when we were still on the Tibetan Plateau. We re-post it here for those who might have missed the original. If you wish to read the complete posts of In Search of Shangri-la, click on the link under Adventures at left.
We’ve called this often grueling trip from Chengdu, the Back Road to Shangri-la. A few days ago, we entered the high gate to the garden of Shangri-la. We topped out above 15,000 feet each day, and often stayed there for hours.
The Olympic Peninsula of Washington State is not a famous for sunset skies as some places, but when the sun has a little space between clouds to work with, spectacular results. Some of the best skies are late in the day in winter. It seems like winter is coming early this year (La Nina), and this evening sky gives strong hints of things to come.
Claire and I were honored to be able to fly on a vintage B 24 and B 17, with members of the Womens Air Service Pilots, WASPs, from Phoenix to Tucson. They were a delight to be around and it is a memory we will cherish. The story ran in the Desert Leaf, a Tucson monthly.
Today about 200 surviving WASPs were presented with the Congressional Gold Medal. About time! We hope all our friends were there.
We leave September 1 for Chengdu, Sichuan, China to begin a tandem bicycle tour of SW China and SE Asia. We begin in Chengdu, Sichuan, where the earthquakes killed thousands last year. We will visit some pandas and probably visit our first important Buddha statue before heading into high country where the Himalayas transition from the Tibetan plateau, giving birth to all the great rivers of SE Asia. After a long crossing into Yunnan, we will drop into the sub tropics of Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and end probably in Bangkok, one of our favorite cities.
I had another of those funny think things. “Respect yourself and others will respect you.” I asked Claire what that word respect means. She took a long time with her thinks before she said something. “Respect means you think well of someone, and that you trust what they say is what they will do.”
I think these thinks are coming from someone else. I’m not that smart by myself. It’s probably not a panda. We just think about bamboo. I wonder if it is a China person? Does anybody know who thinked these thinks first?
My head fluff is acting up again. I’m doing more of the think thing. I kind of like this one, since I’ve been seeing really pretty country lately. But I know I didn’t think this by myself. Somebody really smart thought this first. Bob and Claire think I’m a smart panda, but I think I think these thinks are coming from another place. I wonder where?
“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” a person (or panda?) really do stuff, rather than hear about it or see it. He said it is the reason they travel, and hike and bicycle, instead of watch other people do stuff on television. I think I remember such a thing from my other life. The people were always sitting in front of it and not talking much. They might have doing this thinking thing, but I couldn’t tell.
They have hinted that I will be going with them to China to ride their tandem bicycle, Zippy. First they say I need to learn a little about riding a bicycle. We’ve been practicing. They breathe hard a lot, and go scary fast sometimes. They helped me make this video to show you. Do you think this looks like fun?
Bob and Claire told me my life with them would be adventurous. The next day they began to show me how to ride a bicycle. Something about China and bicycles seems to go get them all excited, and it looks like I might be a part of what they have planned.
as she and Bob sped past in Turtle, that’s their motorhome’s name, and she announced that a bear rescue was required. Bob and Turtle reponded with a fast U-Turn and the next thing I knew, I was looking out Turtle’s windshield and feeling safe.
We spend most of the day scrambling all over the drainage that contains The Wave, which is itself quite small, and added another couple of tough steep miles. There is a small arch high on a cliff above The Wave, and we determined to get to it for our lunch spot. After a few dicey moves and an hour or more of climbing, and pausing for photos, we made it