Wake up. Wake up! There be mountains to climb!
After breakfast, and waiting around for the space armada (rest of the meetup) to get ready, we drove 10 min to the base of the Mount Lassen peak trail.
Yea, that's the mountain behind us that we climbed. We were still so vibrant, and full of energy, eager to start our climb. Also, the top you're seeing is below the real peak. So it's taller than that.
0.1 miles and a few feet altitude gained, 2.5 miles and 2000 feet to go.
Debris field from eruption.
After hiking for a while (climbing more than hiking), were had even more beautiful views, and the trees started to thin out. We were also noticing how tiring it was. I blame this on the thin air, because then I don't have to blame it on being out of shape.
"What?! We've only gone 1 mile? This is obviously a mistake." Except it wasn't. I swear, these distances got exponentially harder, and thus slower.
We got above the tree line, and the going got slower. The last of those signs, full of lies, listed the remaining distance as 0.5 miles.
We started to pause for a few minutes at every switch back as it was harder to catch our breath and we started to feel a little light headed. We were slightly concerned that if either of us was to black out briefly we'd fall off the edge of the trail, which was a steep drop of rocks and no trees or bushes to get snagged in.
Seemingly twelve miles of switchbacks later, we got to the top of the volcano.
And it was worth it.
If you look closely you can see a person standing to the left of the notch.
The peak of Mount Lassen was interesting. It was more like 3 different peaks with a depression in the middle. Like an old volcano (wait, really?!).
Insert Colleen's Geological Nerd Ramblings
And now Colleen can finally geek out about Mount Lassen facts and geology that most of you will probably gloss over.
I mentioned previously that Mt. Shasta and what was Mt. Tehama are composite volcanoes. Mt Lassen is a different breed of volcano - a plug dome.
When most people think of volcanoes they think of ones that build up slowly from a series of eruptions. Mount Lassen however quite literally rose full grown from the earth. Road Side Geology of California states "It's a plug dome, a bulging protuberance of extremely viscous magma that pushed up through the surface as though it were an enormous puffball mushroom growing after a spring rain."
Also dacite!
10,500 ft Makes for Thin Air and Chapped Lips
Luckily, hiking back down was faster. The shambly loose rock that was just a mean feature on the way up was a fun cushioning surface to walk down.
And air that eats like a meal!
Sweet victory!
Bumpass Hell
Apparently hiking 2.6 miles to the top of a volcanic mountain was not enough for one day. No we decided in our infinite wisdom that hiking 3 miles to some thermal vents didn't sound too challenging. We still had enough water, and daylight left. In hindsight we don't regret the hike. At the time though, our legs were screaming.Bumpass Hell (which rhymes with compass, what did you think?) is named for a rancher (Bumpass) who in the late 1800's fell through the crust of this area and burned his feet. When asked where he was, he responded "In Hell."
Bumpass Hell (which we purposely would mispronounce) is a hyrdothermal zone where ground water is heated by contact with hot volcanic rock or superheated steam.
The area has a combination of mudpots, fumaroles, hot springs, and boiling pools. The people on the right are actually on a path, there is a longer hiking trail that goes to Boiling Lake.
The area is mostly clay from the decaying volcano. And it stinks.
When Bumpass returned to the area with a reporter, he broke through the crust again and ended up loosing his leg to a steam vent.
So stay on the path!
Ground squirrel.
We learned that chipmunks have stripes that go all the way to their head. The west coast is weird sometimes, with their chipmunk-like squirrels.
Looks clear enough to swim in! If you don't mind swimming in acid water.
Our explorations complete we made our way back to our campsite with our group, campfired it up, and stayed up way too late considering we had a three hour drive to lava tube caves the next day.