Lassen Volcanic NP 2005

8/20/05 Slightly hung over this morning and did not get underway way until 10:00 a.m. Drove on I5 about 200 miles from Eugene to Ashland, OR. Checked into the Glenyan Campground which was a bad mistake. The temperature was 99 F. After an hour my main circuit on the 5th wheel tripped out and I had no air conditioning. I reset the breaker and found out that the Campground power voltage was down to 97 volts so I turned off the electric water heater, refrigerator, and all other non essentials but with the AC running the power was still 97 volts, so I left the AC off fearing that I might cause damage from the low voltage.

8/21/05 Drove about 175 miles out of Oregon into California to Rancheria RV Park. It’s a beautiful park with broken pine tree cover, grassy sites, a small lake, full hook ups all in a beautiful forest setting. I prefer partial tree open RV Parks to heavily shaded dense forest kind. 100% shade gets boring after a couple of days. Spent the rest of the day staying cool in the rig and watching TV. Barbecued hamburgers for dinner.

8/22/05 Drove about 25 miles into Lassen Volcanic NP visitor center and into the park a ways but wasn’t feeling well so started returning to the RV Park. We stopped at Hat Creek Camp ground and took Meghan on a 3 mile hike off leash along Hat Creek. It was a very hot hike the temperature being in the low 90’s. Returned home to cool trailer and more satellite TV. Had cucumber salad, barbecued Rib eye steaks, sautéed carrots, and a hot fudge fresh peach sundae for dessert.

8/23/05 Cooked huckleberry sourdough pancakes this morning which turned out excellent. Took Meghan for 2 mile walk on a logging road leaving from the RV Park. We then put Meghan in the trailer with the AC running and drove to Lassen Volcanic NP about 20 miles away. We entered the park from the Northwest entrance at about 4,000’. It was quite dry at this elevation but started getting green and beautiful as we went up the mountain. At about 6,500’ we saw Hat Lake the headwaters of Hat Creek. This lake is fed by snow and ice on Lassen Peak. At about 7,600’ we stopped at Summit Lake Campground which had beautiful wooded sites with views of the lake. This would be as far as a big rig could negotiate hwy 89 up the mountain. Our 5th wheel might just find a site big enough in this campground. Next we stopped at Kings Creek which was pristine with beautiful expansive green meadows up steam. We took several photos of the meadows. Next we reached the road summit at 8,500’. A visitor center was here and a trail head led to Lassen Peak. The hike was 5 miles round trip and 2,000’ of elevation, too strenuous for me this late in the day. We continued on a ½ mile to Bumpass Hell. We started the trail down to some geothermal features but I was feeling lousy this day at 8,500’ and could only handle 2 miles of hiking, so we did not see the features. Drove back to RV camp for rest and diary writing. Linda decided to do laundry. Had a green salad, barbecued chicken, carrots, and green beans for dinner.

8/24/05 Got up at 7:30 a.m. had breakfast and got ready to travel. We drove via Susanville and 395 to Reno Nevada. Checked in at the Rivers Edge RV Park again in Sparks. After resting a while we went to visit Conrad and Kathy. After a couple hours of conversation in the Evans back yard patio we decided to walk to the local golf club country club and have dinner. The food was excellent..