An hour or so after we get up we’re in the car and on our way to the trail head. The trail to Lassen Peak starts around 8,000 feet and the first section is covered in deep snow still. As it’s early still not many people are on the trial yet and so the snow is relatively crisp still and the path clear.
The path varies between snow and large gravel and it’s generally a gradually climb with many switch-backs. It takes us around four hours to climb the 2,000 feet but the view from the top at 10,000 feet is stunning. We can see Mount Shasta in the distance and the view over the park means we can see half a dozen different cones. We perch here for our lunch stop and feel pleased with what we’ve achieved this morning.
On our way down we pass some surprising fellow walkers. Most memorable is the one group of young people who, wearing the same shirt, seem to come from a youth group of sorts. Most are walking without a backpack (and so we assume very little water or food), some are then walking in Converse shoes (and hence are probably getting very wet and cold feet in the snow sections) with one young boy, around 6 years old we think, who is walking in sandals with socks!! When the “leader” of the group passes us we try and give a glare, because no one in a position of responsibility with children should be taking them up a mountain like this as unprepared as they are. We take our time coming down, but are back in the (now nearly full) car park by around 2pm.
Although we’re tired from the walk, we’re still on a high from completing it and with the best part of the afternoon decide to drive to another area of the park called Devil’s Kitchen which has a lot of geothermal activity. Apparently it is more impressive than the closed Bumpass Hell, but visited less frequently because of the distance you need to travel. It’s an hours drive and we then get out of the car for a ramble that is very different from earlier today. It’s a flat walk across a meadow to start before we are in a wooded area.
We pause for a drink of water and Laura grabs Scott’s arm and says in a hushed tone “There’s a bear!” and she’s right. It takes us a little time to spot him as he is well camouflaged but we then spend about 15 minutes photographing him from a safe distance. He’s small, but with no sign of the mother about he must be old enough to have just been kicked out of the pack. His colour is a beautiful golden, rather than the expected brown, but he’s actually hard to see with the sun streaming in through the trees. He forages for a bit around some fallen trees and then pads off. It was awesome to see this little guy in the wild and stay safe.
Devil’s Kitchen is full of steam from the geothermal vents and pools with a river running through it that we’re not allowed near because of its temperature. Again there is bubbling mud but some sections we can only feel the pressure of the bubbles rather than see them – a very weird sensation.
On our walk back to the car we decide that after today’s exertions we all deserve a cold beer. We do have beer in the coolers back at camp, but agree that we want one now, not in an hours time, so try and find somewhere in the first little town we pass through. It’s not looking too hopeful but we stop at a burger restaurant to see if they will just serve us a beer at the bar. The advice we receive is that there are two places you can get a drink in town; the first involves retracing our drive, but the second is on our way at the bowling alley! We head there and ignore the stares as we pile into the door trying to avoid changing our shoes for bowling shoes at the till. In the far corner we spy the small door that reads “bar” above it and head over quickly.
It’s dark inside an strangely the bar is sunk so that from most seats you can look over the barman’s head and still catch the action on the lanes through the glass windows behind him. We order our drinks and take a seat. I notice that they have a digital clock giving a read out of the time and date…They must have suffered from the Y2K bug here as the date is telling me that it’s 1982. That pretty much sums the place up!
Back at camp Scotty and Aaron are set on fire duty again and it’s sausages tonight, although Scotty is feeling the altitude and needs a lie down. After dinner Lesley introduces us to S’mores. These are an American variation on our simple toasted marshmallows. At first it’s a complicated process but we soon work out a method and it pays off; first you have to balance your Graham Cracker (slightly sweet cracker) on the edge of the fire ring with a piece of Hershey’s Chocolate on it. The heat of the fire is transferred through the metal fire ring around it and this starts to melt the chocolate. Then you slowly toast your marshmallow on a stick. When it is ready you sandwich it between two crackers and attempt to eat this gooey treat without loosing too much of it to the floor. It’s definitely delicious and variations are a'plenty with Aaron introducing peanut butter to the mix.
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