On Wednesday we had 6 hikers come out to hike Southgate Meadows to Grey Butte. We started out from the Southgate Meadow TH at 9:45 AM with grey clouds in the sky. We could see that Mount Shasta had a fresh dusting of snow. The temperature was 59° and the trail starts uphill, so we didn't want to layer up so much that we would get sweaty.

We made our way through Hummingbird Meadow to The Gate. From there we headed to Southgate Meadow. Most of the flowers were past their bloom time, but we did see some. There were many Western Pasque flowers in the seed head stage. We got to the meadow and heard some rumbling. We were trying to decide if it was thunder or an airplane. I checked my lightning tracker and there was nothing in the area.
We started to take a snack break when we heard what we knew was thunder. The forecast was for storms after 2:00 PM. The lightning tracker showed some strikes much farther north and to the east. We decided to turn around and head back towards The Gate and would make the decision as to which direction we would go.

When we got to The Gate, our choices were to go right back to the cars and be exposed the whole time while hiking on rocky terrain, or to quickly go below Red Butte on a clear trail and get back into the forest. Looking at the lightning tracker, we were still out of the path of the lightning. We went below Red Butte and got to the forested area, and made our way through some rocky terrain. Each time we heard the thunder, the sound rolled away from us. Eventually, it sounded like it was right over the top of us even though we never saw lightning. We came to the saddle and decided to head back down towards Lower Panther Meadow. As Barry and I walked out into the meadow, we could see the reflection of lightning right in front of us. Several of us gasped realizing the storm was right overhead. We decided to bail and go straight out to the road.

I offered to drop my pack and run up the hill to my car if the group wanted to remain in place. Everyone decided to continue up the road. Barry and I went fast and got to our cars then drove down to pick everyone up. We had hiked 5.37 miles with 1,306 feet of gain. We drove to Bunny Flat and had a quick bite to eat and then drove home. Scott and Sherry were happy I had towels in my car. Barry's car left without eating because he wanted to put some gas in his car. He ended up making it back to Ashland without having to stop.