There were no fireworks the previous night, even though it was Independence Day. There were various bird sounds and eventually a nice chorus of frogs from the near by Rainbow Lake. Unfortunately I tossed and turned most of the night, unable to stay comfortable for very long. I have a sleeping pad that’s pretty good, but inevitably something would start to ache after a while and I’d have to try a different position. The air cooled to the mid-40’s during the night, but I was plenty warm with my sleeping bag over me like a blanket. Mary ended up zipping hers up all the way and even cinched it around her face during the night for full mummy-mode.

Day 2: July 5, 2008 (9.5 miles)

I could tell the sun was up, but I remained in the tent for quite a while hoping to catch a few more moments of sleep. Eventually I gave up and got up. It was around 8am when I rolled out of the tent. Rainbow Lake was absolutely calm, a perfect mirror (picture on left). It was beautiful.

We heated up some water to make oatmeal and instant Vietnamese coffee for breakfast. Our kitchen (on right) consisted of our small gas stove surrounded by a few rocks, a Platypus collapsible water tank, our bear cannister and a burned out log for a bench. Alta joined us having her own oatmeal but forgoing the Peet’s coffee she brought along. After breakfast, we got ready for our day hike to the Cinder Cone and Snag Lake. Mary and I packed a bit of food and water in my backpack and she carried the camera bag and binoculars.

We were on our way by 9:30am. We had to backtrack along the lake a few hundred yards to a junction we had passed the previous night. The hike started out in forest similar to the previous day, but as we got farther along we could tell we were getting closer to the Cinder Cone. The forest floor transitioned from sand to cinder. Eventually the trees were nearly gone and we were walking in a vast expanse of cinder with the Cinder Cone rising in the distance (picture left). The cinder field to the southwest of the cone is huge, dotted with small patches of grass and a few flowers. The southeast is dominated by the Painted Dunes and Fantastic Lava Beds.

The Cinder Cone is a 700-foot foot high volcanic cone of loose scoria (a type of volcanic rock). According the the USGS, the Cinder Cone was formed around 1650. A spur trail branches off from the Butte Lake trail and follows the south base of the cone through the Painted Dunes. The trail to the rim is pretty steep and made more difficult because of all the loose scoria (picture on right). Fortunately this part of the trail is not all that long. It was one of the few times where I could see what I thought was a false summit that turned out to actually be the top. I was pretty thankful for that.

We reached the top of the Cinder Cone around 11:15am. I snapped a quick picture of Mary near one of the few trees around the rim (picture on left) before setting of to explore the rim. There’s actually a double rim around the middle of the cone with the outside rim higher than the inside rim. The entire circumference of the rim is about half a mile.

There are some great views from the rim though it was very hazy the day we were there due to the various fires around California. Even so we could see the Painted Dunes, Fantastic Lava Beds and Snag Lake (pictured on right) as well as Butte Lake to the northeast and Lassen Peak in the distance to the southwest. After exploring the rim we stopped for lunch around noon at the tree pictured previously. Mary and I ate some bread, salami and string cheese while enjoying a cool breeze and awesome vistas. I only wish the air had been clear for even better views. See below for a panoramic view of the Cinder Cone rim.

After a short lunch break we headed off again. We hiked/slid our way down the scoria and back across the spur trail along the Painted Dunes. The trail from the Cinder Cone to Snag Lake follows the edge of the Fantastic Lava Beds for nearly 2 miles. During this portion of the hike I was starting to feel the effects from the heat and dry air. Mary and I had brought less than 3 liters of water between the two of us, and neglected to bring the water filter with us. The filter would have been handy when we reached Snag Lake (pictured left). The north shore of Snag Lake is the Fantastic Lava Beds. I suspect the lava beds have something to do with the size of this lake, the largest we encountered on our hike. It has some nice sandy beaches and tons of great camp areas. This would be a great destination in itself.

After a snack break at Snag Lake, we headed off for the final leg of our hike. By now it was about 1pm we only had 2.5 miles left to go. My only concern was whether or not we had enough water. Most of this section of the trail was through forest and fields of lupine (left). It was pretty nice except for the steep climb out of the Snag Lake basin. We already had a pretty long hike, so this last section went slowly. Mary and I ran out of water, but we were pretty close to camp by then. We got back to camp at about 3:30.

One of the first things we did when we got back to camp was filter more water (right). The lake was chilly, but it felt really good to soak our feet and wash off some of the dirt from the day’s hike. We spent a good hour just relaxing by the lake. While we were at the lake we were visited by a 2 or 3 foot garter snake. It was nice enough to pose for me (picture on left). There were a few damsel flies about and some other large black insects I could not identify. They didn’t seem to bite, but they sure liked to land on us.

For dinner Mary and I tried a different brand of dehydrated food packets. These were from Mary Janes Farm. I had jambalaya and Mary had wild forest mushroom couscous. They were both pretty good. After dinner I did some exploring near the lake. I managed to find some woodpeckers and enjoyed some more views at the lake. Other than a few mosquitoes, Mary and I were pretty happy campers (picture on right). We headed into the tent a little early this night to avoid the mosquitoes. This seemed like a better option than spraying ourselves with toxic chemicals. Besides, with the sun going down and no fires allowed,there wasn’t much else to do. So we just lay in the tent talking as the sun went down and the chorus of frogs eventually helped us drift off to sleep.

See more pictures in the July 5, 2008 gallery and don’t forget to check out the Google Map showing our trail and many points of interest.

To be continued…