Lassen Volcanic National Park

Cassel, CA to Mineral, CA

This morning was my turn to present about a town, but I was actually assigned Lassen. I started my presentation off by reciting the introductory paragraph from John Muir's Mountains of California.

Go where you may within the bounds of California, mountains are ever in sight, charming and glorifying every landscape. Every rock seems to glow with life. Some lean back in majestic repose; others, absolutely sheer, or nearly so, for thousands of feet, advance their brows in thoughtful attitudes beyond their companions, giving welcome to storms and calms alike, seemingly conscious yet heedless of everything going on about them, awful in stern majesty, types of permanence, yet associated with beauty of the frailest and most fleeting forms; their feet set in pine-groves and gay emerald meadows, their brows in the sky; bathed in light, bathed in floods of singing water, while snow-clouds, avalanches, and the winds shine and surge and wreathe about them as the years go by, as if into these mountain mansions Nature had taken pains to gather her choicest treasures to draw her lovers into close and confiding communion with her. (....)Of these, Lassen's Butte is the highest, being nearly 11,000 feet above sea-level. Miles of its flanks are reeking and bubbling with hot springs, many of them so boisterous and sulphurous they seem ever ready to become spouting geysers like those of the Yellowstone.

Then I got really serious and presented a few facts about Lassen:

•  Mount Lassen erupted 1914-1922. Roosevelt declared it a National Park then
• The park is 165 square miles
• The mountain's peak is at over 10,000 feet. However, the road's summit is 8,500.
• Just yesterday there were 8 recorded minor earthquakes
• It's located on the Great Ring of Fire in the Pacific, and marks the bottom of the Cascade mountain region

This was the greatest footage climbed in one day for us, totaling over 6,400 feet climbed. Of a 71 mile day, the summit was at mile 57. So most of the day was just slow and steady climbing. The views were fantastic though. We passed a sulfuric acid mudpot that stunk so bad. Some riders hiked at the summit, but I thought 50 or so miles of going uphill was enough for me. The descent was a fabulous 14 miles of hardly pedaling.

Mineral is an adorable mountain town, population 123. We are staying in a ranch home, which means I'm sleeping on a bed tonight! This is the first bed I've slept in all summer. The town greeted us with a campfire, badminton, a hot tub, stargazing, and watching the sunset from a barn.

I can't believe we have just one week until we reach Santa Cruz!