:: Mount Shasta Climbing Trip (May 7 - May 8 2004) ::

:: Thursday, May 6, 2004 @ 4:00 PM ::

I just got home from work and had to get cleaned up from riding my bike home and had to get all of my things packed. Timber was a little behind me in getting home from work, but it didn't really matter because we wanted to avoid the traffic on the way out of town.

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We finally got on the road to get out of town. Our route is to start up 680 and go as far north on that as we can until we hit highway 5.

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We finally got to the town of Mount Shasta. Since the weather doesn't look too bad we're going to find a fire road in the Shasta Trinity National Forest near the trailhead and call it a night. We're going to have to go to the 5th season in town tomorrow to get our rental gear and stop by the ranger station before heading up the mountain.

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It was kind of windy at night but we slept alright. Now it is time to get into town and get our gear and summit passes and hit the trailhead.

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We went to the Ranger Station and saw Forrest and his group on their way out as we were going into the parking lot. We stopped to talk to Forrest for about a minute and he told us that the Ranger did not have any good things to say about the mountain that day but that they were going anyway. We decided to go inside and see what the ranger had to say. When we went inside and told the ranger about our intention to climb Mount Shasta this weekend he got a sad look on his face and quietly said "I don't think this is a good weekend to go up the mountain." He went on to tell us that they were not going to send any rangers up the mountain today unless they had to do a rescue. He then yelled over to another guy in the ranger station that happened to be guide. The guide told us that he wasn't taking people up the mountain this weekend. Despite all the bleak news we decided that we would check out the trailhead before making our decision. We went over to the 5th season and asked whether we should rent out gear first or go check out the trailhead first. They recommended that we check out the trailhead first. So we went up the trailhead and saw that the mountain was blocked by clouds and that there was still a lot of snow. We talked about it for a little bit and decided to listen to the ranger and the guide because they knew what they were talking about and figured that it was better to err on the side of caution. On our way down back to town we saw Forrest and his group coming up to the trailhead so we turned around and broke the news to them. We wished them luck and then went back to the town of Mount Shasta to decide what to do next.

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We had decided to head up into Oregon and go to Crater Lake National Park. It seemed like the instant we got into Oregon it started raining. We stopped in Ashland to get an Oregon map so that we could see where we were going and then went to Medford, then took highway 62 north, then went into Crater Lake National Park from the west entrance. We noticed that there was still a lot of snow as we were going into the park. When we got to the visitor center we throught that it might be closed because there was so much snow. But to our surprise it was not closed and we went inside and checked it out. We found out that most of the road around Crater Lake was closed, so all we could do was go to the lake near Wizard Island and then check out the lodge. Overall we were kind of disappointed to drive so far and not be able to see most of the park. We headed out of the park's southern entrance.

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After leaving Crater Lake National Park we made our way to Klamath Falls, Oregon. Along the way Timber saw a bald eagle flying near Klamath Lake. She said that she also saw some pelicans. I didn't believe here at first, but once we got into Klamath Falls I saw a pelican on the welcome to Klamath Falls sign. We stopped for some dinner and then got back on the road. We made our way back into California and once we were over the border it stopped raining. We made it back to the town of Mount Shasta and went to check out the KOA campground. It was ok, but it had been raining a bit so we decided to go into town and see if we could get a hotel room for $50. We tried two hotels, the first one was owned by an Indian family and they wanted $59 a night so we moved on to the next hotel. The second hotel was also owned by an Indian family and they wanted $69 a night. I told them that I was only willing to pay $50 a night since they didn't really have anyone else staying there that night and they dropped it down to $59 a night. After they wouldn't drop it any further I walked out the door. KOA here we come! The tent spot at KOA cost $18.70 and we both had a shower before going to bed.

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We got up and got packed. Once we got out of town we headed for Castle Lake. After we checked out Castle Lake we worked our way over to the McCloud River were we got to check out the Lower and Middle Falls of the McCloud River. After that it is time to go to Lassen Volcanic National Park.

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We made to Lassen Volcanic National Park. When we came into the Park the ranger wasn't very friendly and she didn't give us a map of the park. I had Timber park so that I could walk back to the ranger shack and get a map. Once we got the map we drove about 8 miles into the park which was as far as we could go before the road was closed due to snow. We got a good look at Lassen Peak and then decided to go check out the ranger station. When we got to the ranger station we saw that the sign in the window said open but we looked inside and saw that none of the lights were on and that the door was locked. Then we walked over to the Museum, and not suprisingly, it was closed too. Then we walked over to the seismograph and saw that it was unoperational. Overall Lassen Volcanic National Park was a little dissapointing because we didn't bring out snowshoes and nothing was open. After we were done at the park it was time to head home.

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We made it home. The drive was not very eventful in between Lassen Volcanic National Park and home. We stopped for a bite to eat along the way and saw that someone had driven from Calgary, Alberta down to San Jose for the NHL Western Conference Finals. Other than that it was an uneventfull trip home.

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Some time after we got home we found out that Forrest's group did not make it to the top. It sounded like they hiked up to Helen Lake in a snowstorm on Friday and then on Saturday morning the weather didn't clear up until it was too late for them to take a shot at the summit. Forrest said that they were the only ones camping at Helen Lake and that they had a lot of fun. I'm a little disappointed that we didn't get to climb Mount Shasta this time, but I would rather have decided to do what we did than to go up on the mountain and be battered by really bad weather and have a ranger have to come rescue us. There is also consolation in the fact that the mountain isn't going anywhere and we'll give it a shot some other time. The other thing about it was that we got to scout out some potential fly fishing spots. Among the spots that we could potentially go back for are the Upper Sacramento River, Rogue River, McCloud River, Hat Creek, and the Klamath River. Now if only I could get more vacation time...