A Writer's Adventures Backpacking in Lassen: The Trek Continues (Or, The Day We Almost Saw a Bear, But Didn't)

Lassen National Park Hike: Day 2 (August 3)

Current Location: Emigrant Trail on the shores of Cluster Lake

I was awakened in the morning by a ground squirrel perched on a tree next to my bivy angrily scolding me for invading his space. At least that’s how it seemed to me at 6 am. Just as Dad and I were getting up and starting to get dressed for the day, a faun crept into our campsite. He tiptoed around the perimeter as if gauging our reaction or threat level. He would turn away as if to leave and then return to hover. As if he was thinking to himself, “I really like eating at that one tree over there, but there are strange creatures near it. But I really, really wanted to eat breakfast at that tree.” In the end, he ruled us harmless and even when we moved about, finishing our morning ablutions and making breakfast (hot cocoa and oatmeal with raisins, almonds, and apples for me), he hung around. First eating bark off his favorite tree; then watching us. Then pooping. As I wrote this, he was still there, circling the campsite, observing us. Apparently, we had made a friend for life.

Later on that day: Somewhere along the Pacific Crest Trail

Miles hiked: 6.3 (9 am to 12:30 pm)

We stopped for lunch (finally) and the place was swarming with mosquitoes. Thank goodness for my bug net. I almost wished I had the body bag as well. I unintentionally spiced up my lunch of salami and cheddar with a bit of dirt and made one ant very happy.

We crossed the highest point of the PCT that morning. Throughout the park, there were few rocks and it was more difficult to find good resting places or water sources than in Yosemite. Today was much hotter than yesterday and I had to strip down to shorts and t-shirt.

Mosquito Fun Facts:

• Only females bite
• Human blood allows them to lay about a thousand more eggs than otherwise

My Own Mosquito Observations:

• They somehow manage to swarm and bite even while I’m moving

Miles Hiked: 2.5 (1 pm to 3 pm)

Today’s campsite was much better than yesterday’s. It even had a table and chairs! It was very good that we found this site because if we hadn't stopped hiking then, we’d have been where Mom was supposed to pick us up tonight instead of tomorrow. We decided we'd definitely need to do a side trip tomorrow as we were only 2.5 miles from the rendezvous point and sitting around in the campsite for four hours would be dull indeed.

Today we encountered six people, all of whom seemed to be intent upon hiking a huge percentage of the PCT. One pair was talking about hiking 25 to 30 miles each day. So not me. Another guy was carrying a small guitar or ukulele on his pack.

After lunch, we came upon two guys ahead on the trail who were behaving quite strangely. We approached them cautiously and didn't realize that they were acting that way because there was a black bear just off the trail as the trees had blocked our view. Dad was hoping we might stumble across it again as we continued to hike along the river, but I was more ambivalent. On the one hand, it would be extremely COOL to get a photo of a bear in the wild. On the other, it’d be totally UNCOOL to get attacked or eaten by a bear. And I wasn't completely convinced that the latter would not be the result of any ursine encounter of which I was part.

Just before we stumbled upon our awesome campsite, I finally spotted a marmot (my favorite animal from the area), but it was too well-shaded to get a good picture. We also saw a lot of copper butterflies dancing together and white butterflies with black dots that we hadn't seen yesterday.

Snowplant

We saw lots of pretty flowers today. We think we might have seen some spruce and fir trees as well. Dad saw a woodpecker and I spotted a hummingbird.There was also a really big bird that swooped across the trail too quickly for us to identify it.

Today, I decided that river water is MUCH better to drink than lake water. It’s colder and cleaner. I'm so glad our campsite has running water (as in a river running next to it) for us to drink and cook with. At our third log bridge of the day, we stopped and dangled our feet in the water before scaling the steep embankment. It was so cold that my feet almost went numb. But it made them feel so much better and I felt much cleaner than the day before.

Being out in nature reminds me that Mother Nature is a proponent of tough love. All around me is evidence of the cycle of life: dead trees, baby trees, mature trees.

Lassen Peak

The path today ranged from silty to packed earth to gravel. But mostly the latter, so I didn’t end up as dust-covered as yesterday. Also, the mosquitoes are gone! One guy we met on the trail said they were non-existent here and he was right.

One of my favorite parts of this campsite was that we could hear the river running since the campsite overlooked the river. The sound of rushing water was so soothing. Dad obviously agreed as he went to nap in the shade by it. This is my favorite part of camping. The simple enjoyment of being away from civilization and technology (the books and music that I brought don’t really count as they don’t place demands on my time the way phone calls and emails do, and they didn't act up or malfunction). Still, it was nice to know that tomorrow I would be able to shower and sleep in a real bed.

Dinner was fabulous (I had cheesy chicken and rice while Dad finally tried his chili) until my plastic bag sprang a leak and my food started to leak out. Luckily, Dad had more margaritas (moonshine-flavored this time) which made it seem slightly less important.

Spotted Today: Faun, woodpecker, hummingbird, ground squirrel, marmot, copper butterflies, black-spotted butterflies