Lassen Volcanic NP

Monday we hurried and went grocery shopping for our week at Lassen Volcanic NP.  There is no hook ups so this will be like tent camping in a 5th wheel.  No heater :0(  no phone, no internet.  I missed keeping in touch with our friends.  At least at Sequoia and Yosemite we had internet.
Once we get to the campground we find the space we have reserved is to small for our rig.  We managed to sort of get it in, but no way was it going to work.  The host told us to go to loop B and see if there was anything available there that would be better.  So after 30 min we finally managed to get the truck and fifth wheel out of space A03. We did manage to find a spot in the B loop.  The only problem was it is right next to the bath room and the group site.  But we took it anyway.  The first night wasn't to bad. It was really cold when we got up Tues morning so it was hard to get out of bed and moving.  We managed to make the Summit Lake trail head by 10:00.  This is a 11 mile loop hike.  Summit Lake is the first of the pristine lakes we will see today.  It is a crystal clear lake with a spectacular view of Lassen Peak covered in snow in the background.

Summit Lake

Lassen Peak in the background

 From here we start climbing. We started at 7000 ft and will go up about 700 ft.  The climb isn't to bad but the altitude still gets to me.  The next lake is Echo Lake.  We wander thru beautiful pines  and patches of snow.  After Echo Lake we run into bigger patches of snow that we have to walk across, they are a little slippery.  We finally reach Upper and Lower Twin lakes.  We ate lunch at the lower lake.  What a breath taking spot to have lunch.  There was a family of ducks on the lake.

Lower twin Lake

There were 6 babies and they were trying to teach them to fly.  It was fun watching them.  Mom or dad would chase them until they would try to fly to get away.

Upper Twin Lake

                                                        On our way again, we join into a portion of the Pacific Crest Trail.

 We think of Alan and Nicole and wish they were here to share it with us, but they haven't made it this far yet.  We are quite a bit a head of them.  I guess you go faster with wheels instead of feet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We had to cross several creek or streams that had nice sturdy bridges built across them.  I was thinking this is really nice, I don't have to worry about falling in.  Famous last words.  The last stream we had to cross was pretty wide and rough flowing water and no bridge.  There were some rocks and several wet slippery logs.  I sure was wishing for one of those bridges.  I went up stream a ways but still couldn't find a good place to cross, the same for down stream.  I had Joe go first and when he slipped and almost fell in I got really nervous.  I started across with Joe holding out a walking stick for me to hold and help steady me.  Just as I was about to reach him and grab his hand my feet slipped and down I went.  I kept yelling at Joe to let me go so I could right myself and get up.  He was afraid to let me go, I finally made him understand that I needed both my hands.  Once I got myself up and sat down I examined my leg.  I banged and scrapped it up pretty good.  It took a few minutes for me to calm down.

Of course as soon as we started hiking again we had to start up hill.  I had lost a lot of my energy on the fall, it took all my will power to make it up that hill.  Once at the top the next trail sign said 1.7 miles to Summit lake.  I breathed a sigh of relief that we were almost done.  I ate my apple and felt better and said good by to the Pacific Crest Trail and headed up to Summit Lake.  There wasn't to much more up hill and I was happy to reach the lake, at least the south shore, we had to walk half way around the lake to get to the truck.  It is now 5:30 and I am very hungry so we hurry back to the campground and dinner.

Wouldn't you know it, a big group had came in while we were gone.  This is a group of sixth graders from a charter school out of Monterey.  Now we know how loud a group of sixth graders can be and I was looking for a nice peaceful night enjoying a campfire.  They were so loud at one point the camp host came around and asked them to keep it down.  While we were eating dinner some of them started walking thru the middle of our camp site to the bathroom.  I very nicely asked them to please use the road.  That didn't go over very good with the kids and they made it very clear that we shouldn't tell them they couldn't walk through our site, after all it is so much shorter than going around it.  Their leaders had a talk with them and that was the end of that.  At that point I gave up enjoying the fire and went to bed saying tomorrow well be better :0)