Welcome to Gary's 1998 Mt. Shasta Adventure!
Here is what I did in Nevada & California in May 1998:
I flew into Reno May 16th in the morning and visited my web friend Shanna and her daughter at the local Safeway pharmacy. Then I had to get back to the airport to pick up my climbing partner Carol. We drove from the sunny desert up into the mountains through clouds, rain, sleet and finally heavy snow. We got to Mt. Shasta around 5:30. We called Shanna to discuss the weather - she and her friend Mike had been thinking of joining us to climb Shasta, but conditions were not good so they bagged it and went south for some warm climbing instead.
Carol & I decided not to try Shasta the next day because of the fresh snow, so we got up early and tried the local cafe (excellent), then took a hike up a ski hill east of town, then had an early lunch at the Black Bear diner in town. Then we drove up the Everitt highway to check out the Shasta trailhead at Bunny Flat. It was snowed in but parkable.
We drove back down toward town, but turned off to climb most of the way up Black Butte, a volcanic cone with 360-degree views of town, Shasta, and the Castle Crags area to the south. Then we went back to town to ask the rangers and guides about climbing conditions. They warned us away from the standard routes because of avalanche danger, and suggested taking one of the ridges, although they mentioned there might be some 'dicey' sections.
We had Macho Burritos for dinner and went to bed early. The next morning we were up and having coffee in our room at 3:30. We drove in the dark over lots of icy patches up to Bunny Flats and headed up and to the left to reach Green Butte Ridge, our route of choice. It was mighty cold until the sun came up.
By 6:00 we were well up the ridge, way above treeline, and had good views of Mt. Lassen to the east as the sun rose. We headed up the ridge as far as we could get, which was to about 12,200 feet where Thumb Rock protrudes from the ridge. It was covered with a lot of slabby ice and the climbing was precarious without ropes, so we wandered back down the ridge looking at the avalanche fans in aptly named Avalanche Gulch (the standard route if snow conditions are OK) to our right.
As we plodded down we began to run across people climbing up with skis who were planning to descend either close to our route or via the Old Snow Bowl on the east side of Green Butte Ridge.
Eventually we made it back to Bunny Flat and had a snack in the cafe, then drove slow, mountainous, winding roads 150 miles to the Grizzly Creek Redwoods campground, where we set up camp and spent the night.
At 6:00 a.m. the following morning, heavy construction equipment arrived to work on the road a few feet from our tents. We woke up. We drove west and south on the 'Avenue of the Giants' through the Humboldt Redwoods Park. Then we hit Route 1 and the coast and visited some tidal pools where we found hermit crabs, abalone, starfish, rocks & stuff. We headed down to the Mendocino Inn for the night after doing some sunset seal-watching.
In the morning we explored the Mendocino Headlands, a cool & windy mixture of meadows, cliffs, beaches and grottoes. Then it was back on the road south, where we stopped at several turnoffs to visit beaches and explore. At the last one at Pebble Beach (NOT the golf course) our car was broken into while we were at the beach below the cliffs. This necessitated a police report (some gear was stolen, but nothing too expensive or irreplaceable) and a stop in San Francisco to trade our broken-windowed car for a fresh one.
In SF we had dinner in Chinatown, visited Little Italy and Coit Tower, drove down to the wharf and spent the night. The next morning we woke up the cranky motel owner by taking an early swim (too early, it turned out). We had a light breakfast at the Cafe Muse and visited nearby Golden Gate Park, then drove east to Livermore to visit my cousin Karen.
She gave us a house tour and then we had lunch at the Wente Vineyard with her husband Jim and daughter Eva. Then we drove through Sacramento and back to Reno, where I left Carol with her sister who was visiting from San Diego. I dropped in on Shanna again and told her I was tired of the snow and cold - she suggested that I go see Pyramid Lake and the desert, and maybe go hiking there the next day. So I did.
I drove around to the east side of Pyramid Lake, a vast sheet of blue with a resident pelican population, and found an interesting-looking mountain to climb. So I did. It was warm. My pack had been stolen from the car, so I was carrying my food & water & gear in a Safeway shopping bag, which made rock scrambling interesting.
I saw big lizards, an antelope and two jackrabbits. I climbed until after lunch, then headed back into town to clean up.
The next morning I met with Shanna's friends Mike & Grom (a nickname, I presume). We had breakfast in Carson City, then drove up to Lover's Leap at Lake Tahoe, where they set up at the bottom to do a climb while I hiked through waist-deep snow to the top to meet them with snacks and shoes. Unfortunately it clouded up and began raining and they were unable to complete the climb, so I trudged & slid back down to the bottom of the cliff where I ran into Shanna, who was just hiking in.
We packed up most of the gear but it was still early so we did some bouldering on large rocks at the base of the cliffs.
Then we had lunch and drove around to Emerald Bay, where we hiked and scrambled down to Vikingsholm, a historic house on the shore of Tahoe. We scouted another climbing location ('the 90-foot wall'), they gave me a driving tour around the lake, and we returned to Reno.
The next day I drove myself back up to Tahoe to visit the State Park and take some short scenic hikes. Then it was back down to Reno to catch my flight home.