If the slide and the rocks were small enough Norma would stop the bus 
and she and the older boys would move the rocks out of the road enough 
for the small bus to get by. If the slide were bigger than that she 
would send out a call for the rock knocker. Sometimes the slide was so 
big that even the rock knocker couldn’t clear it in time for school so 
the second small school bus, driven by Creek, would be called by radio 
relay, to come to the down river side of the slide. Norma and Creek 
would run the kids across the slide as fast as possible from one bus to 
the other and their journey to school would continue.

Once, on the main fork, there was a single rock the size of a 
Volkswagon bus, which tumbled and fully blocked the road. It had to be 
dynamited. Another time some kayakers were driving along the river road 
when rocks started to fall on the road around them. They tried to keep 
driving but the slide got worse, their car was blocked in so they got 
out and ran for their lives. They arrived safely out of the slide area 
but their station wagon, with kayaks atop, was covered by the slide, 
taken over the embankment and buried in such a way that it could not be 
seen or found. They had a heck of a time getting the insurance company 
to pay their claim. The really funny part of this story is that almost 
ten years later, after we had left the river, another slide uncovered 
their station wagon more the worse for wear.

Up The Creek

We live in a different part of Siskiyou County now. We have 1.8 miles 
of dirt road for a driveway. Although it has had its share of plagues, 
flooding, toads, and tourists, it’s not that bad. Bob-O and our 
neighbor, Stan, work on it when the timing is right. That’s when there 
is the right amount of moisture in adobe clay that adding rock and 
gravel will be effective. It used to be a much worse road. There was 
one particular place where every time I drove our pickup, no matter how 
slow I tried to take it, I would be bounced so hard and high my head 
would hit the ceiling of the truck. That was one of the first places to 
be fixed.

It’s still a dirt road though. In the winter it becomes mud and is 
prone to new ruts and holes. If the rain lasts for very long the ruts 
get so deep they grab my tires and roll me along their route like the 
rails of a roller coaster. It is not the kind of road where you would 
want to pick your nose or apply lipstick. But, for the most part it is 
a nice, calm gentle road and the rocks that bound into my path are no 
bigger than an overnight valise.

Kathleen Jarschke-Schultze is planning her garden and preparing for 
bees at her home in Northern

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