This is not Bedfordshire. As mentioned in yesterday's entry I went for a walk in Herts and Beds on the occasion of the summer solstice. A very fine walk it was too but it put me in mind of a journey I made in 2016. As the longest day came to a close I boarded the Amtrak Coast Starlight at Emmeryville station in Oakland, California then traveled overnight to Dunsmuir in the far north of the state. From there I took a local bus to Shasta City (no bigger than a small town) and headed up Mount Shasta camping for several days where the trees meet the snow line.

 In 1874 the pioneering naturalist John Muir said of Mount Shasta:

"When I first caught sight of it over the braided folds of the Sacramento Valley I was fifty miles away and afoot, alone, and weary. Yet all my blood turned to wine and I have not been weary since".