Last week Mary got me a new camera body, the Canon EOS 40D, to replace my old Canon EOS 10D. The 10D is still working, but the shutter is starting to stick. The 40D has higher resolution (10.1 mega pixels), faster frame rate (6.5 frames per second) and a larger LCD (3 inch) among other things. It comes with a longer life battery but is compatible with the batteries I already have for the 10D. It also uses the same CompactFlash cards as before and of course is compatible with my EOS lenses.

I haven’t done a lot of shooting with the new camera, but I’m pretty happy so far. I’ve taken it out to my normal haunts like Don Edwards and the “Magic Fence” (where I took the shot of the burrowing owl on the left) and I even brought it along to Mission Peak this past weekend. The resolution improvement is quite obvious and I feel like the focus is a bit faster, though it’s still a challenge to capture sharp images. One of these days I’m going to have to break down and start using a tripod.

I’m still trying to figure out what the next phase of my career is going to look like. I had more or less given up on the green technology field since I just can’t seem to find much that matches my skill set. However, after Al Gore’s speech last week about moving to 100% carbon free energy in 10 years, I’ve become somewhat reinvigorated. I blogged about it on GreenValhalla titled Al Gore’s Challenge to America. I’ve even started getting involved with the We Campaign by writing to elected officials and the local newspaper. I’ve even submitted a form to become a volunteer and applied for a job at the parent organization, The Alliance for Climate Protection. Don’t be surprised if you get an email from me asking you to get involved!

I slept a bit more the second night than I did the first, but I still tossed and turned a lot. There was a lone frog croaking most of the night, only occasionally joined by the full chorus. Time to get on with our final day of the trip…

Day 3: July 6, 2008 (5.5 miles)

Today I was out of the tent before 7am. I wouldn’t have minded a bit more sleep, but I just couldn’t get comfortable any more. We had another breakfast of oatmeal, but this time with some instant milk tea from Burma and a little turkey jerky from Trader Joe’s. After a leisurely breakfast, breaking camp and packing our backpacks, we were on our way by 10am.

The first part of the hike had tons of lupine (picture on right). It’s a pretty short trip back to Lower Twin Lake (elev. 6,534 ft.), only about half a mile once we left Rainbow Lake. Lower Twin is at least twice the size of Rainbow Lake, but still much smaller than Snag Lake. We hiked around the south side of Lower Twin, then it’s a really short jaunt to Upper Twin Lake (pictured left). Upper Twin (elev. 6,543 ft.) is a bit smaller than Lower Twin. The trail follows the north shore of the lake. I could see a few geese and ducks out on the lake, but they were too far for decent photos.

After we left Upper Twin, we started to climb towards Echo Lake. It’s about 1.5 miles and 300 ft. of elevation, so not too bad. Along the way we spotted a deer (right) having a late breakfast. We also passed a couple of unnamed lakes and even a few patches of snow in the shade of the forest. The ground cover was transitioning back to manzanita instead of lupine.

We reached Echo Lake (elev. 6,845 ft.) around 11:30am. Echo Lake (pictured left) is even smaller than Rainbow Lake, but it’s still very pretty. This would have been a nice place to stop for lunch, but we were hoping to visit some other areas of the park before our drive home, so we pushed on. From Echo Lake we climbed to the trail junction to the Cluster Lakes on a ridge at 7,136 ft. From here it’s all down hill to Summit Lake.

The hike down from the ridge has some great views of Lassen Peak to the west. To the right is a picture of Mary with the peak in the background. There are a couple other pictures of the peak in the July 6 gallery. Shortly after 12:30pm we reached Summit Lake at 6,676 ft. (pictured left with Lassen Peak in the background). We saw a few other backpackers cooling of by swimming in the lake. The water looked very inviting, but we just wanted to get back to the car. We had about half a mile back to the trail head along the lake and through some meadows. We crossed the final boardwalk to the parking lot at 12:50pm. It felt good to get out of the backpacks, but a shower would have to wait until we got home. After pulling out the food we wanted for lunch, we packed all the backpacks in the back of Mary’s Prius and hit the road.

Our first stop along the park road was the gift/snack shop at the Lassen Peak trail head. Mary picked up a Popsicle and I got an ice cold Gatorade. Next stop was the picnic area at Lake Helen for lunch. Lake Helen is a beautiful lake at the southern base of Lassen Peak (pictured left). While eating our lunch at one of the tables near the lake we had a visit from a very brave golden-mantled ground squirrel (right). We also saw a chipmunk, but is was quickly chased away by the squirrel.

By this time it was nearly 2pm. We were planning to go to Bumpass Hell, but decided it was getting late. Instead we figured we would stop at the Sulphur Works to at least see some of the parks geothermal features. When we passed the parking area for Bumpass Hell and saw how crowded it was, our decision was affirmed. Sadly, when we arrived at Sulphur Works we discovered the interpretive trail around the geothermal area was closed. We were able to see a fumarole near the road (left with Mary) but not much else.

We stopped at the park’s main entrance sign for a photo-op on the way out (right). Overall it was a great backpacking trip. In 3 days we covered a little over 22 miles. We hiked by 14 different lakes and climbed a 360 year old cinder cone. We saw deer, snakes, squirrels, chipmunks, woodpeckers, geese, ducks, damselflies and a variety of other insects. I would definitely recommend this hike, especially the Cluster Lakes loop covering our first day from Summit Lake to Lower Twin Lake via the Cluster Lakes and the last day from Lower Twin Lake to Summit Lake via Echo Lake. That would be a great one night trip. The Cinder Cone can also be visited via a short day hike from Butte Lake. It might also be nice to camp at Snag Lake sometime. I’m sure there will be another backpacking trip in Lassen Volcanic National Park in our future.

See more pictures from day 3 in the July 6, 2008 gallery. All pictures from the trip are accessible from the Lassen July 2008 gallery. Once again, check out the Google Map I made which shows our route and various points of interest. You can click on the blue icons on the map to see a picture of the indicated point of interest. You can also click on the 3 trail segments to get more info on each leg of our trip. You can also click the small screen capture of the map on the left. I would have embedded the actual Google Map on this page, but all the JavaScript made my blog a bit too slow. Enjoy!

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…

Mary and I decided to go backpacking with our friend Alta for the three day weekend. After a little research we decided to go to Lassen Volcanic National Park since the weather looked nice and it’s less crowded than Yosemite or Sequoia. I picked up Hiking Lassen Volcanic National Park from our favorite hiking guide publisher, Falcon Guides. From the book, we settled on a combination of different hikes to fill up 3 days. We started at Summit Lake trail head and camped in the same location both nights (Rainbow Lake). Here’s the lowdown:

Day 1: July 4, 2008 (7.5 miles)

Alta met us at the house early on Independence Day. We were on the road a little after 7am. It’s a 4-5 hour drive and we were hoping to be on the trail before noon. Fortunately the traffic was light. We got the the park before noon, so we were on schedule. We needed to pick up a wilderness permit, and were told we could get one at the Summit Lake Ranger Station. Unfortunately that station was closed, so we had to drive out to the Loomis Museum to get one. We didn’t get on the trail until almost 1:30.

Most of the days hike followed the north branch of the Cluster Lakes Loop. From the trail head we crossed a few meadows and passed Summit Lake. There a great views of Lassen Peak over Summit Lake. After the lake the trail started to climb. The ground was mostly covered with some sort of manzanita. There are even more amazing views of Lassen Peak from the trail. A little less than a mile after Summit Lake we reached the junction to Cluster Lakes. After a bit of up and down along the trail, we reached an unnamed lake and stopped for lunch (picture on left) around 2:45pm. I decided to call this lake “Lunch” Lake. We saw a lot of bluet damselflies buzzing around the lake. They are a really pretty blue.

From ‘Lunch’ Lake it was mostly downhill to the Cluster Lakes. First up came Little Bear Lake followed closely by Big Bear Lake. After about 3.2 miles since the Cluster Lakes junction, we reached a junction with the trail to Badger Flat, but continued along to Silver Lake. We hiked along Silver Lake for a while then came to Feather Lake where we stopped to admire the view (picture on right). The ground cover along this part of the trail tended towards lupine rather than manzanita. About 2.8 miles after the Badger Flat junction, we merged on the a short portion of the Pacific Crest Trail. We were starting to get bothered by mosquitoes as we hiked along a creek leading to Lower Twin Lake. We passed another junction on the north side of Lower Twin Lakes and turned off the PCT a little later when we reached the trail to Rainbow Lake.

It was about a half mile from Lower Twin Lake to Rainbow Lake. We hiked along Rainbow Lake looking for a nice place to set up camp. We found a pretty good spot on the east side of the lake and had camp (picture on left) set up by about 6:30pm. You can see the top of Lassen Peak across the lake to the west. For dinner, Mary and I shared a bag of Backpacker’s Pantry Pad Thai. It tasted pretty good, but some of the noodles didn’t cook all that well. We got to try our our new GSI Hae Tea Kettle to boil the water. It works really well. Much faster and more convenient than the pot we used before. A little after 8pm, the mosquitoes were getting annoying, so we retired to our tent. This was the first time I used my new Mountain Hardware Phantom +32 Sleeping Bag. It packs so small and weighs only 24 ounces (for the long), but it kept me plenty warm.

The rest of the pictures for Day 1 are in the gallery. For a map of the complete trip check out the Google Map I created.

To be continued…

Yesterday I had to go downtown to City Hall to pick up the picture I had on display at the library falcon exhibit. I took the opportunity to scout for the peregrine falcons. I ended up going on quite a long walk around SJSU, downtown and along the Guadalupe River Park and Gardens. The park is a narrow strip of green along the Guadalupe River along the west side of downtown San Jose. There’s quite a nice path for biking or walking. I didn’t see any falcons along the walk, but I did see ducklings and egrets and herons (also pictured on left). I did eventually find a peregrine when I got back to City Hall. One of the young was sitting on the nest ledge. While I was fiddling with the scope it magically disappeared. It was a nice adventure in any case.

For the Independence Day weekend Mary and I are going backpacking with our friend Alta. We’ll be going to Lassen Volcanic National Park in north-central California. We’ve been to the park a few times before, but this will be our first backpacking trip there. It will also be my first backpacking trip longer than one night as this trip will be Friday through Sunday. Hopefully I’ll have some photos to post next week.