Last weekend I headed up to Castle Crags State Park for some hiking and camping with friends. The cast of characters: Tim, who I went to Yosemite with when Terrell was out here in 2008; John, who finished grad school at Berkeley in energy and resources; and iPod hardware super intern Dustin. Tim and John were part of the Park Scholars program at NC State, so there’s the other connection.
Tim, John, and I had been kicking around this idea for a while, and suddenly campsites started to open up mid-week and we lit the greenlight. Dustin was game, so the quartet was complete. We hit the road early Saturday morning, picking up John in Berkeley and settling into I-505 to I-5 as the sun start to rise. Castle Crags State Park is located up near Mt. Shasta, which is rather far up north. However, because you stay on I-5N for nearly the whole time, it’s actually in the same approximate driving-radius-from-SF as Yosemite or Tahoe. It jumped out at me for its impressive rock formations and, of course, campsite availability.
We got there around 11am, saw that the ranger was super chill, and setup camp early. It was warm, and so we headed down to a nearby river trail. Streaming and flowing the whole weekend was countless pop culture references, internet memes, mathematical puzzles and riddles, and stories.
Tim takes very good photos, and helped explain how to get some difficult shots. I brought along my new camera, so I was eager to learn from him. We came across this stream, and he suggested: “use the smallest aperture you have, set the ISO to the lowest you can, set the exposure to +2 and spot meter on the brightest part of the stream, and everything will fall into the right place.”
….wow. Dinner that night was a bit nicer than one might expect from camping: fire roasted corn (literally), mushroom risotta, and sausages (courtesy of Trader Joes, whose apparently “standards” precludes them from carrying marshmellows! fail).
Cards followed of course, along with two bottles of Two Buck Chuck, and a large box of strike anywhere matches.
The next day we headed up the Castle Dome trail to the top of the crags. Just 2.7 miles one way, but with a 2400 foot elevation climb. Hoo-rah. It was another hot day too — 90F to 95F on the trail. It was a good hike — especially as you approached the top and you started getting into the granite rock structures.
We missed a switchback and ended up trying to scale a crag, but got set back on course.
Finally we make it to the top of the trail, and then Dustin navigates a path farther up until we find ourselves at the edge of a cravasse, with an imposing view of the Castle Dome, and Mt. Shasta off in the distance. We plop down in the shade on a ledge, and enjoyed the view during lunch:
To our left, the rest of the “Castle Crags” loomed.
We were tipped off by a fellow hiker that 1/3rd of the way down the trail, there was a short turnoff to a natural spring that supplies the campsite below with water. We found this shaded grove and it was a welcome respite from the heat. The water was wonderfully cold, and we dunked our heads and shirts in it to cool down.
Dustin spotted a deer on the trail on the way down, and looking out on our left towards Mt. Shasta we could see the lenticular clouds roll in.
We got back around 7pm or so, and started headed back to the City. Dinner was a stop at Olive Garden (hah, I know. You had to be there), and then we finally rolled back home around 1:30am. Well worth it though — a great weekend with friends, discussion, beautiful scenery, and lots of laughter.
