Mount Shasta

I realized I never checked in about my med stuff. It was benign, which is a great relief. Now on to the fun stuff.

I hiked around Mount Shasta in June, which feels so long ago now. It was a really quick trip, but one I’d always dreamed of. As a child we’d go visit my grandparents in California and we’d pass Mount Shasta on the way. I was always wowed by it’s snowy peaks and would sometimes daydream about what it would be like to ski down those slopes. Of course, in my dreams it was like a regular blue run, but long and more fun.

One of my brothers suggested this as a 3 day trip. Shasta is a 10 hour drive from where we live, so that’s a tight turn around. We were joined by my cousin and my brother’s brother in law (say that 10 times fast…) met us there. Another brother came from Reno and met a friend there, but we didn’t see them until our second day.

After the long drive to get there, we set off on the Bunny Flats trail immediately after getting our permits and hiked up to Horse Camp just before dark. It was a beautiful place and we got a good spot under a tree that didn’t have snow. People rave about the composting toilet there and for good reason. It was clean and fresh smelling. There’s a stonework lodge that seemed well equipped. This location is maintained by the Sierra Club Foundation.

We slept until … 3am? maybe 5. I no longer remember. Probably because I hate getting up that early. But since the stars were still out and it was summer, I think it was 3ish. We left our camping equipment behind and just brought our layers, some winter climbing equipment, and some food. We hiked up to Helen Lake, which is where my other brother had camped the night before. Despite our early start, there was a line forming at Misery Hill just as the sun was coming up. The landscape was breathtaking, although it was hard to take pictures because of the dim light.

Helen Lake covered in bright tents.

At this point my merry band had just myself, my brother and my cousin in it. The brother in law had gone ahead after we arrived at Helen Lake. The other brother and friend were somewhere ahead of us. I still had energy, but we were getting tired. I would point at a landmark on the hill and say, “let’s go there, then we can decide if we want to stop.” and finally we hit that point where we decided to turn around. The wind had picked up by that time and was making moving upwards a bit harder. 

I never had the plan to summit. I wanted to enjoy a hike in the snow on childhood favorite memory. Now I have a new snow filled memory to add to my collection.

The hike down was so gorgeous. It was only 9am when we stopped for this “summit beer.” But you can see what I mean. The coozy is more to protect my hands from the cold than to keep the beer from getting warm.

Here’s a link to the album if you’d like to see more. We camped the last night on National Forest land, which was a first for me. I almost did it again on my Olympic Peninsula bike camping trip in August, but luckily we found a mostly abandoned campground instead.

More about that trip later.