The last article reminded me of this experience a couple of years ago now.
We started in on the dirt road at 7 mile curve on Everette Memorial Highway and started to "Drive around the mountain towards Cold Creek and Clear Creek on Dirt and 4 wheel drive roads.
At one point we found the right 4 wheel drive road but realized no one had been crazy enough to use it for several years since the great Mud Creek flooding.
Here are some videos of the 2014 mud creek flooding from a glacier collapse then in 2014. So, the event I'm recounting here likely was in the summer of 2018 or 2019 with a friend of mine in my 2011 Tundra 4 wheel drive truck which literally can drive almost anywhere with it's extreme ground clearance. However, I usually drive with All weather Michelin Mud snow tires so I can still drive 70 to 80 on the freeways in this truck to get places fairly quickly.
So, I usually 4wheel drive with these Michelin tires which serves me quite well. The most extreme off road tires are only really useful in extreme mud and extreme unplowed snow situations anyway. So, I've learned the best all around tire for me is a Michelin all weather mud snow tire because they last a long time if you take care of them and they tend to be safer than most other tires too generally speaking.
Here are some interesting videos of the mud flows caused by the collapse of a glacier in 2014 on Mt. Shasta.
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Mt. SHASTA Glacier Breaks Off. 175,982 views Sep 22, 2014 Mudd Creek Floats Boulders when Glacier Breaks apart … Show more. Show more.
YouTube · Mark Massey · Sep 22, 2014
Above the lake the river has a wider flood plain for a brief duration before ... Mud Creek begins high on Mount Shasta and flows through the ...
Hike Mt. Shasta · Patrick E · Apr 23, 2020
Mud Creek Falls and Clear Creek Falls are two waterfalls that we saw from afar on the slopes of Mt Shasta along the Clear Creek Trail, reached by a bumpy ...
World of Waterfalls · World of Waterfalls · Jul 10, 2016
A heavy mudflow carried entire trees down Whitney Creek in Siskiyou County, ... and had the potential to flood the Mount Shasta Vista area.
The Australian · 2 weeks ago
Heavy rains and glacier runoff caused a strong mudflow in the area near Mount Shasta in California. - Videos from The Weather Channel ...
The Weather Channel · The Weather Channel · 5 days ago
Mount Shasta Mudslide (PART 1). 3,036 views3K views. Sep 24, 2014 ... logs and other debris from the Mud Creek and Pilgrim Creek Road areas ...
YouTube · Storyful · Sep 24, 2014
The Lake Siskiyou Trail passes along both sides of Castle Lake Creek and Scott Camp Creek. In both cases the trail is well above the creeks, ...
Hike Mt. Shasta · Sacramento Valley · Mar 24, 2017
Here the river's flood plain widens significantly, revealing a vast field of ... particularly about the Sacramento River and Mud Creek.
Hike Mt. Shasta · ChrisMcRae · Feb 29, 2020
By June most of the mountain's snow had melted. And things only got worse from there. - Videos from The Weather Channel | weather.com.
The Weather Channel · The Weather Channel · Oct 6, 2021
So, my friend and I found this road and debated amongst ourselves whether we should go down it or not because it didn't look good. My friend finally said that he was going to get out in front of me and roll the 2 to 4 foot boulders that had fallen on the road from above so I could actually drive down this road at all. So, that's what he did. However, there was a method to his madness because many places I had only a few inches clearance to my right on the exposed road with a 300 feet or more drop-off to the road of 35% to 45% angle going straight down. So, part of him doing this is he didn't want to roll down sideways in my truck and die either. So, I slowly drove down over this somewhat impassable road watching him move boulders, tree trunks and other debris that had come down the hill in storms since 2014 when likely the last 4 wheel drive had come through there.
Finally, we got down to mud creek and it was flooding there and I really worried that the water was going to take my truck over a waterfall.
So, I got a long pole to prevent me washing downstream and walked across the river but then realized I couldn't make it back to my truck across the flooding river.
So, I yelled at him I couldn't make it back and threw the keys to the truck across the river to my friend and told him how to cross the river. He was scared by listened to me as I said to put it in low range 4 wheel drive and drive across the river.
The river was up to above the hubs on my truck so I was a little worried that water was going to go under the doors and into the cab of the 4 door 6 passenger truck.
But, my friend timed the crossing perfectly and the speed perfectly and saved the day which was wonderful.
Neither my friend or I or the truck drowned and were lost that day.
One of the reasons why we were forced to cross Mud Creek is that there was NO GOING back up that hill. It was just too extreme of a road even though we had come down it in one piece!
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