Late June Hike on Mount Shasta

North almost to the Oregon line this time, up into Siskiyou County for a hike on Mount Shasta. Everitt Memorial Highway climbs twelve miles out of town past the ranger station and delivers you to Bunny Flat at about 6,900 feet, which is where we shouldered packs and started walking.

The mountain tops out at 14,179 feet, and in late June the upper half was still white — long fingers of snow running down every chute and drainage. The Forest Service says this area can need skis or snowshoes clear through June, and looking up from the trailhead that was easy to believe. Down where we stood, though, it was bare ground: gravel, scattered boulders, small firs holding on wherever they could.

T-shirt weather at the parking lot, ball caps against the sun, clouds sliding across the snowfields above us. Strange to stand in summer heat and stare up at that much winter.