It was shrouded in clouds for an hour as I approached it on I-5 this morning...until suddenly I looked over and there it was, 14,000+ ft. Mt. Shasta in all its glory!
- Bob Mann
Continuing my journey down Interstate #5 today, I had the good fortune of passing by one of the most beautiful mountains in the world just as the clouds parted and I happened to be approaching a perfectly-located freeway exit where I took this photo. Mt. Shasta, perhaps the most beautiful of all the Cascade peaks because at 14,000+ feet it so completely dominates the surrounding landscape, always provides a “wow!” moment when you’re lucky enough to see it like this.
Earlier I had been convinced that I wasn’t going to see it at all, as the clouds were quite thick around the summit. Then, unexpectedly, I looked over and there it was! Hmmm……could there be a lesson about life here also? Just when you start assuming that something is going to continue the same disappointing way it appears right now, sometimes you get an unexpected surprise! And when that change occurs, you’d better be ready to take advantage of it!
By the way, today was a day of temperature extremes along my route: As I left Ashland and headed up I-5 to the beautiful but often-dreaded Siskiyou Summit at the Oregon/California border (where the weather is notoriously dicey, even at the modest elevation of 4350 feet), there were light snow flurries and the temperature dropped to 30F. By the end of the day, as I made my way down California’s Central Valley, my on-board thermometer topped out at 80F! There is nothing like a dose of reliable California sun to make one feel better about the current “January in April” weather in Portland!
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