Mount Shasta on a Shoestring

Climbing on a Shoestring? That could have been the name of this story. Mountain climbers often are high budget people. I had no budget at all. No special equipment, except a pair of cheap crampons that I actually rented because I couldn't really afford the measly few dollars it would have required to buy them. No special food, just things from our groceries that we stashed and packed for a climb. I brought peaches, canned peaches in a Ziploc bag. These were for the craving I get when I hike in the high country. No money, and not much of anything. Young people with a young baby on the way. Why did I go and climb the mountain? I climbed it to get high. I didn't even have a real job. My wife, our oldest daughter and I lived on my Dad's land in north California and we were unemployed bums. I worked in Dad's cabinet shop part time and worried about our future. Maybe I needed a mountain to conquer.