26 September 2009

Mt Shasta CORPScamp

In late July I made the journey to Northern California for CORPScamp Shasta, 5 days of cycling and yoga, hosted by AdventureCORPS. Chris and Elizabeth were fantastic hosts: each night after riding and doing yoga there was either a group meal with delicious vegan options or a film.

Mt Shasta hanging out in the clouds above 14,000 ft.


Each morning we'd meet up, do some stretching and head out for a 50-90 mile ride. My goal was to swim every day. On Thursday's ride I submerged myself in some cold snow run-off:


On the way back from McCloud there was a bonus climb on an unmaintained road above Mt. Shasta city:


On Friday we rode up to Mumbo summit, which is on the Mt Shasta super century that we'd ride on Sunday. The bonus climb this day went up to Castle Lake:

I jumped into water that was slightly warmer than the day before and swam about 500 yards out to a big rock in the middle. Exhilarating! A rock in the middle of a lake in the mountains is a great place to reflect (what's important to you? Being in open water in the summer ranks high on my list!).

Sunday was the Mt Shasta Super Century, which I posted about previously, but I only mentioned the food :)

I'm fortunate to have these opportunities in my life and the health and capacity to take advantage of them. Are you?


2 comments:

Bradley Saul said...

Riding in Shasta is great eh? The Mt. Shasta Century is one of my favs.

Joe Linton said...

Those three falls on the McCloud are great (coooold) places to swim. Imagine that salmon climbed those falls! (before Shasta Dam blocked them.)

A while back, I blogged about swimming there - here:
http://lacreekfreak.wordpress.com/2008/08/22/swimming-california-waters/