Black Butte - Northern CA

I hiked Black Butte, an extinct volcano located near Weed, CA, with Tamara Lopez during early August 2018. After a dusty back-road drive to the trailhead (which yielded a nail in my tire), we started a moderately steep spiral west up the north side of the volcano, and then a second spiral back to the east, followed by a final third spiral back toward the west. The hike seemed to go by relatively quickly, possibly because of the distracting views that were at all times fantastic, though greatly obscured due to wildfire smoke (we could barely see Mount Shasta, which was located only a few miles to the east). The summit of Black Butte is very exposed, with the very top located at the end of a rocky ledge that requires a bit of class 3 scrambling to stand atop.