Mt. Shasta, 22-Jul
We did a short hike from one lake to another, and got great views of Mt. Shasta. We then spent the afternoon in town.
While we did two hikes the previous day, we went back to our normal routine of one hike on this day. We would start at Castle Lake, hike to Heart Lake, then go up to a viewpoint of both Castle Lake and Mt. Shasta.
Castle Lake to Heart Lake
There were few cars at the parking lot, which is always a good sign. The trailhead started right at Castle Lake, so we went to the shore to take a better look. After that, it was time to start climbing.
The way the trail's switchbacks were set up, there were several good views of the lake. At one, we saw a group of people from Albuquerque enjoying the vista. We figured we would see them later on the trail. As we continued, we kept getting views of Mt. Shasta, but Black Butte was blocking most of it.
After more climbing, we were suddenly right next to Heart Lake, which gets its name from its shape. There weren't many people around the lake, so it was nice and quiet. There was a bit more of the trail to hike, though.
At first, we started to go up a hill, then it turned into a scramble to get to the top of a ridge where we got our view of both Castle Lake and Mt. Shasta.
Having taken a lot of pictures, we started our way back down. There were a few other people waiting to go up our path, one of them a young girl who couldn't have been more than 5 or 6. When we later turned around, she was quickly making her way up with her mom.
By the time we made it down to Heart Lake, the Albuquerque group was sitting there by the lake. They invited us to sit with them, but we explained that we were going to head to Lake Siskiyou, and they agreed that was a great lake to sit by.
Several groups of people were going up to Heart Lake as we were making our way down, which made us glad that we got the early start that we did. By the time we got back down to Castle Lake, there were a lot of people with kayaks and stand-up paddle boards on the lake. It was about the right time for us to have lunch, so we tried to figure out where there were picnic benches around Lake Siskiyou and then headed out.
Our first attempt to find a lunch spot was to start at the Lake Siskiyou Trailhead. We walked a bit, getting a good view of the Wagon Creek Bridge, but there didn't seem to be any good places to eat. We then tried to drive to the north shore, but the road got a bit too filled with potholes for our car. We decided to just go back to the room and eat on the table outside our room.
Rest of the day
Our view may not have been the best, but it was still good to have lunch. After that, we gathered our laundry and walked a couple of blocks down to the laundromat.
It has been quite a while since we've been to a laundromat, and this one seemed pretty nice. The machines were all in great condition, and the app to pay for and control the machines worked really well.
Melody went back to the room to hang out while I got on WiFi to tend to the clothes. As they were washing, a boy was going machine-to-machine, seemingly captivated by the motion of the tumbling clothes. I also thought that the kind of laundromat user who washes everything and does his wash in a bathrobe and slippers was just a myth, but there he was in front of me.
When the clothes were dry, we folded them and took everything back to the room. We then grabbed our backpacks to walk to a café for coffee and some computing time (we didn't have many places to sit in our room). Soon it was time for dinner, so we walked to a place across the street from where we were staying and had some very tasty scallops. They didn't have enough ladyfingers prepared so we couldn't get tiramisu, so we settled for ice cream. Not a bad substitute.
We then crossed the street and got ready to leave in the morning.
