Mount Shasta

Mount Shasta was the most grueling, but fun part of our trip. We met our two friends in the town of Mount Shasta and began our climb on June 11 starting from Bunny Flat. The biggest challenge for me was getting used to carrying a 40 pound pack on my back. Really I can't complain since Tom and Rob were both carrying 60-70 pounds each.





We had a late lunch at Horse Camp. The golden mantled ground squirrels hung around hoping we'd drop some trail mix.



After Horse Camp, the trail became more arduous. It was steeper, and a large portion of it was on snow or scree up and down the mountain ridges. Our friends seemed to prefer a slower pace and more breaks. Oddly, I think all the breaks made me feel more tired. Anyway, the hike took us 7 hours, and as a result we didn't reach our base camp at Hidden Valley until late evening. We were all pretty cold and tired by that point. That's when Tom realized his tent was missing. It had fallen off his pack during the hike up! All four of us ended up crowding into our 2-person tent. By that point, there was no chance that we would summit due to our late arrival at base camp and because there was no room in our tent to set up our equipment for the summit.



It was so cold that night. We later found out it was 17 degrees without the windchill. In the middle of the night, I had to pee. I crawled over Tom and Scully to get out of the tent. As soon as I hit the snow, I slid downhill headfirst for about 15 feet. Tom said he heard a squeal, then all he saw was two feet sticking up. I have to say that being out on the mountain in the middle of the night was a cool experience. The moon was so bright that you could see everything clearly, and the stars looked so close! If it hadn't been so cold, I would have stayed out there all night.



All in all, the climb was a great experience even though we didn't summit. Tom especially exceeded everyone's expectations in getting to Hidden Valley considering the bad shape his knee is in. We were all really proud of him. Oh, and we found his tent on our hike down. Rob and I were thinking we might go back at some point in the future and actually summit.