Cowboy camp in burned area in Lassen NP - cowboy camp on Hat Creek Rim
Mile 1359 - 1379 + 1 mile side trips to Old Station and Subway Cave
Total 21 miles
I woke up early and quickly got up to get warm on a chilly August morning. My cowboy camp spot last night was under a resilient survivor pine tree, surrounded by a large burned area near the northern boundary of Lassen National Park. At sunrise I stop for breakfast and very soon there are a few other hikers walking by, who are also early birds just like me.
Shortly before leaving the Lassen Volcanic National Park is the end of the burned area. The trail again goes through green forest.
There are more views of the snow covered north side of the Lassen Peak volcano:
The forest mostly consists of pine trees. It looks a little bit like some of the pine forests on sandy soils in Central Europe. The difference is that here there are thick manzanita shrubs in the undergrowth and there is also sagebrush (artemisia tridentata) growing in open spaces between the sparse pine trees.
Lichens cover some of the tree branches; indicating good air quality in this area.
The rocks are of volcanic origin and the around the trail is mostly flat, however there is a couple of sudden steep slopes in the edges of lava fields. From one of the lava fields we can again see the active volcano of Lassen Peak.
A short side trail heads to a little village of Old Station. In Old Station there is a small store and a tiny post office, and my package with oats, nuts and rice from Tahoe has arrived! The postmaster is very kind and she has a plate of biscuits and fresh fruit for visitors to take.
From the post office the trail goes through pine forest and past a water tank to the northern part of Old Station with a gas station and JJ's Cafe restaurant. With other hikers I stop at the restaurant and get delicious Greek salad and fries. There are also hamburgers made from local grass-fed cows and bulls on the menu.
The whole village of Old Station is surrounded by volcanoes and lava fields. As the lava cooled down, a solid crust formed on the lava surface. Under the crust, the liquid lava continued flowing, creating hollow "lava tubes". One of the lava tubes is the Subway Cave.
The entrance to the cave is free of charge. There is no guide, just stairs going into a dark hole in the ground. Wild currant is growing at the cave entrance.
The length of the cave is 0.3 miles and it has numerous side chambers. As I lose sight of the entrance it gets completely dark. This is not the darkness of night. It is a total darkness where I completely lose any sense of direction. It is quite scary. The only way to find direction is touching the cave walls.
I am too afraid to go very far and soon head back to the entrance. Out of the cave, I take a break at a picnic area and head back to the PCT. I get lost a little bit in the maze of trails in the lava field, and one trail leads me to another entrance to Subway Cave. I did not realize that the cave is like a subway tunnel, with entrances on both sides. It would be a challenging courage test for me to go through the whole cave tunnel without light. Maybe I'll do that in my next visit...
Finally I find my way back to the PCT which climbs up to the top of a steep slope: the Hat Creek Rim.
At the top of the slope is an overlook viewpoint with picnic tables. One hiker named ADL that I last met in Yosemite recognizes me and offers me root beer with ice and invites me inside his trailer to have some salad. He is hiking in tandem with his wife. One section he hikes and she drives the trailer, the next section she hikes and he drives. Where possible, they meet together for night to sleep in the comfortable spacious trailer.
At one of the picnic tables I also cook a top class dinner: rice with stir-fried onions and tomatoes. Because I knew there are trash cans at the overlook, I bought a big can of diced tomatoes back at the store in Old Station.
It is a hot summer evening and so I stay at the overlook until sunset. And far on the northern horizon I see the mighty volcano of Mount Shasta for the first time.
I walk about one more mile before it gets dark, and then find a spot to cowboy camp under a pine tree on the upper rim of the steep rocky slope. In the coming days and weeks, the Pacific Crest Trail will lead me around Mount Shasta all the way to Oregon and past more volcanoes of the Cascade Range, which stretches from Northern California all the way to Canada.
Mile 1359 - 1379 + 1 mile side trips to Old Station and Subway Cave
Total 21 miles
I woke up early and quickly got up to get warm on a chilly August morning. My cowboy camp spot last night was under a resilient survivor pine tree, surrounded by a large burned area near the northern boundary of Lassen National Park. At sunrise I stop for breakfast and very soon there are a few other hikers walking by, who are also early birds just like me.
Shortly before leaving the Lassen Volcanic National Park is the end of the burned area. The trail again goes through green forest.
There are more views of the snow covered north side of the Lassen Peak volcano:
The forest mostly consists of pine trees. It looks a little bit like some of the pine forests on sandy soils in Central Europe. The difference is that here there are thick manzanita shrubs in the undergrowth and there is also sagebrush (artemisia tridentata) growing in open spaces between the sparse pine trees.
Lichens cover some of the tree branches; indicating good air quality in this area.
The rocks are of volcanic origin and the around the trail is mostly flat, however there is a couple of sudden steep slopes in the edges of lava fields. From one of the lava fields we can again see the active volcano of Lassen Peak.
A short side trail heads to a little village of Old Station. In Old Station there is a small store and a tiny post office, and my package with oats, nuts and rice from Tahoe has arrived! The postmaster is very kind and she has a plate of biscuits and fresh fruit for visitors to take.
From the post office the trail goes through pine forest and past a water tank to the northern part of Old Station with a gas station and JJ's Cafe restaurant. With other hikers I stop at the restaurant and get delicious Greek salad and fries. There are also hamburgers made from local grass-fed cows and bulls on the menu.
The whole village of Old Station is surrounded by volcanoes and lava fields. As the lava cooled down, a solid crust formed on the lava surface. Under the crust, the liquid lava continued flowing, creating hollow "lava tubes". One of the lava tubes is the Subway Cave.
The entrance to the cave is free of charge. There is no guide, just stairs going into a dark hole in the ground. Wild currant is growing at the cave entrance.
The length of the cave is 0.3 miles and it has numerous side chambers. As I lose sight of the entrance it gets completely dark. This is not the darkness of night. It is a total darkness where I completely lose any sense of direction. It is quite scary. The only way to find direction is touching the cave walls.
I am too afraid to go very far and soon head back to the entrance. Out of the cave, I take a break at a picnic area and head back to the PCT. I get lost a little bit in the maze of trails in the lava field, and one trail leads me to another entrance to Subway Cave. I did not realize that the cave is like a subway tunnel, with entrances on both sides. It would be a challenging courage test for me to go through the whole cave tunnel without light. Maybe I'll do that in my next visit...
Finally I find my way back to the PCT which climbs up to the top of a steep slope: the Hat Creek Rim.
At the top of the slope is an overlook viewpoint with picnic tables. One hiker named ADL that I last met in Yosemite recognizes me and offers me root beer with ice and invites me inside his trailer to have some salad. He is hiking in tandem with his wife. One section he hikes and she drives the trailer, the next section she hikes and he drives. Where possible, they meet together for night to sleep in the comfortable spacious trailer.
At one of the picnic tables I also cook a top class dinner: rice with stir-fried onions and tomatoes. Because I knew there are trash cans at the overlook, I bought a big can of diced tomatoes back at the store in Old Station.
It is a hot summer evening and so I stay at the overlook until sunset. And far on the northern horizon I see the mighty volcano of Mount Shasta for the first time.
I walk about one more mile before it gets dark, and then find a spot to cowboy camp under a pine tree on the upper rim of the steep rocky slope. In the coming days and weeks, the Pacific Crest Trail will lead me around Mount Shasta all the way to Oregon and past more volcanoes of the Cascade Range, which stretches from Northern California all the way to Canada.
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