Planning hikes around the smoke and weather can sometimes be a challenge. The original hike to Hummingbird Meadows needed to be postponed as there are around 5 fires in the area and the air quality is not good. I then switched to Grey Butte down by Mount Shasta with what seemed to be perfect conditions. Then there was a slight chance of thunderstorms, then 20% chance, then back to slight chance, then Tuesday night, the threat of thunderstorms was gone, but winds at 22-26mph with 40mph wind gusts was forecast for today.

Scott and I decided that going up to Mount Ashland to hike along the PCT to Siskiyou Peak would be a good choice because we could see that the air looked much clearer up there. We decided we would see how things went and would continue on the PCT and make the hike at least 8 miles.

As we drove up the mountain, I remembered that Scott had a birthday in July and asked him when it was. He told me it was today. So we were going to be celebrating his 60th birthday with a nice hike.

We started our hike at the PCT Grouse Gap Trailhead at 8:45am with the temperature at 72° and there was a nice breeze. We came to an area full of wildflowers. I don't remember the last time I saw that many Corn Lily plants in bloom. Also, there were some nice Monk's Head flowers. We continued around and saw a water cache for PCT hikers and there was a cooler and some chairs in the shade. As we went down the trail, we counted 12 PCT thru hikers from Germany, Australia, California, Ohio and other places. We told each of them about the trail angel ahead. They were all very happy to know it was there as the information they get about such things is not consistent.

After a couple of miles, we turned to go up to the top of Siskiyou Peak. The air was fresh and the sky above was blue. When we looked out into the distance, we could see the layers of smoke. We noticed that it made each little mountain better defined. Looking to the north, we could really see a darker layer of smoke that was down low. If I had any kind of decent voice, I would have sung happy birthday to Scott, but felt it was a better present if he didn't have to hear my singing voice.

We went back down the trail and then continued south on the PCT until my watch said we had gone 4.5 miles and had a Hank lunch in the shade. We then started hiking back, there was a group of 3 hikers (included in the 12) that were moving pretty fast. When we told them about the water cache and cooler, they asked if there was soda in it. We told them we didn't look since we knew it wasn't for us. As we were passing the water cache, we could see many of the hikers sitting in chairs, enjoying the shade and they were having what sounded like a fun conversation. I asked if they got soda and a couple of them raised their cans to show me and were so happy for a drink that wasn't water.

As we returned to the car we noticed that the smoke in the distance had cleared considerably. It was a little after 1:00 PM and we had hiked 8.62 miles and gained around 1,500 feet of elevation.