It was a short drive to the Redwood National and State Parks, which was a nice change for us. The Redwood parks are scattered throughout northeastern California. Last year we backpacked around the southern part of the park and ended up somewhere on a creek near Camp 44. This year we wanted to do something different, so we stayed in the middle section in the Prairie Creek Redwood State Park.
It was raining (at this point no surprise) and we scampered off to the loop where we encountered some massive trees. They are so tall you can’t get the top branches in the frame unless you have an insane wide angle lens. I just used the iPhone’s panorama and it worked out pretty well.
Zack and I were hyper and excited, it felt like we were seeing this place for the fist time. The amazement and joy just takes over and you can’t help but gasp and incessantly say wow. Living in Connecticut we are used to beautiful, relatively big trees, so I can’t even imagine what someone from the desert thinks when they step into this enchanted forest.
A short hike, but it took us forever, every step it was like “oh that’s a big one” “oh look over there that’s even bigger” “no I think this one is” “go stand next to that one.” The canopy of the massive trees shaded us from the rain, we could have stayed there forever. 
It was starting to get time to think about where we were going to sleep, $35 a night was just asking for way too much. Knowing we were headed west to Mount Shasta in the morning we decided to find a national forest campground along the way. The drive was a tad sketchy, long dirt roads had De’Von shaken up, creepy towns with a population of 51 and our gas tank was on empty for what seemed like forever. Although not a main road, we still drove more than 200 miles with no gas station in sight. We have our emergency jerrycan on the roof rack if we needed it. We coasted down over a big mountain and didn’t hit the gas until we were in town. Yreka, California allowed us to take shelter in their Walmart parking lot.
Waking up early we raced to Mount Shasta, brutally windy at the top of the road, it was still a few thousand feet to the peak. We hiked up a mile just to get a respect for this massive beauty. We were being whipped around and had little control of where the wind would push us. By the time we got down, the bike cover was completely ripped. After struggling for the last few weeks, it had finally succumbed to the wind. It unraveled itself at the seams. Hopefully we can find one along the way, Zack’s Yeti draws more attention than we like.
We drove to Burney Falls, not the largest or highest waterfall in California but is stated to be one of the most beautiful. It was $8 for a day use fee and $30 to camp, also an addition few bucks to shower. That just doesn’t fit our budget. Luckily we saw a campsite a long the way that was in national forest land, which is typically free or very inexpensive. We back tracked, obtained our $8 campsite only 2 miles down from the falls. We drove back and paid the $8 entrance fee. $16 not too bad. We made some black bean quesadillas for lunch and took a short trail to Burney Falls. It was spectacular. The way the moss forms its own water way to allow a soft stream away from the major falls is what makes it so beautiful. It looked so tropical, almost like it deserved to be in Hawaii. To top it off, the water was a deep blue but was hard to photograph because of the lighting.
Counting the days until our next shower we decided to go to the campground and take ones while we could. Thinking since the campground is $30, they would be free however we had to fork over a few bucks to a token machine. Individual showers, Zack was in his own small room next to mine. Each token was for 2 minutes. So we decided to take a four minute shower, which is super fast, especially considering how dirty and infrequent we shower. To utilize the time, we typically shampoo and soap ourselves before depositing the tokens. I decided not to look and analyze my shower room.
Oh I forgot to mention there were no lights. Even in the day time, the room was just dark enough where you can’t see all the details. I went in there with my flip flops and took care of business. Zack on the other hand, who again I’ll mention, is extremely afraid of spiders, decided to use his phone light to inspect every corner of the room. With my shower running I didn’t hear him but his face was white when we met back outside. While he was inspecting the room, he found some weird leech like worms on the wall, which I saw too but thought they were nails. (It was dark and I had no flashlight or phone). After everything checked out, Zack stripped down, soaped up and turned on the shower. Taking a step in he watched golf ball size spiders crawl out from the drain. Mortified he screamed, it was a decision of a life time. Does he allow the shower water to keep running, wasting our water, or does he stay and fight them off. Killing the spiders with his flip flops he managed to finish washing himself just in time. But I swear he may never be the same person again.
Our $8 campsite was more than we could have asked for, a lake from view and some firewood. We ate our dinner by the warmth of the fire, not bothered by an likes of the human species. Although we haven’t had s’mores yet this trip since it’s been usually too cold of wet to have a fire, I thought we could dip some animal crackers in Nutella. It actually hit the spot. A night full of stars, we would have slept in the tent but I didn’t want to traumatized Zack further.
The plan was to go to Lassen Volcanic National Park. The eruption was the most recent before Mt. St. Helens, I believe 1915. The roads were closed due to snow so we only drove what we could. We hear the park is similar to Yellowstone with its hot springs and volcanic activity. We pushed on to Reno.
Living for a Living 
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