BEST WESTERN ADVENTURES
Series 8

THE TRUTH ABOUT OBSIDIAN

Obsidian. Some call it a rock, some say glass. Some say mineral, some consider it a gemstone. Some cultures used polished pieces as mirrors and believed it to be the soul crystallized into rock. Others put pieces of it under their tongue during childbirth to protect against deformities. It has been skillfully cut and used as arrowheads and medical tools. It is thought to bring about magical powers of insight, bringing truth to the surface.
Obsidian is a natural glass produced by lava flows. It occurs when lava cools so quickly that no crystals are able to form. Sometimes gas gets trapped in these lava flows, creating obsidian with different color patterns. Most obsidian, though, appears like a black, shiny rock with smooth surfaces and sharp edges. Even in our modern times, obsidian can be found in the edges of surgical scalpels used in cardiac surgery.
I didn't know much about obsidian before this trip, but it was probably the most talked about item during our visit, so I am much more knowledgable now. This day at my mother-in-laws, I have a sharp stab of restlessness. The oldest child and the oldest cousin, eight and six respectively, sneak out to the car with me for a promised adventure into the wilderness. First we stop at the Davis Creek store for our free permits, issued by the Forest Service, for the obsidian mining areas in Modoc and Lake County. In all the time I had been going out to visit my in-laws, I never knew about these places, but as it turns out, just about all the geocaches in the area are in mineral mining areas. Gives another meaning to "geocaching", if you ask me.
Our destination today is a cache called Behind the Royal Blue, named for the historical local reference name given to a certain area mine. Nowadays, this mining area is referred to as the Rainbow or Lassen Creek mining area. Once I had my permit, I had to drive almost all the way back the 22 miles to the in-laws in New Pine Creek to make my turn on Highway 30. It was kind of silly to drive all that way for a permit that no one ever asked for, but part of the reason is because I had to get gas before heading out to the mining roads. I wanted to be legal as well as not stranded out there with large predators, few visitors, and no cell reception.
To get to the Lassen mine, you simply follow Hwy 30. When you get to the intersection of the five dirt roads, you keep going straight. Yes, this is still the highway. Only in Northern California! Being a city girl, this intersection just cracked me up. Look, Highway 395 (the major north-south artery through Oregon/California on this side) is just 6 miles thattaway! Anyways, the kids and I had fun looking for the cache and picking out our favorite chunks of obsidian to bring home. We were really hoping we could find some arrowheads as well, but no such luck.
I mentioned picking up HELLDUCK, and the main reason I was thrilled to find that one is that it was a twin to another travel bug I was carrying, DEVIL DUCK. I took their pictures there at the cache find and dropped off one of the travel bugs I had picked up in Bend, The Great White Horse.
I was totally freaking out about predators while I was up there. I was so worried that a cougar might sneak up on the kids and spirit them away that I was having a hard time relaxing. Plus, the children kept arguing. On the way back, they were fighting over obsidian chunks, and then someone caught cut by one of the rocks. Both said the other did it.
In the yard back at the homestead, they snuck off to their "fort" and the other child mysteriously ended up with a cut from the rocks, which they were supposed to have put away, out of the reach of the younger kids, anyway. Both said the other did it. Both said the other one was lying. The obsidian was taken away completely.
We never did learn the truth about obsidian.
The next day, we went out again, to another mine. This one was an Apache Tears mine, a name the Native Americans gave to obsidian that forms in tiny balls. It was near a cache called Trail to Tears. In order to get there, you have to drive about six miles up the Fandango Pass.
The parking area is at the sign for the Applegate-Lassen Trail intersection, where two wagon trains bringing pioneers to Oregon crossed paths. I cannot imagine making it up those mountains, not to mention higher ranges like the Rockies, in covered wagons. It is mildly difficult in a small car, but one time I came up this pass in the middle of winter with my father-in-law and my husband in the middle of winter, hauling a large load of hay behind us, and I was completely freaked out. We had my father in law take a picture of the two of us standing by this sign, with four foot of snow all around us. We have it framed and displayed in our living room.
Today, the weather was mild, about eighty degrees with a nice breeze. The hike was about 500 feet down a trail that wrapped around the side of the mountain, and the six year old wanted me to hold his hand so he wouldn't fall down into the valley.
We actually met another geocacher out on the trail, which is very odd, since the cache had only three finds on it before this, all three in Sept 07 when it was published. What are the odds that the next two finders since then would bump into each other out there?
Up on the trail, we had a great view of Surprise Valley. When my husband and I moved to this area from Colorado, we came into Oregon on the other side of this valley, and I remember coming around a corner and suddenly down a hill and seeing this view spread out in front of me, thinking, "Wow, This is Oregon?"
Now that I know how close California is, though, I answer myself. "Could be."