I had planned a trip to Mt. Shasta to be with Cori at the music performance by Chad Wilkins at the Temple of Intention, so when the news of the Delta Fire came, it put my trip at risk. I decided to go anyway, and that began a week-long tour of our beloved local mountains. I followed my Shasta trip with a Mt. Lassen getaway with Jeffery, which was a sublime adventure. Let me show you!
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| My starting mileage hits a fun number |
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| The Bogard Rest Area. I am travelling to Shasta via Hwy's 89 and 44, so I am in never-seen-before stretches of countryside. |
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| Starting to get hazier as I head west and north. The Delta Fire closed Hwy 5, which is the major route through California, so I'm taking the "eastern" route. |
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| I'm going to show this 3-photo panorama from the Hat Creek Vista Point again at a later point. This perspective is to the southward, and you should be able to see Mt. Lassen on the left |
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| Panning to the west |
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| And now to the North. On a good day, you'd see Mt. Shasta to the right in this view |
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| Farther up the road, I just liked this view and the colors and light. |
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| Instead of the music performance, Cori and I went to the Dunsmuir community Fire Meeting, to hear about the status of evacuation warnings and the Delta Fire prospects. |
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| I woke the next morning to semi-blue sky and a glimpse of Mt. Shasta from my motel. |
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| After a Black Bear Diner breakfast, Cori and Riley-pup took me for a walk in the woods to Ney Springs and Faery Falls |
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| One ruin-remnant of the once lavish Ney Springs retreat |
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| The date was also carved into the foundation |
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| What a nice way to spend the morning, eh? Especially after breathing solid heavy smoke yesterday. |
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| Faery Falls. |
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| I can see Mts Shasta and Shastina |
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| From the High School |
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| I can actually see Castle Crags from Mt. Shasta before I head towards home. |
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| The Trucks on Hwy 89. They usually go up Hwy 5, and are the origin of my phrase "I love to travel with the trucks", but on this smaller mountain highway, it was a startling sight. |
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| Golly I love the mountains in September. |
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| Okay, here's that later 3-photo panorama I told you about. See the difference? And it could be even better! At least you can see Mt. Lassen. |
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| View to the west. The road below is Hwy 89, which I just traveled to get here. |
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| View to the north, with Mt. Shasta still invisible in the smoke haze. |
Now, on the Mt. Lassen with Jeffery, the day after I returned home from Mt. Shasta.
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| We came up into the Park from the south entrance, and have just passed over the road's high point (8511 ft) with Lassen in view. We're hiking down to two lakes on the mountain's eastern side. |
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| Terrace Lake. |
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| Shadow Lake |
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| Loved the color variants. |
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| Loved the water textures |
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| I showed this on Facebook, with Jeffery in the photo "somewhere" |
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| That's the closest I could zoom up on him |
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| We've now come around to Lassen's northern side, where it blew out in the eruptions of 1914 and 1915 |
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| The trailhead to Hat Lake is very alluring |
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| The whole meadow is a water cache. We didn't take the hike here. |
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| Chaos Crags and the Chaos Jumble |
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| Due to my love of rocky surfaces and details, I give you a 3-photo panorama of the Chaos Crags. Zen away! |
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| Ponder the geology of this view |
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| Don't you feel better now? |
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| We've arrived at Manzanita Lake, found our little bunkhouse cabin, and now we're walking around, scouting our trail for tomorrow, and enjoying the waning light of the day. |
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| sky-sun-water |
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| Optical illusion art shot attempt |
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| Our cabin had no water/electricity but it had heat, and was a home of our own in a camping fashion. |
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| We set out at 7a.m. in 39 degree weather to reach Loomis Peak. For those who don't know, Loomis is my maiden name. |
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| Pretty mosses |
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| Chaos Crags in the background |
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| We're approaching Loomis Peak along Manzanita Creek. The trail is fabulous! Not too steep, lots of cool eco-zones, even a few patches of frost on the meadows. |
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| This is the entirety of Loomis Peak, seen from its bottom and from the far side of Manzanita Creek. This is as far as we got, since from here, we'd have had to bush-whack over the creek and up the mountain to the peak with no trail to guide us. |
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| Jeffery opens the champagne on our front stoop as dinner cooks. |
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| To Grover, who gave us the bubbly, and to a great attempt to summit Mt. Loomis |
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| We planted chairs to watch the sun go down on Mt. Lassen |
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| You can just see the knob of Loomis Peak in the center |
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| Almost the end of the sunset. |
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| Now we're viewing from the east side of the lake |
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| Pretty much the same view as above, only now it's morning! |
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| A small morning walk around the Lake gives us our last good view of the Chaos Crags and Mt. Lassen. |
We wended home via Hwy 44 this time, and had a great trip, with a stop for lunch at Buffalo Chips in Westwood.
