When we went up on the mountain through Mt. Shasta Subdivision and picked up a friend of ours who has lived there since 1972 we first went up toward Cold Creek and Clear Creek up on the mountain. Eventually, we wound up at Little Glass mountain and Medicine Lake. However, don't attempt to do what we did unless you are a very good navigator and know the country because your cell phone isn't going to work anyplace out there. The most you might have is a blue dot on a map you loaded on Google maps when you had cell service before you lost it out in the boonies.
So, after Little Glass mountain and two of us climbing to the top of this and swimming? in Medicine Lake we headed for where we almost got stuck in the snow trying to get to Medicine lake from Bartle on Hiway 89. Then we retraced our old paved road back to Jot Dean cave which is marked if you know what to look for. This time I felt better and had the right shoes to traverse the 25 degree ice waterfall even though my friends girlfriend sort of freaked out when one rock embedded in the ice face gave way. Luckily, she had a hold of another rock embedded in the ice. So, I tried all of them realizing the ice wasn't holding as well underground with warmer topside temperatures than in February. However, I had a friend help me not fall 20 or 30 feet onto a rock ledge next to the waterfall so I could see the beautiful stuff to the left of the picture of the two spelunkers (my friends) below in February. I didn't take any pictures this time as it was the limit of what I could safely do at 66 and feel like I wasn't going to die doing it. The ice to the left continues to be beautiful and 4 to 8 feet vertical along a slope. However, because I'm 6 foot 5 inches and the ice and the rocks were close I realized unless I wanted to be an ice pretzel I didn't want to climb down further. As it was my pants were wet from sliding down the ice hanging onto rocks embedded in the ice. What we forgot was to bring a rope which would have been very useful here.
I was able to find two articles from this experience I had with my daughter and friends in February. We returned here two days ago now. Here they are:
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Cave sloped waterfall of Solid Ice in Lava Tube
This
is looking out the entrance to the Lava tube Ice cave. You can see the
snow on the rocks at the entrance to the cave if you look carefully
outside.
If you look carefully at this photo there are 2 to 3 foot long icicles
hanging from the ceiling. This is one of the first things you notice
upon entering the cave. Outside, even though the snow was on the ground
at the entrance to the cave the temperature was likely in the 50s up to
61 degrees at this time.
However, inside the cave it stays around 28 to 30 degrees year around.
So, you have to be dressed for it with a headlamp or flashlight, warm
clothes and boots for climbing down into it further. Likely some of the
drips off these icicles helped form the ice waterfall that starts about
where the icicles are below them about 10 feet or more in altitude.
Though I have been in many different Lava Tubes around the mountain even
at Lava Beds National Monument this cave (jot dean Cave) near Medicine
lakes (I think it is around 9 to 16 miles before you get to Medicine
lake). This cave is one of the more impressive ones I have visited in
the Mt. Shasta Vicinity. Medicine lake area is one of the largest
volcanic areas in the U.S. After studying about this I found that the
medicine lake because of the type of rock that comes out periodically in
magma (lava) is more like what you find in Hawaii on the Big Island.
Whereas Mt. Shasta itself is a different kind of lava that forms
mountains whereas the Medicine Lake magma tends to flow out horizontally
and make lava tubes over a very large area (200 square miles).
To get there:
First of all you should be an out of doors sort of person and good at naviagation to do this.
2nd: you need to take enough food and water on this journey.
The easiest and fastest way likely is to go to Bartle (from either
direction) on Hiway 89 either from Interstate 5 near the little city of
Mt. Shasta or over 89 from the other direction. Hiway 89 the other
direction winds and turns a really long way all the way to Truckee. So,
unless you have a couple of days time and really love nature, likely you
are going to be coming from Interstate 5 to Bartle. Then you go up
towards Pilgrim Creek Road up Edson Creek Access Road I believe.
But, I would have a really good paper map because cell phone coverage
might be really sketchy out towards jot dean cave. The other thing is
there are no gas stations or really anything much but nature and ice
caves for about 50 miles or more(or until you return to Bartle).
Medicine lake is nice to visit too.
Also, it is possible to drive from Bartle passed the Ice Caves and all
the way into Lava Beds National monument. But likely you want a 4 wheel
drive even though the road is paved most of the way when I went across
there often were chuck holes. And you likely couldn't do this at all in
the winter because it would be closed at some point from snow.
When I went I was really grateful I'm fairly expert in turning around in
snow without getting stuck. What I did was go as far as I could in my 4
wheel drive Truck which is a 3 year old Toyota Tundra. Then I told
everyone to make sure they weren't going to get whiplash so I backed up
fast and suddenly snapped the wheel to the right which caused my truck
to travel sideways down the paved road covered with snow. I was very
lucky because it only took me three tries to turn around. You don't want
to get stuck in snow 50 miles from the nearest person without cell
phone service with several people in your vehicle.
On Google Maps it says it is 1 hour and 12 minutes from Bartle Lodge in
McCloud, California to Medicine Lake. Jot Dean Cave and many more mostly
unmarked (except when you see them) are along the way. Likely Jot Dean
cave is somewhere between 3/4 of the way to Medicine lake or closer.
And remember you can't get to Medicine Lake except by snowmobile, snowshoes, cross country skis or helicopter in the winter.
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