We had 5 hikers willing to chance the air quality down near Mount Shasta. Before we left, we compared various sources and believed we would be done with our hike before the smoke blew in. On the drive down, we could see smoke down low and up higher, but by the time we hit the trailhead, we had clean air and blue sky.

We started our hike at the Southgate Meadow trailhead and made our way up the sandy trail. I was hoping to see the pink catchfly in bloom, but it was too late in the season. Leslie spotted some that were way past their bloom and looked like dried flowers. We did see a very large amount of Western Pasque flowers that were in the seed-head stage. They always remind me of Truffula trees for Dr Seuss's The Lorax.

We reached Southgate meadow and continued up the trail for a short while and enjoyed a snack break. From there, we went back to the Gate and continued along below Red Butte. From there we down-climbed a trail that went on the back side of Grey Butte. We then came to a trail intersection that you can either go up to Grey Butte or down to Panther Meadows.

We went up to the top of Grey Butte and enjoyed our lunch with wonderful views. We could see some clouds move over the top of Mount Shasta, but nothing to be concerned with. We then headed back down to the intersection. From there, we went downhill to Lower Panther Meadow. It looked very lush and many flowers were in bloom. Then we started back up towards Upper Panther meadow and we knew this would have broken the old rule of no uphill after lunch. Barry mentioned that he had forgotten the steep part towards the end.

We came out onto the road and talked to the ranger lady working in the information trailer. I was hoping for ice cream, some requests were tacos, margaritas or beer. She laughed and said she only had information. We then had about 1/3 of a mile to walk up the road to our car. We had hiked 7.23 miles and almost 1,600 feet of elevation.

On our drive back down the hill, we noticed the smoke really starting to roll in. By the time we were on I-5 we were thankful we finished before the air quality diminished.