Well, I almost saw it all on this glorious Sunday up on Mount Shasta, which would be my final hike for the 2023 Northern California Six Pack Peak Challenge. I felt a cool breeze throughout the entire hike and encountered a few, happy go lucky hikers along the way, fearless butterflies who didn’t mind flying closely by me, as well as what appeared to be two crickets romantically engaging with one another.

I thought this 6.5 mile hike would be a snap. I was about 2 or so miles in and thought I could wrap things up quickly, but I managed to come off the trail several times as the terrain changed from a long stone bridge to a winding, steep very loose, slippery combination of what was close to be sand coupled with rock. Despite my diligence to monitor AllTrails throughout the hike, I ended up adding about 3/4 of mile towards the top making this a much longer day than anticipated. This added significant time to my day.

All in all, this was a tough one to finish and probably ended up being my least favorite of the six peaks. Nevertheless, I am grateful for the near perfect weather and the adventure today had in store for me.