Lassen Volcanic Park

Two weekends ago (weekend of August 1st) I headed out to Lassen Volcanic Park with 4 other fellow backpackers. Unfortunately I don't have the pictures yet, but I'll post a link once those go up.

Friday night we drove up and camped near the cars. Used my fancy new tent for the first time (well other than in my living room) - thanks mom and dad. Next morning we got up and headed to the start of the trail. Then wasted an hour figuring out that we had to head back to the camp ground to get a permit. Was a waste of time, but I did get to drive around the hills with the top down in the mustang, so not all bad. Then we headed out. Did about 8 miles getting into camp. Was a nice walk, a bit of elevation gain/loss but not too much and walked by a few lakes. While the elevation gain/loss wasn't much, everything started out at about 6,000 feet so we had to breathe a bit harder than usual. Once we got to camp (this was a camp where you want place so "getting to camp" was picking a place along the lake to plop down) we put up a line between trees to hang our food (keeps it away from bears and keeps the smell above bear nose level). During this exercise we learned that when I sit on Jeremy's lap I still can't reach any higher than the one female backpacker in the group. Then after I made some overly harsh comment about the idea of finishing the day after only 8 miles, 4 of us headed out to see the lava bed and climb the cinder cone:


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The person we got the permit from told us it would be about a two hour walk from the lake to the top of the cinder cone and back. Well it took about two hours from the lake to the base of the cinder cone and we weren't cruising, but we weren't that slow. Especially since we didn't take backpacks, just some water. Well it was a very cool view from the base of the cinder cone - we looked down at "painted dunes". Basically rocks that were a few different colors, it was other worldly looking. One of us decided to turn back at that point since it was just starting to get dark. The trail was very clear so we weren't super worried about someone going off on their own. Then the three of us started walking up and noticed the mass of clouds in the distance and the thunder and lightening. We stopped to discuss and decided that rather than spending a bunch of time discussing we should just walk up. Several minutes later I took another look at the clouds and the ground we were on (basically a giant pile of ash) and envisioned racing down a pile of wet ash while it rained on us. So I suggested we turn back and the other two readily agreed. Once we got to the bottom the clouds had moved in right over the top of the cone - those clouds moved super fast. So then we embarked on what was probably the most intense hour and a half of walking of my life. Only got rained on a little. The main motivation was we hadn't set up tents or had dinner.

After that walk we got back, set up tents as fast as possible. Got rained on a little in spurts, but nothing bad. Got the food down, cooked, ate, got the food back up (this time super fast) and got in tents just as it started to pour. Luckily the tent kept me and my stuff completely dry.

Next day we got up, played around in the lake a bit. Had breakfast and headed out. This time we were taking an 11 mile path back to camp. Not too strenuous, but we did have a 5 hour ride ahead of us so we wanted to move at a decent pace. At one point Jeremy and I were a bit ahead of the others and took a wrong turn. Then decided that would be a good place to wait for the others. Waited a really long time then Jeremy realized our mistake. Not that we had to catch up with the others, but seemed like a good thing to do so we got moving. All day I had felt a bit tired and my feet and knees ached. Once we kicked up the speed all my pain and tiredness faded away and I was feeling great. Caught up with the others, walked with them for a bit, but then decided to kick the speed up again.

Early in the drive back stopped at applebees (by far the best choice in the town we stopped in) and ate a hamburger with a side of buffalo wings. And then drove till 3 am. The next day at work around 4 pm I literally had to concentrate on keeping my eyes open.