Geez there's a few days to be caught up on eh?? Better get cracking.
Tuesday - Foiled Again
Today we had planned to do a bit of driving - firstly up to Glass Mountain - a 7000ft mountain of obsidian, then on to Medicine Lake (another lake in a caldera) and such.
We had a slow start, mainly due to me not wanting to get out of bed, but finally at around 1030 we headed off.
We drove, and drove. Past a strange looking installation that's painted all black and has a nice repeater on the side of it.
Past loads of trees, dirt roads, railway tracks, and more trees. Until finally we came to... SNOW.
I engaged 4WD and we cruised through the first few bits of it, but as we got up the road it became deeper and deeper, until there was nearly a foot of it covering the stinking road.
We decided to turn back. I don't have the experience or confidence to tackle a lot of snow by myself. I also figure that a whole lot of shovelling would need to be done.
We explored a few 4WD tracks on the way back, but got stopped by snow again (and my cold feet). I'm not 100% keen on getting stuck in the forest in the middle of nowhere. Call me a wuss.
So we spent the rest of the day at the Turd. We did watch the new Jackie Chan/Jet Li movie, "The Forbidden Kingdom". It was a weird combination of "The Neverending Story" and "Karate Kid". Great for the kids, a little cheesy for adults. Chan and Li however were excellent, and Yuen Woo-ping never ceases to amaze with his choreography and wire work.
Two words: Battlestar Galactica.
That is all.
Wednesday - Tionesta to Lassen
Despite my impression of the USA as the "country of the car" there are very few gas stations here in country California. Gas is also darn expensive, at more than $4 per gallon. I think the lesson learnt is that we need to ensure we fill up when we can.
Anyway, aside from some empty-gas-tank nervousness, the journey was great - the turd is feeling very strong at the moment, so fingers crossed she lasts the rest of the journey and then some.
The campground here at Hat Creek (so named allegedly because someone lost his hat in the stream) is pretty nice, set by a creek (none other than Hat Creek) and within 10 miles of the sights at Lassen.
Lassen is another volcanic national park, for the uninitiated. You can read more about it here.
After we'd set up, we headed up the road to the aptly named "subway cave". It's a rather large lava tube, like a subway not surprisingly, and was a pleasant walk through.
The freaky thing about this landscape is that it's pretty much flat, and like a prairie, but every now and then there'll be some rock features - and at some point these were pushed out of the earth, and were possibly even molten.
Next a pleasent stroll around a 2 mile loop showcasing some spatter cones and associated bits and pieces. The loop crossed the Pacific Crest Trail - which I'd never heard of, and I imagine wont ever walk the length of.
I can't remember what this was, but at some point lava came pouring out of here. Probably not a good place to stand and take a photo if it was.
This is the view back towards Lassen Peak.
A tree, and a Kat.
I really like how the rock is all jumbled up, like something was trying to put a puzzle together by brute force. As you walk around, there's a good chance that the ground beneath you is hollow.
I believe this guy was formed when the pressure of the magma flowing underground became too great, and buckled the rock upwards.
This tree by itself, not so interesting, but if you look closely you can see a scar on the trunk from lightning.
Again, this tube of what one was lava just pops out of the landscape.
The spatter cones themselves were deep cones surrounded by a spattering of rock. Interesting to look at, not so interesting in a photo.
Time for dinner, beer and bed.
Thursday - Manzanita Lake, Cinder Cone
Time to exploit our one full day at Lassen. Whilst the road through the park is now open, the high trailheads are all closed due to snow.
We entered the park, proudly displaying out annual park pass (and avoiding the park fees) and decided to hike around Manzanita Lake.
It was really windy, and very cold as well. Good thing we'd packed warm clothes. It was kind of freaky to see the giant pine trees swaying in the wind. I was going to make a movie of this with Kat's camera, but forgot. Oops.
A lazy 2 miles later and we'd seen an otter, some deer, and fantastic scenery of Lassen Peak.
I thought it was cool to find the two stages of some kind of flower in the same area (well I hope it's the same plant, otherwise the coincidence of colour is just amazing):
It was a really beautiful day, despite the cold.
The squirrels were out:
...and the view of the lake and the peaks was stunning:
Some ducks. Mmm duck.
We stopped to have a snack, this guy came very close. I guess a lot of people ignore the "don't feed the wildlife" signs.
Rather than do the old-people style drive through the park, we decided to scale the nearby cinder cone.
Fuck me, what a decision that was. After about 1.5 miles uphill on a black, sand-like trail we beheld the cone itself. Rising blackly out of the landscape it beckoned, and promised suffering all at once. I thought I was going to die walking up it. Not only were we at around 6000ft elevation, the wind was icy cold and whipping pieces of pumice into your face. Pumice isn't that tasty let me assure you, and my stinky backpack felt heavier and heavier by the step.
Kat for some reason just powered up, which made it all the worse for me.
But the view from the top did make it all worthwhile. Also gave me a sense of how fit one must be to scale any large mountain. Shit, even a small mountain.
We had lunch inside the cone. Mark that off your lists of places to eat your sandwiches.
You can see the path down to the centre of the cone. We didn't venture down. I was a bit afraid I'd never make it back up again.
Gosh it was desolate up there. And cold. And windy. Did I mention cold?
The colours of the surrounding lava don't come out well, but it was a strange undulating orange and red landscape, bordered by jagged black rocks. Couple this with sitting on top of a giant black hill, it's certainly otherworldly.
This tree looked cool.
By the time we made it back to the Jeep I was well and truely rooted. So we had some beers and made some pasta, and then I went to bed.
Until tomorrow kids, g'night!
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