A Writer's Adventures Backpacking in Lassen: An Extended Beginning (Or, The Day of the Butterflies)

Lassen National Park Hike: Day 1 (August 2)
Route: Emigrant Pass & Hwy 89 to Cluster Lake (Emigrant Pass was once a wagon trail. We also joined with the Pacific Crest Trail briefly).

Miles Hiked: 8.91 (12:30 pm to 6 pm)
Today, we walked through whole fields of mule’s ears, with the occasional Indian paintbrush. There were also lots of purple trumpet flowers along the sides of the path and some white flowers that looked like little clusters of stars and reminded me of the dandelions when they go to seed. These last must be very sweet and tasty as the butterflies loved them. There were also lots of tiny pink fuzzy flowers that liked to grow in the middle of the path.

There appeared to be three types of trees in this forest: Aspen, which have tissue paper leaves that fluttered and shimmered in the breeze, creating a very soothing sound; Ponderosa pine, which we encountered at Yosemite last summer; and Jeffrey pine, which, if we’ve identified it correctly, have huge pine cones—many of them are larger than my dad's foot.

We had to hike more than a third of our total planned distance today before we finally got out of the “Restricted” area that we weren’t allowed to camp in. But down by Cluster Lake, good spots to camp were few and far between. Plus, fires were prohibited along the entire trail, so we couldn’t enjoy any campfires this year.

Today we passed a grand total of five people on the trail. The trail itself varied between silty sand and hard packed dirt. The trail was dry and dusty, so even though we’d only been trekking through the backcountry for less than six hours, I felt dirty and disgusting, and my feet and ankles were caked with dirt. We only had one river crossing today and I am proud to say that I managed not to fall in. (Though perhaps a dip would have helped with the dirt.)

There were numerous lakes in this part of the park, but very few rivers or creeks. It was more of a forested area, with fewer wide-open meadows, mountains, and rock formations than we saw at Yosemite last summer. The mountains were formed from volcanic rock and looked very different from the ones we saw at Yosemite. Much of what we hiked through early in the afternoon looked recently burned (which would explain the camping and campfire restrictions).

The afternoon was warm when the breezes died down, but otherwise quite pleasant. Later it finally cooled down, and I soon needed my coat. I couldn't wait to wash up after supper!

My dad made all of our freeze-dried food for the trip. Tonight I have chili (surprisingly good for freeze-dried meat) and Dad has Thai chicken curry. We also shared Mango Margaritas. (Boy did we need those after the trek and setting up the tents.) 

I used my new Google Sky phone app—yes, I brought my phone, iPod shuffle, and nook with me—to actually identify some constellations that evening, including Hercules. Outside of the city, the sky always amazes and fascinates me with how many stars one can see.

In addition to the upgraded food this year, we also had new one-person tents (Dad says it's a "bivy," not a tent, but it functions like a mini-tent and is much easier to pitch and take down) that have nets so we can see the sky while asleep, bug net headgear to keep the mosquitoes at bay, and I hada “go-girl” that I never did quite master. There is definitely an art to peeing while standing up.

Spotted Today: Ground squirrels (three or four), juncos (four or five), one nuthatch (a bird that walks up the trees), two stellar jays, two woodpeckers (which we heard, but couldn’t spot), lots of butterflies (including swallowtail, monarch, red admiral, larkin admiral, painted lady, and coppers)