48stateroadtrip.com

I didn’t catch the vision. Or, well, the vision I caught was this: they created an entire National Park to celebrate the color blue. To that end:

I don’t mean to imply that it’s not an exceptional shade of blue.

I dunno. Maybe I’m just getting jaded from seeing too many national parks one on top of each other or something. Just that there’s not much to do at Crater Lake other than look at the lake. There are hikes to various spikes around the crater, but the only point to hiking them is to get another view of the lake. So, to that end, here are more views of the lake. It’s very blue.

Yep, still blue. A little darker when it’s in the shade.

It’s sort of like being at MoMA. In this all-blue canvas, I see the struggles of the working class to overcome the forces of nature (and so forth).

Even from the East Rim, still blue.

Llao Rock, which is not blue. Neither is my truck.

The Watchman — not blue, but certainly a little glum.

But still — mostly about the blue.

I didn’t end up spending much time at Crater Lake. Just not that much to do there, like I said. They have a $27, two-hour boat ride you can go on, but the guy selling tickets explained that it’s mostly interesting for geologists or vulcanologists. He seemed disappointed when I did not self-identify as either.

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There’s probably a reason great photographs aren’t usually taken through car windshields.

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Heading north out of Lassen, stopped at the infamous Subway Cave:

It’s not actually infamous.

Bullet points:

• The last cave I was in was at Mittelbau Dora in Germany. I kept thinking this cave should also be a solemn tragic place, and so was probably much more reverent toward it than it deserved.
• Subway Cave was the result of lava flows and slave labor never built V-2 rockets inside.
• It was dark when you turned your flashlight off.

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Fully acclimated to the extreme elevation (8,500′ at the trailhead), I went ahead and hit the peak trail. The Lassen Peak hike is notable for being one of the easiest-to-access 10K+ foot peaks that exists anywhere. It’s a 2.5-mile (each way) trail — but it gains 2,000 feet in elevation, so it’s a little steep.

The Three Stooges — or something like that. The one on the left is Brokeoff Mountain again and this view is the hike’s constant companion as the trail switchbacks all across the south slope of Lassen.

Lake Helen, the hike’s other constant companion. The lake is right next to the three peaks above, just that you (I) can’t get them into the same photo frame.

Looking ahead to the final assault!

Mt. Shasta from the final Lassen Peak snowfield.

Made it! My head is higher than the highest point on the mountain, which I’m calling good enough. Even if I weren’t acrophobic, I’m still not stupid (based on recent GMAT scores).

Other random notes:

• I think I’m getting better at hiking uphill. Which I suppose makes sense.
• There was a surprisingly large bee population at the peak.
• This is the highest peak I’ve ever climbed, easy hike or no.
• And it’s only easy in terms of length…

Out.

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Was originally planning on hiking up Lassen Peak, but I got to the parking lot, couldn’t breathe, realized I was at 8,500 feet, and decided to give myself another day to acclimate. So I went and did something easier, instead: hiked the Bumpass Hell Trail to Bumpass Hell (the name kept me thinking about the movie A Christmas Story — I think the Bumpasses were the neighbors with the dogs) and then continued on to Crumbaugh Lake (8 mi. r/t).

Er, so in case it wasn’t obvious from the name (?), Bumpass Hell is this sort of geothermal fumerole place, apparently named after its discoverer who fell in twice and ended up losing a leg. So it’s more of a personal hell than a universal one.

And, yes, it smelled like rotten eggs.

And then I was confronted with the shadow of a one-armed gunfighter.

Crumbaugh Lake — looks idyllic when you aren’t there to hear the bugs in your ears (no, that’s not a Kafka reference).

Brokeoff Mountain (actual name), where Northern California’s gay cowboys would be going to get married if Prop 8 hadn’t passed.

View of Lassen Peak from the Bumpass Hell Trial Trail (just a typo, not a Kafkaesque slip).

Bumpass Hell was pretty cool-looking, well worth the first half of the hike. Going on to the lakes was fine, but I would’ve been okay without it. Maybe just because I’d seen more picturesque lakes very recently.

And now I should probably leave before the Taco Bell employees in Klamath Falls get nervous about me being here for an hour and a half.

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Woke up late, had breakfast at the Red Hut in Stateline or whatever the Nevada part of South Lake Tahoe is called. Fantastic bacon. Really, just exceptional bacon. If I could have bacon again like that some time before I die, I’ll consider myself lucky.

Spent the afternoon at Pyramid Lake with Hal Brown’s wife and kids. It should’ve probably been more awkward than it was.

Then headed up to Lassen Volcanic National Park for camping and all that.

On the drive up to Lassen Volcanic National Park. The photo kind of reminds me of those glass birds they used to sell at state fairs, the kind that you put layers of colored sand into. Maybe it’s just me.Lassen Peak, the 10,500-foot volcano the park’s named for.

It was oddly like coming home to drive into Lassen — moving from the Sierras to the Cascades. The landscape looked more familiar and like what a mountain “should” look like (based on growing up in Washington).

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My hotel was a block away from Nevada, but it still took me 48 hours to get around to crossing the border.

Wonder if they know their sign is crooked. Or maybe it’s foreshadowing the slots…

So I need to cross 48 state lines on the trip. It took me 12 days to cross the first one. At this rate, I should be done with the trip in time to enjoy the return of Halley’s Comet from Del Taco on Alicia.

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Communicative, sure, but photos are inexact and not necessarily comprehensive. A few notes:

• Woke up at 2:45, on the road at 2:55, parking at the trailhead parking lot at 4:30.
• This is where it would’ve been nice to have been camping somewhere closer to the actual valley.
• Everyone talks about the cables. More people should talk about how long this hike is. By my route, it was around 17 miles, and a lot of those are steep miles.
• Almost 5,000 feet in elevation gain (!).
• The hike up wasn’t crowded per se, but you were never alone on the trail for long.
• The lower half of the return journey *did* get crowded per se, with all the shuttle bus partisans making their Big Hike up to Vernal Falls and back.
• Horses should not be allowed on hiking trails. Or, if they are, then hikers should be allowed to shoot them on sight just so there’s an opportunity for retribution.
• The hike is more about pride and accomplishment than it is about fun. It’s too long, too steep, too uphill, too early, and too hot to be all that much fun. (It’s pretty, though.)
• My car and food were situated (bear boxes!) and I was hiking to the trailhead by 4:45. The people coming up the trail who were probably 60-90 minutes behind me were clearly miserable from the heat.
• Hiking in the dark (about the first half-hour of my hike) isn’t as fun as it’s made out to be.
• I didn’t bring a hat on the hike — I had three in the truck. I blame waking up at 2:45.
• If I were ever to have to do this hike again, I’d start at Glacier Point — makes it a couple miles shorter, deprives it of 1,000 feet of elevation gain, and adds a waterfall to the trip, without taking away any of the scenic parts of the Happy Isles starting point. Only downside is that it then becomes a shuttle hike and I’m not sure the park operates a bus to Glacier Point from the valley.

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My big activity in Lake Tahoe — other than laundry — was taking this hike up into the Desolation Wilderness. It was on Backpacker magazine’s Top 100 Day Hikes list from a few months back. Good call on their part! The route I took ended up being about 14 miles (it included a side-trip to Grass Lake and went all the way to the far end of Aloha Lake), but it was a fun 14 miles and this is probably a Top 5 hike for me at this point (we’ll see what the rest of this trip brings).

Plus, if you start the hike early enough, you can get to at least one lake before the wind kicks up and ruins the reflections. This was Grass Lake, first stop on the tour. If you look hard enough, there’s a waterfall back on the mountain.

Right, so: wildflowers.

Lake Susie, a lake.

Heather Lake.

And the big one, Lake Aloha. Pretty alien-looking place, mostly above the tree-line. The Pacific Crest Trail runs alongside the lake.

Headin’ in! (But not before going back and putting my camera away, and then choosing a put-in point that doesn’t involve me bashing my head on one of these rocks.)

And my new goal for the trip is to take a reflection-in-sunglasses photo that, like, works.

Good:

• Sound of running water the entire length of the hike.
• Only a few co-hikers — only saw one until I got to Susie Lake. Made me feel like I owned the place, which, well, I like to feel when hiking.
• The hike hits four lakes (including Grass), and each of them are pretty different.
• A lot of wildflowers.
• Lakes have good entry opportunities for swimming.
• Starting to think that beginning hikes at daybreak is a good idea.

Bad:

• BUGS! Until about 10 AM, the bugs were crazy. Almost aborted because of bugs and hiking in a Deet cloud isn’t as fun as it sounds.
• Didn’t bring any sun screen (not technically the hike’s fault).
• Didn’t bring my fishing pole (ibid). Although I think I’ve learned the conditions for hikes on which I should bring the pole, so: next time.

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Key activities:

Industrial washing machines! $1.75 a load! Clean clothes ahoy!

Me, trying to sharpen a blog post another 18-20%.

Seriously, this was my day yesterday:

• Sleep in.
• Do laundry.
• Write blog post.
• Eat lunch (all-you-can-eat at Round Table).
• Take nap.
• Write another post.
• Take another nap.
• Buy frozen burrito at grocery store.
• Eat dinner.
• Write another post.
• Read the Grant Wahl-Beckham slam book.
• Sleep.

It still felt like a busy day.

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