Shastina Butte

We finally made it up the hill in the middle of Lake Shastina...but let me tell you what it took for us to get there. If you've been here for a while, you know that we tried to climb this hill last week. This week the plan was to head to a cave. I had had my eyes on that trail for a while, but I'm not about to go walking into a cave all by myself, even with my handy bear whistle at the ready. So, like any good mom, I waited to make sure my daughter was available to tag along and keep me safe.

We had gotten a few inches of snow, followed by rain, the week prior, so I wasn't sure if we would be able to navigate the road out to the trailhead. But we headed out anyway. Sure enough, when we approached the dirt road, it was covered in snow and slush and mud. I did turn in, but I hesitated and slowed down so my wheels began to spin. We were going nowhere. I was so worried that Sapphire (my trusty Jetta) was stuck, and I was going to actually have to use the kitty litter in my emergency kit in order to get out of there. Fortunately, she has a manual transmission, so we were able to back out super slowly and return the way we came. Since we passed the road to Lake Shastina on our way, we decided to see if we could get to the butte this time...and I'm so glad we stopped!

What a difference a week makes! The last time we were here everything was covered in a blanket of white. This time you could actually see the ground, and all of the campsites, and the road out to the boat launch, and the vehicle tracks we followed the week before. Part of which, as it turns out, were actually on top of the water. Oops...

Anyway, we parked the car and headed up the path to the top of the little mountain. The trail zig-zagged up the front and then wrapped around the hill in a spiral to the top, so we got to see views in all directions. We also got to see how the ground is affected by its location with respect to the sun. On the south side, there was mostly slush but you could see the ground. The west and east sides had some snow but less mud, and the ground was very visible. When we turned to the north side of the hill, I was shocked to find a thick layer of snow.

As shocked as I was, I was also excited to make some new tracks and inspect the ones that were already there. I'll tell you that there was one happy dog prancing around in the snow before we arrived!

After pretending to be a tracker, I turned my focus on the trees. By now you all know that I love trees, and the diversity on this little hill was pretty impressive. There were quite a few deciduous trees with bare branches and black bark, as if a fire had burned recently. I doubt that was the case, because there were also a number of juniper trees full of berries and leaves. And at the top of the hill, there was a tall, gorgeous tree with beautiful swirls of twisted knots at the base of her trunk. Yes, I had to stop to admire and have a conversation full of questions that remain unanswered.

Even though that tree didn't talk to me, the Queen sure did! Let me explain. Up here in the mountains, there are almost always clouds in the sky. A lot of the time, and almost every time I go on a hike, those clouds get stuck on the top of Mount Shasta so you can't see her crown. But today, as I was ascending the hill all by myself, she stood up on her tippy toes, peeked above her shawl of lenticular clouds, and gave me a wink. This is one of the times when I'm so glad I pause and turn around and look up...because none of the people who I spoke to had seen it. It was all for me. Thank you, Mother Nature. Thank you.