all the way to mccloud, ca!!!

Sacramento, Sites, the Olive Pit, and finally ... McCloud!

With vans piled high with sleeping bags, snacks, backpacks and cool Unitarian Universalist people, we set off for the California far north.

Beginning our day with a beautiful worship service (thanks Samantha, Glenn, and Sonya), we then got a crash course in California water issues with Mindy from the Planning and Conversation League.

We jumped in our vans, made our first stop in Sites, CA which is the site (seriously) for a proposed dam which would flood the current valley and create a big lake. To keep the water in would require seven concrete dams in the area. Issues to consider are wildlife, will it really be a boon to the local economy, if so - what happens when the dams are built and those jobs are gone?

From there, we had to stop in at the Olive Pit - thank you, Thea, for the recommendation! Snacks for all, yum!

Then we ended up in the most beautiful town, McCloud, CA where we were briefed on the local water issues while eating dinner on a lovely big porch at dusk. Robin and Meadow gave us the info on how Nestle Company is trying to build a 1 million square foot water bottling plant, getting a sweet deal where they are paying less than a penny for every gallon of water they extract from the earth. Some of the issues are changing quality of life (600 big trucks would come in and out of McCloud each day, right now it's a very quiet, lovely little place), depleting local water source, harming trout in nearby rivers, and while it will create jobs, what kind of jobs? Probably not the kind of jobs that will allow local people to live a quality life.

Today we are off to have worship at the headwaters of the Sacramento River, tour the Shasta Dam, meet with a leader of the Winnemum Wintu, a native tribe whose ancestral lands were flooded when the Shasta Dam was built, and eat a lot of really good snacks.

Wish you were here!