Friends, Family & Mount Shasta, CA
Every so often, we are lucky enough to be in an area where we are close to friends. When Amity learned we were going to be in Southern Oregon, she knew it would be a rare opportunity to spend some time with her childhood friend, Kinsey, who lives in the Bay Area. They put their organizational skills to work and made a plan for us to find a place to meet in the middle for a weekend getaway. They landed on Mount Shasta, California. With a weekend in the mountains planned, the only thing left to do was hop in the car and make the drive to one of the tallest mountains in California.
Mile: 87,214
Quote of the Blog: “Mountains are not climbed with our hands but with our hearts. It would be far more exciting if it were done with friends.” - Sir Edmund Hillary
Song of the Blog: “Going to California” - Led Zeppelin
Driving anywhere from Brookings is a task. Nothing is close, and to get to the Mount Shasta area, we first have to drive south into California, then head northeast back toward Oregon, over a pass just outside of Ashland, and finally straight south to Mount Shasta. Driving into the Mount Shasta area is spectacular. It's like you come around a corner and, boom! A massive mountain dramatically appears. The summit is over 14,000 feet above sea level and dominates the landscape. Kinsey locked down the rental for the weekend, and she outdid herself! It was a quaint A-frame-style cabin located just north of the town of Mount Shasta, CA, with views of the mountain's west face. After all of our welcome hugs and getting our bags out of the car, we headed down into town for dinner. It was later in the evening, so we weren't quite sure what would still be open. We ended up at a walk-up spot called Drizzle. They had delicious sandwiches and burgers. While finishing dinner, we were treated to a beautiful cotton-candy-cloud sunset. Once we were back at the rental, we had a relatively early night, as we had a long hike planned for early the next morning.
The hiking plan for the day was to take us south of town and into a unique mountain range away from the Mount Shasta area called Castle Crags State Park. We were lucky to pick up one of the last spots in the lower parking area. This did add another mile to our hike, but no one seemed to care. It was a beautiful day, and we were happy to be back in the mountains! The plan was to do Bob's Hat Trail to Crags Trail, which is about 8.5 miles round trip, gaining just under 3,000 feet from the parking lot to the top. The trail started us out in a lush forest before beginning a series of switchbacks up steeper terrain and onto the ridgeline. At that point, we came upon some amazing vistas and viewpoints of the valley and Mount Shasta in the distance. The top of this hike was only around 4,800 feet above sea level, and to look over at Mount Shasta and know it rises another 10,000 feet was something awe-inspiring. More locally, the terrain shifted from dense forest to a more open landscape with gigantic boulders and rocky spires jutting up from the undergrowth. The rock formations only became more dramatic as we climbed the final pitches of the hike. At the top, the range was full of craggy spires dramatically shooting straight up around a lush green basin. The trails up there took us onto rocky outcroppings, and hidden around some corners were massive cliffs where you could look out and experience all the rush that comes along with alpine exposure. While exploring the general area, I was able to fly my drone and get some great shots. We took some pictures and had lunch before starting the hike back down. Outside of navigating the sections of downed trees covering the trail, the hike was not as hard as the online reviews made it out to be. Once we got back down into the forest portion of the hike, we were essentially walking on an old 4x4 road. One of the cool moments of our hike down was getting to see an Alligator Lizard. This little guy had some really cool colors, and after being in Arizona, we developed a strong love for a good lizard moment! Overall, it was a fantastic hike. It was great to get outside with Kinsey and help her escape the concrete jungle of living in the Bay Area. For us, we always love being in the mountains! The fact that the temperatures were a little cooler than Tucson and that we had some much-needed shade made us very happy to be exploring this area.
Though the hike was tough, it did not zap us for the night. We had reservations at Baldovinos Wine and Bar Kitchen, which was one of the highest-rated restaurants in the Mount Shasta area. Dinner was delicious! The food was nothing over the top, but it was done right and hit the spot. Following dinner, we took a little walk around town to check out the shops and see what it had to offer. Mount Shasta is a much smaller and quieter town than expected. People are here to spend their time outside in the mountains, which I can respect! Back at the rental, we decided to cap the night off with a hot tub session. Our muscles and minds could not have been happier! We told stories and watched the stars above us. At one point, Amity had already seen a couple of satellites in the sky when she said, "There is the space station!" Just like clockwork, she was right! It was something we always loved tracking while living in Montana. We were able to confirm it was indeed the space station and give Kinsey a sight she had never seen before. They say the Mount Shasta area has a lot of strange things in the sky. We just happened to know exactly what we were looking at right away.
On our last day there, we packed ourselves back into the car and planned to meet at a trailhead we were going to hike later that day. We then piled into one car and headed up to do a quick waterfall hike called Ney Springs to Faery Falls. This was a quick 1.5-mile hike, but we were lucky enough to spend some time at the main falls by ourselves before anyone else showed up. It was a great way to get the body moving after a long day of hiking the day before. The waterfall area was so peaceful that we could have stayed there all day, but we had more plans to walk around Siskiyou Lake. The lake hike had minimal elevation gain and was only 7 miles long. We only really noticed the distance in the last couple of miles, as the weekend started to catch up with us. Doing over 15 miles of hiking in two days will get to anyone! The views around the lake were beautiful. It was relatively quiet out on the lake for being in such a popular area. At one point, we were walking down a hill on the trail as a family was pushing their bikes up the hill. As I passed the last adult male in the group, he looked at me and said, "How's Dad doing?" I was caught off guard and simply replied in a surprised, sarcastic tone, "Dad's good!" I wasn't sure if Amity and Kinsey heard this happen, but when I caught up to them, Amity looked back at me and said, "How's Dad doing?" HAHAHAHA!!! The rest of the hike, I couldn't get that out of my head, and Amity couldn't stop asking me how Dad was doing. It didn't help that by the end of the hike, the weekend's miles were starting to catch up with me, and hiking over 16 miles in two days had slowed me down a little bit. The carrot at the end of the stick keeping me going was the idea of delicious burgers at a place Kinsey knows called Yaks on 5. For the last couple of miles, the girls were hiking well in front of me while I was just taking my time and enjoying the lake views. Once we got back to the car, it was like race cars at a green light. We piled into our respective cars and all but skidded out of the parking lot on the way to get some much-needed lunch. Yaks on 5 has a cult-like following. It is reported to have some of the best burgers ever. If you're judging a restaurant by its following, this place is killing it! The line we got into had about a 50-minute wait just to order. Luckily, it didn't take long for the food to come out. I went for a full burger, while Amity and Kinsey split one. I was so hungry that I was able to eat the whole thing, though I would have been quite content with half. After this experience, we would just split one from here on out. The burgers lived up to the hype, but it's really hard for me to say that anything is the best ever! It was a really good burger, and a weekend of hiking only made it all the better! Following lunch, we said our goodbyes and headed in opposite directions from Mount Shasta.
Our plan was to head up over the pass into Oregon and stop at my Aunt Traci and Uncle Doug's house in Ashland. We had planned on getting dinner with them and exploring Ashland a little bit. As we were driving up over the pass, I was all but asleep while Amity was driving. Then the car's check engine light came on, and the car started to struggle up the hill with minimal power. We pulled over and did a quick assessment of our situation. We were only a mile or two from the top of the pass, so we decided to nurse the car over the summit and then primarily coast down the other side into Ashland. Luckily, the summit was super close, and we were able to make it with no issues. We limped the car into their house, where Doug had a code scanner ready for us in the hopes that we could find out what was wrong. We learned the car had an issue with the turbo booster, and from the looks of it, it was not going to be a good idea to drive the final two and a half hours back to Brookings. The bigger problem was that the next day was Labor Day, and the likelihood of anything being open was very small. Doug, Traci, and my cousin Kaylyn were fantastic hosts. They helped us laugh about it and showed us a good time. Walking around Ashland brought back faint memories of being there as a small child for their wedding. Ashland is lush and a beautiful city. I didn't realize how much bigger it is than Whitefish. We were so grateful this happened there, where we had help, reassurance, and a bed to sleep in. Early the next morning, Amity made a couple of phone calls and found a mechanic who would take a look at it. We quickly gathered our things and got the car over to the shop. After a quick look at the engine and the code, the mechanic came back with some oil and coolant. Unbeknownst to us, the engine was all but dry at that point. I could not have been more embarrassed! How could we have let this happen? This car is our life and all but our home! Nonetheless, it was reality. The mechanic was super nice about it and took the car for a test drive. He came back and said it was completely fine. We were so grateful it wasn't a bigger issue. He suggested we have someone take a deeper look at it and reassured us that it was safe to drive back to Brookings. We headed back to the Krafts' house with humor and humility to share. We celebrated by taking them all out to breakfast. It was nice to catch up with everyone! We couldn't have been luckier that it happened in Ashland and that it wasn't a serious or expensive issue! We had a great time with Kaylyn, Doug, and Traci!! Hopefully, we'll never forget to check the blinker fluid levels on long trips again! For now, back to Brookings to Live Rad on the beach!
