This past weekend, Mary and I went backpacking with our friends Virginia and Alta. We decided to go to Henry W. Coe State Park. Henry Coe is a huge park a little south east of San Jose. We were planning to head out early Friday afternoon and spend two nights in the park. The weather forecast was clear with temperatures in the mid-80s. None of us had ever backpacked in this park before. Mary and I created a tentative loop based on some info we read on various websites. We decided to start our journey at the Hunting Hollow entrance and planned to spend the first night at Willson Camp and the second at Kelly Lake.

Friday, August 22, 2008

We arrived at the Hunting Hollow entrance around 1:30. After a bathroom break and final gear checks and adjustments, we were on our way by 2pm. We started out on Hunting Hollow Road which isn’t much more than a dirt path. We followed this path for 0.7 miles then connected with the Lyman Willson Ridge Trail. The trail climbs a good 1200 feet in the course of a little more than 2 miles. It follows a ridge between Braen Canyon and Coon Hunter’s Gulch. The landscape is dominated by rolling hills of golden grain dotted with stands of various trees. At various points you have great views west to the coastal range.

At 2.1miles we turned right on to Bowl Trail following it to Willson Camp. Bowl Trail is fairly flat and passes a few maintained springs. Basically these are PVC pipes filling large plastic bins with water from underground springs. The bins have a fair amount of algae growing in them, but the water beneath looks reasonable clean. We did not try any. After a mile on Bowl Trail, we reached Willson Camp which consists of an old ranch house and a park maintained pit toilet. It was about 4pm by this time, too early to set up camp, so after a quick snack we pushed on towards Rodeo Pond.

It was 0.2 miles from Willson Camp to Wagon Road. Rodeo Pond is another 0.8 miles north on Wagon Road. The pond looked more like a mudflat, so we went another 0.6 miles to Tule Pond with a similar result. By now it was nearly 6pm but we decided to continue to Wasno Pond. After 0.6 miles on Tule Pond Trail and 0.3 miles on Wasno Road we found Wasno Pond (pictured on right). There was definitely clear water, but no one wanted to wade through the muck to get out to it. Once again we decided to push on. We tried to follow Kelly Creek to Kelly Lake, but decided it was to treacherous in the fading light. We ended up back on Wagon Road. We took that to Crest Trail and finally Coit Road to Coit Lake. The camp ground at the south end of the lake it pretty nice, with pit toilet and picnic table. Unfortunately the toilet was closed for maintenance. There was already a group of 4 at the camp area, but we were all tired and they didn’t mind sharing the areas. We set up camp, had some dinner and turned in for the night.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

On Saturday morning we were able to see and enjoy the vistas at Coit Lake (pictured on left). We were also able to filter water at the lake, though the shore is fairly steep and there’s lots of tule and bulrush in the way. We had some breakfast and packed up camp. After a longer day than planned on Friday, we decided on a short hike over to Kelly Lake for our second night’s camp. It was only 1.1 miles on Coit Road and a short jaunt up the earthen dam to Kelly Lake.

Kelly Lake is smaller than Coit Lake, but still very nice (pictured right). We found a nice camp area on the north-east side of the lake with decent water access. We decided we would wait out the heat of the day in the shade of a tree near our camp site. Virginia and I even took a dip in the cool waters of the lake. We had a simple lunch sitting on tarps in the shade. In the afternoon Alta and Virginia decided to go for a short hike while Mary and I stayed at camp and enjoyed the day (picture on left). It was quite hot in the sun, but the shade was nice. Mary and I relaxed under a tree most of the afternoon, though we had to keep moving around to stay in the shade.

When Alta and Virginia returned we all set up our tents and had some dinner.Mary and I had a really nice spot near the lake (picture on right). A few logs around a sandy area served as our kitchen. Once the sun was below the hills, the air cooled down considerably. We boiled some water for dinner and even had some hot chocolate for desert.As the sun set, the bats came out to feast on bugs. It was neat watching them flit about in the remaining light. Once the sun was down the stars came out in force. Even the milky way was distinct in the sky. Mary and I turned in and watched the stars for a time before drifting off to sleep.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

On Sunday morning we once again had breakfast, filtered some water and broke camp. We decided to head out via Grizzly Gulch to Coyote Creek. We were on the trial before 10am. The climb from Kelly Lake on the Kelly Lake Trail is pretty steep. There are some nice views of the lake (picture on left) on the way out. After a mile we reached Wasno Road where we turned left. After a short 0.2 miles on Wasno Road, we headed on to Dexter Trail. Dexter peaks at about 2400 feet where I took a 360 panorama. From there it was down to Grizzly Gulch Trail and 2.5 miles to the Coyote Creek entrance. It’s 2 miles along Gilroy Hot Springs Road back to the Hunting Hollow entrance. I had gone on ahead to get the car, and was able to save the girls about a mile off their hike. We were all in the car and heading home shortly after 1pm, stopping in San Martin for cold drinks.

All in all it was a nice weekend, though it was a bit hot and dry. We did about 10 miles on the first day, 1.5 on the second and a little over 6 on the third. It would be nice to go in the spring when there’s more water and the weather is cooler. Maybe next year. For more pictures, go to my gallery for this trip. I also made a Google Map of the trail.

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…

Mary and I went backpacking in Sequoia over the weekend of July 28-29. This time it was just the two of us. We wanted to test out our new gear, including:

• My Deuter ACT Lite 65+10 backpack
• Mary’s Osprey Aura 65
• A BearVault BV350 Solo bear cannister
• MSR Pocket Rocket stove
• MSR SweetWater microfilter
• Platypus Water Tank (4L)

We weren’t able to reserve permits for the trail we wanted (Lakes Trail), so we’d have to get there early and hope for the best. We left home around 5 AM and started the drive to the park.

We got to the Lodgepole Ranger Station around 9:45 AM. Only 7 of 25 permits had been assigned so far, so we were able to go for the Lakes Trail. The trail is around 6 miles each way with about 2200 feet of elevation gain. It passes 4 different lakes with campsites and toilets at two of them. Our goal was the 4th lake, Pear Lake.

We set off from the trail head at Wolverton at around 10:40 AM. The weather was beautiful as we hit the trail and entered the forest. The first part of the trail makes a steady climb up a moraine deposited by an ancient glacier. The trail heads up to a ridge along the Tokopah Valley. From the ridge you can see the Lodgepole Visitors Center. Continuing along the trail we saw a log with some amazing orange mushrooms growing on it’s side. At about 2 miles we reached the junction for the Watchtower/Hump Trails. We choose the Watchtower Trail.

The Watchtower Trail is slightly longer than the Hump Trial, but it is also flatter. That aside, it also provides some spectacular views. We stopped for lunch near the top of the Watchtower and had great views of the Tokopah Valley. We should probably have eaten a better breakfast because we were both starving by the time we stopped for lunch. We scarfed down our sandwiches and tomatoes in no time. Man did that taste good! I was a bit confused about the Watchtower, because the picture in the trail book was from the bottom, but we were at the top.

The trail followed along a cliff. There were more stunning views of the Tokopah Valley and Tokopah Falls (though there wasn’t any water flowing at this time of year). A bit further along, at about 4 miles, we reached the first lake, Heather Lake. The banks of this lake are lined with red heather and various other trees and plants. We saw a few people swimming and a few more fishing. There’s no camping allowed at Heather Lake, but I think it would make a great day hike destination.

From Heather Lake the trail heads up another ridge. We were keeping our eyes peeled for marmots and pika as they are supposed to be numerous along this part of the trail. Maybe they’re not very adventuresome during the hottest part of the day because we didn’t see much. We did spot a pika or two darting among the rocks, but didn’t manage to capture any with the camera. After crossing the ridge we had a great view of Aster Lake. Emerald Lake at mile 5 is not visible from the trail so we decided to save it for tomorrow and continued on.

We had one more ridge to cross to get to Pear Lake. Again we were awarded with some amazing views up the Tokopah Valley and had a better view of the Watchtower (the point just left of center in the picture on the right). There are still a variety of flowers in bloom along the trail. We saw a few hummingbirds buzzing about along this section. After crossing the ridge we arrived at Pear Lake around 4 PM.

Upon arriving at Pear Lake we looked around to find a good campsite. The campsites here are numbered and you are only allowed to camp in a numbered space. We eventually settled at site #2 just across the small creek. They also have a couple compost toilets set up here which sure beats ducking behind a tree. We set up camp, filtered some water and started on dinner. Dinner was a bag of dehydrated beef stew. It wasn’t too bad. Our new stove worked reasonably well.

We watched the shadows from the setting sun slowly creep up the Pear Lake basin. There was a nice alpen glow on the looming Alta Peak (picture right). There are no campfires allowed here, so we decided to turn in. I had a bit of a headache either from the altitude, dehydration or both. It made it difficult for me to sleep. I don’t usually sleep all that well out camping anyway, but this was even a little worse.I did managed to doze off a bit over the course of the night. We were up again by 7:30AM.

Breakfast consisted of oatmeal and instant Vietnamese coffee. We had a few morning visitors including a marmot, a very cute pika (picture left), and a brave little golden-mantled ground squirrel. We had hung most of our gear in trees because of the warnings that the marmots like to chew on your salty gear. Fortunately the marmot we saw was eating a more natural diet. We enjoyed watching our visitors for quite a while, then finally packed up camp. After topping off our water bladders we were ready to head back out.

The hike out was much easier since it was mostly downhill. We really enjoyed the awesome views of the lakes and valleys. This time we took the short detour to see Emerald Lake, and it was worth it. I think Emerald Lake is even nicer than Pear Lake, and there are camping sites and a compost toilet there as well. Next time maybe we’ll camp at Emerald Lake instead. We never did walk down to Aster Lake, but we had some nice views of the trail. We saw more day hikers fishing and swimming at Heather Lake. Before we rounded the ridge by the watchtower, we took one final look back up the Tokopah Valley (picture on left).

The only real excitement on the way down was a loud crash that made us both jump. A small tree fell across the trail about 30 yards in front of us. It made quite a racket, but was easy to get around. You can find more pictures from the hike in my gallery. There are more pictures of the pika on the Pikas page. I made a map of the trail we took at Gmaps Pedometer.

Epilogue: We both really enjoyed this hike, though it was a bit more challenging than we thought. I guess we never give the altitude enough consideration. This was my first trip to this sort of altitude with a full pack. We were mostly happy with our new gear, though Mary had problems with her pack. The strange waffle pattern on the shoulder straps bruised her collar bone. She will most likely return it and try to find another one. It also seems that the BearVault BV350 may be a little small, so we may upgrade it to the BV400. Thank goodness for REI and their liberal return policy.