Mt Shasta

Have you been following our journey that we were on last week?  We started in Whiskeytown and then we headed to Castle Lake.  After 4 days of non stop activity, mommy decided that Sunday would be our rest day.  I was ready for a rest day. I am 11 ½ and I try my best to keep up but I am tired!  Lucky for us, we camped along the road in a pull off that was very quiet with a beautiful view!

Mommy got her chair out and finished her book and I slept.  It was such a relaxing morning.

We headed into Mt Shasta around lunchtime.  Mommy was in the mood to shop and she was in search of booties for me.  Little did we know that Sunday is NOT the day to go shopping because everything is closed.  There were a few stores open so she bought some new hiking shorts but that was about it.  Who would have guessed?

Instead, we headed up the Everett Highway to the base of Mt. Shasta.  The last time that we did this was in May of 2005 when I was a puppy and it was closed because of the snow.  I got to play in the snow and that was fun.  This year, the snow pack on the mountain is the lowest it has been in years.  The locals told us that there is usually a cap of snow on the top all year long. It was pretty bare.

Mt. Shasta is known for being a very spiritual place.  There are a lot of crystal shops in town and many native Indians come here to pray.  Panther Meadow Trail has a sacred spring that was full of people praying.  It was so quiet there that when I took a drink of my water from mommy’s bottle, I got a dirty look from one of the people so we didn’t hang out there long.

It was pretty cool being at the base of the mountain.  It looked like an easy hike and I was up for it but it was our rest day so we decided to head back down the mountain.  We had to fill the RV with water and empty our tanks which we did at the Lake Siskiyou Resort for $12.  Now that we had plenty of water, Mommy was excited to get her first shower in 5 days.

We found a free place to camp on Forest Road 26 along the creek that used to be a raging river.

Daddy was coming to visit us on his way home from Oregon.  He caught a BIG fish so we are going to have fresh Salmon for dinner!  I can’t wait!

The next morning, we woke up early to get a hike in before daddy leaves.  The nice lady from Castle Lake told mommy about Gumboot Trailhead via the PCT.  She said it was really pretty and she was not lying.   It was 8 miles up the road from where we camped and the drive along the creek was pretty.

We got to the trailhead where the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail) crosses the road.  We parked there and headed south toward Castle Crags State Park.

The trail was really nice but rocky in spots to daddy carried me.  I was wearing my Pawz booties.  They aren’t really meant for hiking but they didn’t tear and protected my paws from the rocks so I was happy.

We hiked for 2.5 miles and could just see a peak of Castle Crags at our turn around point.  The sun was in the way of a cool picture of it so we took a funny selfie instead.  (If you are wondering why we didn’t go to Castle Crags State Park it is because the trails in California State Parks are not dog friendly.) 

It was nice to look down and see so many lakes with water in them.  Some of them were really low but it is nice to see water since all of California is in a drought. I was wondering if we could go swimming in one of them but they were kind of far away.

It was a great morning and I was sad that daddy had to leave.  He slows mommy down so that she doesn’t do 100 things in one day but I am used to her craziness and plus she took me to get a treat after the hike!

We went back to the RV and I took a little dip in the shallow water to cool off my legs.  After we packed up and left the campsite, she took me to the local pet store, Noah’s Ark Feed Barn, and got me two new pairs of booties, a little kong to jump in the water for and some Mega Tek foot cream.  While she was paying, I stole a treat from the shelf that just happened to be at my height.  So she had to buy that for me too!  What?  I couldn’t help it!

Stay tuned for our next stop.  Mommy was determined to stay on a lake somewhere and she did not disappoint.

Thanks for reading!  Our last stop in our adventure was super beautiful and a great find!  Enjoy one last post on our adventure…..