This was quite the last minute trip. Taking the boys up Shasta was supposed to take months of training, preparation, etc... but I just decided to go for it. With the smoke and pandemic it was tough to get them motivated to "train." But I knew that when it came down to it, it was all in their head. The night before we took off, I told Nikko that I was going to take Kai up Shasta tomorrow and he'll get his chance next year. He had none of that and threw a HUGE tantrum. Kai stepped up as a big brother and allowed Nikko to come, even though he knew it would decrease his chances of making it to the top. I promised Kai that if we had to turn around because of Nikko, I would take him back up there later this year. So talking to Nikko, we made him promise that there would be absolutely no whining and no turning around because he felt "too tired". I think this may have been the trick in getting Nikko to the top. He started whining at one point, then I reminded him of his promise, and that was it. No more whining, he'd just focus on taking one step after another.
Timeline: - Tues - Thought about Shasta with Kai, up Clear Creek.
- Wed - Group run, chatted with Ghelfi... figured it was a good idea to just pounce on it if the air was clear.
- Thur
- 1 am - transferred the kids to the van (they slept in the back on the drive down).
- 3:30 am - arrived at the trailhead, geared up and took off up the trail (forgot to start Strava, so it started 15 min later).
- 8:30 am - "lunch" at UFO rock
- 10 am - 6.5 hrs from the start, stood on the summit!
- 12:30 pm - back at Clear Creek springs
- 2 pm - back at the car!
- 3:30 pm - cliff jumping at Lower McCloud Falls
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| Here was my calculation... it took me about 6 hrs. (4 up, 2 down)... so I figure we could do it in maybe 10 hrs? (6.5 up, 3.5 down)... my calculations were pretty good. The 12 hour timeline was more of a backup. |
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| Once I saw this, I started packing. |
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| Silly pooch |
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| Nikko! |
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| Smokey Sunrise... |
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| You can see the haze below... |
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| Nikko's first time hiking with poles. It came in quite useful. |
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| The haze layer never went away. We'll have to return for the views. |
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| Lunch time at UFO rock |
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| Summit sighting! Finally |
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| I've never seen that "lake" before on the summit plateau... |
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| We got suckered into taking the "adventure" route to the summit block. Not recommended. Although it did add a bit of spice to our outing. |
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| Summit selfie! |
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| Huzzah! |
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| We facetimed with mama. Hey look! 10 am, that was exactly what I had estimated our time to be... |
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| after some summit lounging... we didn't see anyone else at the summit and got to spend a good 20 min up there to ourselves. We did pass probably 5 folks? And many groups were coming up while we descended. Some big guided groups too... |
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| Time for some scree descending! |
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| back at UFO rock |
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| Clear Creek Springs! |
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| I can see why folks think this is such a sacred place. |
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| 5 min into the car ride... |
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| So I told them to take a nap... |
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| And woke them up when we found a waterfall to jump in at. They got some ice cream, and I promised Nikko a lollipop the size of his face. |
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| These were not the right footwear. Not sure what I was thinking... these were on their last legs after having seen 400+ miles, so no biggie. |
Gear - the boys just had camelbacks with a few snacks in them. I carried a day bag with clothes, buffs, sunglasses, headlamps, sun hat, sunscreen (it got breezy and cold. You can see we put on jackets and pants near the top). I also had some sandwiches, a few bag of gummies, and some emergency gear. We all used poles, and I had my dirty girl gaiters which probably won the best gear award.
Strava - https://www.strava.com/activities/5708487528
LINKS
- Leor's Clear Creek Trip - https://pantilat.wordpress.com/2013/09/20/mount-shasta-clear-creek-route/
- And my trip, inspired by Leor - http://snowymonk.blogspot.com/2013/09/24-hr-northern-cascades-tour-shasta.html
- For those who were wondering... check out these 5 year old twins that summitted Shasta last year - https://snowbrains.com/5-year-old-twins-break-record-for-becoming-the-youngest-to-summit-mount-shasta/
