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Published: September 30th 2017
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Brokeoff Mt. Trail
Looking down the trail, about halfway up the Brokeoff Mt. Trail Geo: 40.4938, -121.407
Made it to Redding Friday evening and checked into the Quality Inn. There was a Bike Weekend festival going on that weekend so lots and lots of motorcycles in evidence that evening and the next day. Drove on to Lassen NP on Saturday AM. Since we had no reservations anywhere for the night we drove on into the community of Old Station and checked out the Hat Creek Resort. This one more closely resembled what one might consider a resort. We had a nice room, large enough to be a suite though only one room. Had TV, refrig, microwave, coffee maker, WiFi, and two queen beds. Very nice but in a pretty isolated area, what our son referred to as BFE. If you don't know what BFE is - Google it. We had to. We entered the park at the North entrance and drove through the park all the way to just beyond the South entrance and the trail head for the Brokeoff Mountain hike. This was a 3.5 mile hike up to the summit of Brokeoff Mountain and 3.5 miles back down. On the ascent we gained over 2,500 feet which, of course, we had to lose again
Approaching the Summit
The final assault up Brokeoff Mountain. The group ahead on the trail was a high school class from the Eureka area of the California coast that we had just left. on the descent back to the trailhead. Drove back to Old Station and tried to find a place to eat dinner. No luck. The only option was to drive over 30 miles to Shingletown or eat trail mix for dinner. We opted for trail mix. Nevertheless, we slept well that night.
On Sunday we drove back through the park to a short trail that described the area of devastation caused by the 1914 and 1915 erruptions of Lassen Peak. Then on to the King Creek Campground area for a trailhead to Cold Boiling Lake and on to Bumpass Hell. There are two trails that access the Bumpass Hell area, a 3 mile round trip from the Bumpass Hell overlook which is the most popular access trail, and the one that we took that was about a 5 mile round trip. Our trail was the trail least travelled for a good reason - longer and steeper - we gained about 1,000 feet in the 2.5 miles to Bumpass Hell. Bumpass (Anne kept referring to it as Bump Ass) Hell is so called because an early guide named Bumpass fell through the thin crust into a boiling pool of water and was
Lassen Peak
From the top of Brokeoff Mountain seriously burned. He named it "Bumpass Hell". It is the best example of the hydrothermal nature of the underlying geothermal features of the park with boiling pools, bubbling mud pots, and steaming fumeroles.
After Bumpass Hell we went to the new visitor center at the South entrance and watched the obligatory video about the park, then started our drive back to Portland for the flight home. Stopped in Yreka (pronounced Y-Reeka) at the Comfort Inn there for Sunday night and drove on to Portland on Monday. All in all drove some 1,200 plus miles on this trip.
Got up early on Tuesday for our 6:30 flight from Portland. We were trying to make connections in Minneapolis/St. Paul and Cincinnati for the final leg into Greenville/Spartanburg.. We only had about 50 minutes to make each of those connections so knew it would be tight. Flight from Portland was delayed but we made the Minneapolis connection ok because it had been delayed also. Not so the Cincinnati connection. Missed that one which was the last one of the day to GSP. Tried to get a flight to Charlotte and rent a car but, though we could have gotten to Charlotte, there were
On top of Brokeoff Mt.
With Lassen Peak in the background. Taken by the geology teacher with the high school class. no one way car rentals available. Ended up spending Tuesday night in Cincinnati and catching the first flight out to GSP at 11:10 on Wednesday. But all's well that ends well and we had a great time with great weather at the parks so, all things considered, the trip could have been a lot worse. Needless to say we were happy to get home and the dog and cats were very happy to see us (read Anne) as well.
This trip chalked up our 33rd, 34th, and 35th parks so far. Stay tuned for the next trip, probably next May or June. Not sure where we will go but probably Southern California and/or Arizona - on a schedule that allows lots of time for connecting flights.
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