We awoke early and went to the Crater Lake Lodge for breakfast before hitting the road, hoping to get to the Shasta/McCloud area around noon. We left Crater Lake and headed down US-97 into California, catching I-5 right at Weed and took it into Mount Shasta. We changed drivers at Butte Valley, home of the largest flagpole in America topping out at 200'. It was kind of fitting to get an early start on our very long 4th of July weekend.
The views of Mt. Shasta (14,162 ft.) along this stretch of road were pretty incredible:
At Mount Shasta we found a ranger station and decided to head to Ash Camp on the Lower McCloud, a primitive camping area along the PCT which looked to offer secluded camping and excellent trout fishing. We arrived in the heat of mid-day only to find a whole Youth Conservation Corps group camped out there, filling the small camp area and leaving us with a spot next to the outhouse. Oh well, we were there and I went off in search of the McCloud River Rainbow while Catherine found a yoga-rock to practice on that even had a nice back-rest for reading afterwards.
Here's
the McCloud looking up at the PCT bridge. The trout fishing was good, the
river was simply amazing. The McCloud is famous because it was the
source of much of the world's hatchery rainbow trout stock, the lower McCloud is
known as "The Cathederal" and promises some challenging fishing. I found
the river very hard to wade, the currents tricky, but the trout catchable.
I landed a half dozen in a few hours of fishing, including a 14" and 16" fish
taken on dries during a brief hatch in the shade.
Around 4 p.m. we re-grouped and tried to figure out what to do about camping. Luckily, a ranger appeared in camp and recommended we move to the upper river at a small primitive site there since the Ah-Di-Nah camp would be impassable in our van. We took off and found a great spot on the upper river, a much different version of the McCloud than the famed fly fishing waters of the lower river. After setting up camp we took a long walk to the top of a ridge, came back and fixed dinner around dusk.