Training Log Archive: Lori

Backpacking with Sam and Presto in the Shasta National Forest! After some poking around on the internet we found what we believed to be the best social distancing backpacking location - basically just a place where the PCT randomly crosses a forest road kind of near Mt. Shasta - no parking at the "trailhead", no infrastructure, nothing. We headed out Saturday morning and pulled the car just off the dirt road near a gate that closes the area to cars and trucks during the winter. We hiked about a mile up the road to the intersection with the PCT and then headed north on the PCT.

The first part of the trail was pretty easy hiking - gentle uphill with a nice smooth trail through a pleasant forest. We stopped for lunch at the first thing approaching a view and then continued on. Once we started approaching the ridge we were aiming for the trail started getting covered in snow. At first it wasn't much of a problem, but after a while the trail was more snow than trail on steep north-facing slopes, and we started to get a bit worried about sliding down the mountain.

The map claimed there was an old forest road on the other side of the ridge, which we hoped would be less snowy (south side vs. north side of the ridge), so we headed off cross-country to find it. Unfortunately we hit a manzanita fortress before hitting the road, so after a bit of poking around, we returned to the PCT. Eventually the steepness of the snowing sidehilling got to be too dangerous, and we just headed uphill to try to find a random high point named Mushroom Rock. There was much manzanita bashing and a bit of skin lost, but we manged to pop out into a rock-covered clearing with a vaguely mushroom-shaped rock and AWESOME views of Mt. Shasta. It was about 5pm, so we decided to camp for the night.

Vague attempt at stretching. At least the views were nice!