Rustic means no AC. Actually, rustic means no electricity after 10. You’d think since we were at 6000’ above sea level, it would be cool when the sun went down. Nay, nay, nay. Even though I had originally gone to bed at 9, I woke up sometime after 10p but before 6a (by power of deduction and knowing when the generator was on, I was able to deduce the approximate time of death down to an 8 hour window). Window! I opened all the windows to try and cool things off. This helped a bit. Before 5a, I was cool enough to get under the covers.
How did I know it was before 5a? We were in the room next to Charcoal and Struggles. Charcoal is programmed to the core to wake up at 5a, just like Bear wakes up at 6a (+/- 5 minutes) every damn day, 365/year. Also, like Bear, Charcoal cannot sit still. This is the result of a 40+ year career in the service industry. Everyone knows a server’s job is never done. If Charcoal found a moment of free time during his working day, he tried to either clean something, or prep for the next day. He programmed himself to always be productive.
This is actually a good thing, except now Charcoal is always doing something if he’s not asleep. He doesn’t sleep that much. Charcoal and Struggles are regular night owls in the hiking world—routinely up until 10 and getting up by 5. By comparison, Bunny and I are the geriatric couple on the trail that can never get enough recovery. We’re in bed by 7 and up by 8 the next morning. We just can’t get enough recovery time. Sassy was the only other hiker near us in terms of recovery needs. We miss her comparable recovery time period. It helped slow Bear down, who would fill the extra time with planning (his career driven trait). I suppose my career driven trait is avoiding doing what I’m supposed to be doing. I’m a savant at it.
One thing I noticed with all the windows open, was the fire and brimstone smell of the valley. Last night, in our tent, I though my quilt needed a good washing until I decided it must be the latrines we were camped close to. Tonight, I realized, it’s the smell of the volcano and all its geological features up the valley. Lassen last erupted 105 years ago and this is still, a very active volcano.
We did manage to get our recovery complete in the reduced time period of 9p – 7a. So much so, we were even the first ones down for breakfast. Charcoal was repacking for the second time and was just a minute or two behind us. It’s a good thing we were the first down. Drakesbad is completely booked today and tomorrow (65 people to over feed for 6 meals). This morning was the warm up. There was almost 20 people at the ranch last night. They are not fully staffed this year because of Covid. The staff couldn’t handle the feeding of 20. I’m glad we won’t be here to witness the rage of 65 obese Americans forced to wait a few minutes to overeat. Oh, the humanity!
We weren’t done with breakfast until nearly 9. Charcoal and Struggles like to hit the trail before 7. They “saunter” the entire day like John Muir advised us all to do. Charcoal is happiest when hiking. When I say happy, Charcoal and Struggles are the two happiest people I know. They can not only see the good in every situation, they don’t seem to notice the bad. They make Mizman look like a pessimist. (We met Mizman on the AT in 2018. In my end of trail lists, I chose Mizman as the happiest person we met on the trail).
Charcoal and Struggles have the ethic and drive to successfully thru-hike the PCT. I thought I did until Bunny introduced me to “no time pressure” hiking. We knew we couldn’t achieve our goal of thru-hiking the PCT last year because of all the snow in the Sierra, Trinity Alps, and Oregon. She convinced me to slow down, enjoy the town stops, and if we take an extra day, so what?, we’re not going to be able to finish the trail this year. Bunny transformed me from a driven thru-hiker to a, gasp, section hiker. We’re not going to be able to finish the trail this year, either, because of fires and the election. What? Me worry? I’m a section hiker.
Before today, I thought we’d never come back to Lassen NP, so we had better stop to see Sulpher Creek Spring and Terminal Geyser which are both close to the trail. We talked Charcoal and Struggles into extending their day to do the same. It wasn’t difficult. In fact, they were happy to do so. On the way out of the lodge, I found a map of the park including pictures of other geological features. Just seeing what all was here and how little we were actually seeing had already gotten me to rethink the whole “we’ll never be back” mindset.
Sulpher Creek Spring was less than a mile once we got on the trail. The lake was boiling and steaming. I’ve always been fascinated by volcanoes, but seeing these features in person solidified my curiosity. I know how much energy and time it takes me every meal to boil a liter of water. The earth was boiling hundreds of thousands of gallons while looking around thinking, “I have enough extra energy to cook all the mud around the lake and make it steam as well.” The capacity of what our planet can do and does continues to amaze me the more I see. If hiking doesn’t increase your sense of wonder, you’re either a complete idiot or dead. I don’t think I’m either, yet.
Next up was Terminal Geyser. When we got to the side trail leading down to it and I saw how steep it was, I wondered if it was worth the effort. Not even a tenth of a mile down the trail, I could hear the steam pouring out of the rocks on the other side of the ridge. I had to see it! Terminal Geyser is really more of a continuous steam vent pouring steam out of the ground 24 hours a day, 365 days/year, 100 years/century, 10 centuries/millennia, etc. The amount of energy is mind boggling, and this is one small geyser out of hundreds in the US.
Steam was shooting hundreds of feet up in the air, nonstop. We could get close enough to see the water boiling in the pools below the geyser. There’s a stream running from the geyser. A few hundred feet downstream, I decided I had to touch the water to see how hot it still was. This was still hotter than any hot tub I’d ever sat in. I imagined what this area would be like in winter. What an oasis to wildlife to have so much warmth in the dead of winter. Last year, we couldn’t pass through Lassen because there was still 27’ of snow covering the road, mid May, when we were here.
The park boundary was only a midge over 4 miles from Drakesbad, but it was noon by the time we made it out of the park. We had agreed to cover the 15 miles Charcoal and Struggles cover every day when hiking. Left to our own volition, Bunny and I probably would not cover the distance after the morning we had experienced. We kept hiking as a group until lunch. When we stopped for lunch, we still had over 9 miles to go. Struggles and Charcoal knew they weren’t going to rush just to get to camp. They’re used to hiking all the way up to, and even after, dark. Bunny abhors darkness outside of the tent. We decided to push ahead.
Bunny had the smell of the stable in her nostrils. It was 3.3 miles to the next water. Between the two of us, we had less than 1/2 liter of water. With Bunny in the lead, we made it to the water in an hour and ten minutes. The volcano wasn’t the only thing smoking today. Even with a 20 minute break while cooling off, Bunny was raring to go. This rodent had no intention of being out after dark.
With a little over 5 miles to go and just a small climb of 1100’ between us and camp, Bunny decided to slow the pace down by letting me lead. I tend to have a more consistent pace when climbing. We set our goal of making it to camp by 6 to give us plenty of time to set up and get settled in before dark. We made it to camp at 6:15.
There was a beautiful flat area that could easily hold 30 tents just south of the spring. It was in this area that we encountered something we had hoped was completely behind us by now…mosquitoes! It didn’t take me long fumbling around outside to decide we were eating in the tent tonight. Just as we were finishing up our supper, and within 5 minutes of when I had predicted, Charcoal and Struggles would arrive, they did arrive. They are steady and consistent hikers that you can set your watch by.
EFG