Day 69 - Williams, California

Off on my travels again! After a delicious dinner at the Cafe Soriah in Eugene (and a fabulous bottle of Brick House Gamay Noir 2008) with my parents plus friends Dorothy and JoAnn, it was an early night for me, and an early start this morning, as I had over 400 miles to drive today. Always hard to say goodbye to my folks!

The weather was cool but at least it was dry this morning; I set off down the I-5S and made good progress. I was surprised at how little traffic there was on a major interstate on a Monday morning. The road steadily gets steeper and twistier and higher towards the Oregon-California state line, and the highest point on the whole of the I-5 (which reaches from Mexico to Canada) is at the Siskiyou Summit, 4,310 feet, just north of the state line. It was misty up here, swirling around the road and giving only glimpses of the volcanic peaks beyond.

The road then drops dramatically into California (well, a thousand feet or so) to the state authorities, who ask whether you have any fruit, plants or produce (it's forbidden to bring even an apple across the state line in case it is carrying some kind of infestation ...), then heads back up into the Shasta Mountains and Lake. It was very windy all through the mountains, and just past the lake, I spotted a wonderful stacked lenticular cloud formation hovering near Mt Shasta, a little like that wonderful picture of Mount Fuji that goes the email rounds every now and again. You can see how at night or in bad light people might mistake a cloud like this for a UFO!