Lassen Volcanic National Park, 16-Jul
This was another travel day, but before going to San Jose, we went up Lassen Peak.
Since we were leaving Lassen, we had started packing the night before. Since we were up and about, we put some things into the car before breakfast, and we snuck into the dining room a few minutes early since we heard people talking. As we were eating, another guest wandered in and started chatting with our host, who happens to be from South Africa. Apparently, pharmacy jobs were in demand in the early 2000s, so they moved here with their kids and started a new life.
Lassen Peak Trail
After we said our farewells, we drove back to Lassen for the last time. We had left a bit earlier than we expected, so by the time we started on the Lassen Peak Trail, we were only 15 or 20 minutes behind. We must have been going at a good clip since we started seeing them about halfway up the trail. We were soon close enough that they heard us, and by the time we caught up with them, we all fell into our usual rhythm of sometimes staying together, sometimes breaking into smaller groups.
All the way up, we got good views of Lake Helen, from which Melody had seen people at the top of Lassen. We also got a good look at Lake Almanor, where my mom's friends had a cabin.
We had expected the hike to be challenging, but there were very few sections where it was steep, and those were short (such as needing to go around a snow field). There was also one snow field which was a bit slick and on a slope, so all of us went very slowly.
By the time we got to the first peak, the lead hikers were waiting for us. We all took a breather and took in the views. The group leader said that we were getting a better view than they did the day before, when he took a different group to the top.
Time to get to the summit. We went through another snow field, this one with the path stamped down several inches. After that, the rest of the way was scrambling up the rocks, which were far enough apart that there were several patches of dirt on the way. We waited for another group to finish being on the top, then we took our turn looking around. We also looked at the survey marker at the top, then started slowly working our way down. Descending ended up being a lot slower than ascending.
Unsurprisingly, going the rest of the way down the mountain was much faster than climbing up. After we were all at the parking lot, we said our goodbyes and then headed out.
Going to San Jose
We had originally made plans to have lunch in Red Bluff, about an hour from the trailhead. However, we realized that we would be done early enough to eat a trail lunch, which we did at the visitor center on our way out of the park. I had also scoped out a place to get ice cream, so we stopped by there. It looks to be a residential building which was converted into a chocolate shop that also sells ice cream, and the portions were pretty large for the price.
With the uncertainty of how long the hike would take and what traffic would be like, we had told the person from whom we were renting a room that we would arrive between 6 and 7 p.m. As we left Red Bluff, it looked like we would arrive at about 5:40, which is surprisingly close. Things got slower than expected because of a traffic incident, so we ended up arriving after 6 anyway. The owner wasn't home, so we got the key and put our things into the room.
Being hungry, we went right back out to get some dinner, ending up at a Vietnamese restaurant. After that, we filled up the car, got some groceries, then went back to the room. The owner was there, so we chatted a bit and he showed us around. After that, we cleaned up and settled in for the night.
