Jacob and I were heading up to Oregon for a wedding and had resolved to bag a peak en route. Work constraints meant that we would only have a part day to work with. Basically, it had to be something we could do from I-5 while still getting from the Bay to just outside Salem in a day. The obvious choice was Black Butte. Shasta may dominate the skyline from a distance, but as you get closer and closer, another feature actually consumes your view as the freeway goes right by its western flank: Black Butte.
Black Butte is a 9,000 year old lava dome that is a part of the vulcanism network of Mount Shasta. It's one of those features that is so close as you drive by it that you'd swear you could jog to the top in 20 minutes. You cannot jog to the top in 20 minutes. There is a nice trail to the top, but the access requires a significant detour around the butte, and so the appeal of "it's RIGHT THERE" is somewhat diminished by the time you actually get to the trailhead.
Some research led us to believe that significant rockfall/landslides had made a part of the trail impassable, so we were mentally ready for some offroading, or perhaps even turning back. We hadn't seen any records of ascents since the report of the washout. We held a great pace on the way up, but still it took quite a bit longer than we expected. It's just shy of 2,000 feet of gain, with plenty of switchbacks and wandering trail. The washout proved to be a total non-issue, and the trail was in pretty good shape.
The shell of what was once perhaps a fire lookout sits at the top. It's reduced to short stone walls now. Clouds were obscuring most of the nearby peaks, but Shasta appeared intermittently.
We jogged back down to the car, making a round trip time of just a tad under 100 minutes and continued on our way to Oregon.