We happily escaped the smokey Rogue Valley for the clear blue skys of Northern California today. We expected to see at least some smoke from the Weed fire, but little if any was visible although there were wisps of smoke or clouds on the north side of Shasta. The drive to the TH was 2:05 including single-lane construction traffic on I-5 and 30 minutes to do the final 13 miles of dirt.

We had the trail to ourselves with temperatures rising from the mid-60s into the mid-70s. The point forecast was probably correct with wind gusts up to 35 MPH. It was difficult at times to keep our hats on and John almost lost his jacket at one point to a wind gust.

We hiked up to the springs, which were dry, and then backtracked a bit down into the trees to find shelter from the wind for lunch. Clouds continued to form all day at the summit but were immediately blown eastward with much higher winds than we were experiencing at the 8,400' level.

We took refreshment at the Goat. The drive back north continued to be clear until we dropped down from Siskiyou Pass into a valley with even more smoke in it than when we had left in the morning.