When we left our home that morning we didn’t expect bad weather. We’d been enjoying an early spring for a few weeks, with intermittent rainstorms. So we took off for a drive to Arcata, on the coast, not thinking all that much about precipitation.

Our route is the Klamath River Highway - also known as the Bigfoot Scenic Byway because it passes by Bluff Creek where the famous Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot movie was filmed, and there are a lot of Bigfoot sightings in this region. You can see a bit of the highway on the left side of this river photo. You can click on that photo for a larger version of it.

Forty miles downriver there are two tall bridges. With my acrophobia… and bridge-phobia… I have actually stayed awake nights fretting about these darn bridges! But that was years ago. After I discovered EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) I learned to tap away my phobias, and now I’m learning to cross these bridges without slowing down to a chicken-crawl first. I’m doing pretty well at this!

Anyhow, not long after we cross the bridges we come to the Junction School, and then Somes Bar which is nothing more than a solitary store - currently called the Salmon River Outpost - and homes that are scattered into the hills nearby, none of them visible from the highway. We stopped there and I took advantage of their coffee bar… got myself a mocha. You know, our town of Happy Camp has ten times the businesses, people, activity, etc… but not one decent coffee house! A local woman has promised to create one but it has been a couple years in the thinking phase, so far. I recently noticed some restaurant equipment being unloaded from her truck and stored in the restaurant space, so maybe something will happen this summer.

So, back to my story - I stopped at the store in Somes Bar and then we took off down the Klamath River Highway, continuing toward Eureka, but we didn’t get very far. We were stopped at the Salmon River Road turnoff by a CalTrans employee who informed us that a landslide would prevent us from continuing down the highway.

Okay… “So is there another way around?” I asked him.

“Take the Ishi Pishi Road,” he said.

He continued to talk and my boyfriend chatted with him. I was anxious to turn around and get on my way but then realized that the man was probably bored and lonely with all that road guarding. I mean, there he was in the wilderness next to this landslide and there was nobody else around anywhere. So the guys chatted a while and eventually we turned around and drove back to the store. People outside there were looking at us. “Yeah, we got told,” I muttered… and I turned onto the Ishi Pishi Road which is on the other side of the store.

The map shows Ishi Pishi Road, which is just west of the closed Highway 96. Google tells me it is 6.9 miles, taking about sixteen minutes to drive.

We drove past a couple of hitch hikers (sorry guys but my boyfriend isn’t into picking them up) and over a bridge, then were on the road to Orleans. The road is one-lane, narrow, paved (thankfully,) but with no lines painted on. When you meet someone going the other way someone has to sidle up to the cliff and edge around - hopefully gracefully - and if you’re lucky there’s a very narrow turnout. Aside from that, there’s always the backing up option. Fortunately we didn’t have that experience and managed to get through just fine though my boyfriend was upset because I was driving. He’s a former professional truck driver and thinks he knows it all about driving! (He does, but believe me, sometimes I just don’t want to hear it!)

After a few miles on this road he was saying, “I don’t like it. I think we should turn back.”

I shuddered. I hadn’t driven more than forty miles just to turn around and go home. I wanted to go have some fun at the coast! I rarely get to go out of town - and living in the middle of a forest gets claustrophobic at times. A trip out of town is a very special event! I managed to convince him it was okay to keep going. I’d been on Ishi Pishi Road once before, about nine years ago.

“It isn’t all that long,” I told him.

Not long after we got onto the Ishi Pishi Road we were able to see the landslide on the other side of the river. WOW. That hillside came down and covered the entire road, and continued on down to the river. A very impressive mess! It happened two weeks before we got there, but nothing had been done to fix the problem. We passed a surveyor on Ishi Pishi Road. I don’t know how surveying helps… but apparently they’re being very cautious on how they’re going about correcting this problem.

The photo is by a CalTrans worker (fair use, government property!) … I found it at this article about the slide, which includes a video of the slide in progress!

After about twenty minutes (seemed like an hour) we finally got to the end of twisty, narrow Ishi Pishi Road. It curved around down the hillside into the very small town of Orleans, and we turned right to continue on our way to the coast. After Orleans we pass through Weitchpec, originally a Yurok village, and then Hoopa, a Native American reservation town. The next town is Willow Creek. In that town we went to visit a Bigfoot research and blogging friend, Steven, at his Bigfoot Books store a few miles east of town. It was the first time my boyfriend (and Bigfoot research partner) had met Steven so they talked for a long time while I looked for art books, then herb books, then yoga books… and I even got a Bigfoot book. I’ll put links to the books I bought at the end of this story.

After that we went to Arcata, ate dinner, and got ready to return. On the way back we stopped at the Blue Lake Casino from which I emerged about fifty dollars richer. Here’s my casino tip: twenty dollars, twenty minutes. If you don’t win in the first twenty minutes, get out. The longer you stay the more chi is expended from your energy stores, and the longer they have to send you subliminal “spend money” messages. And don’t spend more than twenty dollars. Also, if you win anything, leave immediately. If you win you think you’ll win more and then spend all your winnings trying. Don’t do it! Take the money and run!

Anyhow, I won, took my money, and was happy that it paid for my gasoline and dinner in Eureka. So we made our way back up the hill toward Willow Creek, noticing intermittent snow flurries. I’d seen them on the way down too. Nothing big or spectacular - just a few small flakes. Nothing to even slow down for.

In Willow Creek we stopped for gas and then took off down Highway 96, the Bigfoot Scenic Byway, heading for home. Perhaps I should mention that it is a three and one-half hour drive from Eureka to the town we live near, Happy Camp. In Hoopa my boyfriend took over the wheel, and I settled back for a pleasant drive home.

As he turned onto Ishi Pishi Road in Orleans, the snow started coming down again. Before long, it took on blizzard proportions, and there we were on the one-lane mountain road with no lines on it, at night, with drastically reduced visibility due to all the white stuff swirling around us. At that point I was glad that my boyfriend, the ex-truck driver, was driving, but still I decided it was time to pray. As we drove on, the snow got thicker and started to stick to the ground. As the non-driver I was instructed to keep an eye out for deer, and was reprimanded by the nervous driver when I wanted to listen to my SanDisk - Sansa Fuze to help me calm down. Okay, no music! Prayers… probably a better idea anyway!

We finally got to the end of the Ishi Pishi Road - I was so happy about that - and turned onto the Klamath River Highway - we still had another 40 miles of cliffs and twists and turns - but at least now there was a set of lines on the road to help guide us. There have been a lot of really terrible accidents on this road, even with better weather. If you go over the cliff side it is a long way down, so to be precise, I’d have to say I was as terrified as I’ve ever been in this life. I don’t particularly like the road on a good day; but on a day when you can barely see five feet in front of you because of the swirling oncoming large snowflakes reflecting in the headlights, it was very, very scary.

Well, as you can tell, I got home safely and there was only one stretch with snow covering over the lines on the highway. As we got closer to home there was less snow falling, and that helped a lot.

On the way home I didn’t want to mention it but once we felt safe again I asked, “You didn’t happen to look at the weather report before we left today, did you?” He sort of growled at me. Neither of us had expected snow because the weather recently had been so warm and spring-like.

I told him, “I think this happened for a reason - to teach me to trust you and God more.” After all, he’d had the intuition, when we were heading out, that Ishi Pishi Road wasn’t a great route and that we should turn back. In the future, I will definitely be listening for his intuitions, because apparently they are better than mine.

…

Here, as promised, are the books I bought at Bigfoot Books in Willow Creek. It is a used bookstore and as you can see most of these are out of print but still available through Amazon.

Looks like I got a bargain on that Herb Bible! Thank-you, Steven! It is a beautiful book…
…

Earlier this month I reached my limit of patience with weight gain. My clothes were getting tighter and I had to do something to turn things around. Being as I was particularly desperate, I decided to cleanse my system with the Lemonade Diet. Ever heard of it?

I first heard of the Lemonade Diet (aka: Master Cleanse or The Master Cleanser) on an Internet message board about two and a half years ago. The person writing there warned that it wasn’t for everyone. I agree, because it takes incredible determination and commitment that most people won’t have. The process is somewhat grueling, but the results are a much cleaner body, internally.

Actually, once the fast starts, after a day or two, there’s not much desire for food… so it usually isn’t hunger that’s difficult. I don’t want to go into all the particulars of the fasting process, but it is complex and people indulging in this process are encouraged to get the definitive book on the topic, The Master Cleanser, and read it through first.

The book, which is more like a semi-thick booklet, was first published in 1976 by Stanley Burroughs. It claims that cleansing the body through fasting is “basic for the elimination of every kind of disease.” He wrote that the Lemonade Diet started over forty years before as a cure for stomach ulcers. The diet takes ten days to heal. Ten days is the minimum, though many people fast longer, up to forty days, and even beyond.

The Lemonade Diet is also an effective weight loss diet, and that’s what I needed. The book states “fat melts away at the rate of about two pounds a day” and during the first few days of my fast, that was true for me. Toward the end of my ten-day fast it slowed down a bit, but I was happy to lose thirteen pounds in ten days. That’s a start.

The lemonade recipe is simple, and here’s my generalized version of it. Take the juice of two medium sized lemons, add two to four tablespoons of real maple syrup (to taste, with less if you want to lose weight), add water to make one quart, and add a tiny tiny tiny bit of cayenne. I’ve seen other versions of this recipe on the web wherein a bit of salt is added, and it is considered an electrolyte replacement drink (like Gator-Aid). But with the Lemonade Diet, add no salt.

This is what I drank for ten days straight. We’re supposed to drink six to twelve cups per day. I figured that meant at least three lemons. I personally had trouble drinking more than six cups. I supplemented with cold spring water. Lots of it. We’re allowed a cup of peppermint tea once daily. Plus we have to do an internal cleansing routine consisting of laxative tea at night plus a salt water flush in the morning. This is very effective in getting toxins to move on out of the body. It is essential to the success of the fast because detox symptoms build up if the salt water flush isn’t used.

The back of Burroughs’ Master Cleanser book contains information on how to break the fast, recipes for sustaining healthy eating after the fast, and other health information. It is all good advice… and don’t forget, if you plan to do the fast, reading the book first is very important.

Today I’m thankful that we lived through the fires. Often when there are forest fires, people die. This time four people died locally, three of them related to the forest fire activity in town.

Probably in a bigger town we wouldn’t notice so much, but here people don’t die very often. If they do, their memorial notices end up taped to the post office door.

It started on Saturday when a local resident failed to negotiate a curve two miles east of here, and ended up dying in a roll-over accident. Her three passengers all survived. She was in her 70’s or 80’s.

Next there was a helicopter crash Monday morning. Really weird, in that this is the second year in a row we’ve had a fatal helicopter crash locally during a fire. Last year two fire fighters went down about ten miles southwest of here, right in the Klamath River near Independence Bridge. This year a single pilot died in a crash about twelve miles south near Norcross Campground, the northern gateway to the Marble Mountains. He was 61.

Stranger still, on Monday afternoon two out-of-town men employed locally as fire-camp cooks drowned in the Klamath River near a swimming hole I’ve been to dozens of times. Apparently they didn’t realize that we who live here swim in the creeks, not in the river - and especially not at the confluence of a creek with a river. A current pulled one of the men under, and another went in after him. Big mistake for both of them. They were both in their 30’s.

What a terrible loss of human life. My sympathies are with all the family members dealing with these tragic deaths.

. . .

Recently at MySpace a site change made it possible for me to put another one-liner at the top of the page. My page now says, “Linda is quite happy to be alive.” That just about sums it up for me. I use MySpace to keep in touch with my children, and to promote some of my online activities, including this blog.

. . .

I wasn’t feeling up to writing an article in Happy Camp News about the deaths that transpired, so I asked the woman I’m trying to sell the site to, to write it. She did an upstanding job of it: Tragedy In Happy Camp. I love her writing style.

. . .

Yesterday Bob and I went shopping in Southern Oregon. We had a great day. I bought some healing jewelry, a tie-dye t-shirt, and some exercise equipment. We ate at a Chinese restaurant in Grant’s Pass.

Friday, July 13 was my birthday. To celebrate, my boyfriend, Bob, and I went to the coast. It was great to get out of the Klamath River Valley for a few days. I had a great time, bought a bunch of stuff, won money at a casino that gave me play money for my birthday, and slept overnight in a motel.

When we returned on Saturday night at 11:30pm we were appalled to see a bright red mass of forest fire flames on the hill right next to the forested hill I live on. When we left on Friday, that wasn’t there. The lightning that started all the fires hit the Wednesday before. There are dozens of fires burning all through this forest, but this particular fire ignited two days later and came way too close to our little town of Happy Camp.

So my last few days have been occupied with packing for evacuation, storing valuables elsewhere, attending community fire information meetings, writing articles about the fires for Happy Camp News, being elated when it rained heavily on Tuesday night, and in general, feeling like I was misplaced.

Here’s something you never want to see happening less than a mile from your home. This is what it looked like last Tuesday. We had a lot of people praying for us and God sent rain on Tuesday night. Now there are only a few white wisps of smoke coming up in various places from the forest. I pray it doesn’t get this bad again before they get the entire fire under control. The fire is called the Little Grider Fire after Little Grider Creek, a creek that runs a mile southwest of here. The fire was between our town and the creek.

The map shows how close this fire got to my house.

I’ve been going to work every day. Yesterday at the pizza place where I work we were inundated by hungry fire fighters. I guess they had the day off because of the rain the night before. Guess what. Fire fighters like pizza. They kept us busy from noon to closing time, 9pm. Actually I heard that the night shift stayed open an extra hour to accommodate the famished. Seemed like almost everyone wanted their own personal sized mini pizzas, and we probably sold over a hundred, whereas we usually sell less than five of those in a day.

The good news is that the fire moved away from town and it looks like I won’t have to evacuate after all.

I’ll get back on my schedule again soon - I didn’t even have my computer in my home for a few days so I couldn’t do any blogging at all. For now I’ll file this with my thankfulness articles because I’m so grateful my house didn’t burn down.

Bob and I are heading out for our daily fire watch time. We go across the river every day to get a good look at fire suppression helicopters and to see where the smoke is coming from. See ya later!

[Update: since I wrote this I created a Squidoo lens on evacuation planning: Emergency Survival - Plan and Prepare NOW so if Something Terrible Happens, You'll Be Ready!.]

Yesterday I had the best massage I’ve ever had. It happened in a creek north of here.

We went to our regular swimming hole in Indian Creek, and it was too crowded due to all the hot bikers from our Happy Camp River Run. They probably remembered the place from last year. So then we went upstream to a place where my boyfriend, Bob, has been panning for gold - and someone else was already there. Next we went to the swimming hole upstream at South Fork - and I’ve never seen so many people in that location. It was like a major attraction.

Did I mention how hot it was? Major swimming hole weather.

So we crossed the bridge at South Fork and noticed a little waterfall on the north side of the creek.

Let me tell you, that waterfall gave me the best massage I’ve ever had. It pounded on my back and shoulder muscles relentlessly. I’ve had a sore neck for several years - seems like I never get total relief. The Reiki I learned has been a big help, but sooner or later the soreness comes back.

Well, yesterday’s waterfall massage was incredible. I could still feel the source of the pain deep inside but could position my neck under the water to get pounded right there where it hurt. It felt so good! And today, still no more ache in the neck.

Something else - last night I got nine hours sleep… for which I am very grateful because usually I wake up after five hours and can’t get back to sleep. I believe my wonderful ability to sleep nine hours was due to relaxation, plus stress and tension relief that I got from being under that waterfall yesterday.

The rest of that area was incredible, like a jacuzzi, all bubbly water - frothy - sensational. Bob and I loved it and we’re going back. This time we’re taking pictures, and I’ll post one here.

One tiny drawback - there was a snake that kept trying to climb up the rock, then kept getting knocked back down by the rush of the waterfall, into our little jacuzzi area. Eventually Bob encouraged the little thing to get swept downstream into more peaceful water where he might get a bite to eat somewhere.

I thought it was cool that such a healing place would be visited by a snake, which is an ancient symbol of healing. I realize many of you wouldn’t care for it - and I admit I hugged the other side of the pond once we knew he was there - but I appreciated the symbolism.

So today my Sunday thankfulness is for the best massage I’ve ever had, the waterfall that gave it to me, and my sweet boyfriend who took me there.

P.S. We’ve decided to start a new blog: Swimming Holes - it will start with our accounts of swimming holes in Northern California and Southern Oregon - but we’ll want to publish information about other swimming holes from people in other areas.

…

Follow-up note: We went there again today, this time with a camera. Here’s a photo of Bob under the waterfall:

Because of all the frothy bubbles caught there between the rocks, I named this place Laughing Waters Natural Spa. There’s a rock to sit on right under the center of the waterfall as it massages your back. Also you can hang onto a couple of rocks underwater and let the rest of your body float; it makes for an interesting leg massage.

This time Bob had his mask and snorkel. He found a lot of baby salmon underwater and let me look at them. The have their own little swimming hole, a bit down from the falls, right before the rocks in the foreground of this picture.