K's Last Hurrah

As my summer draws to a close, I've managed to squeeze in few more trips. Right after I came back from Hyder, Ken and I drove up to Lassen Volcanic National Park to hike Mount Lassen, something I've been wanting to do. The hike itself was only about 3.5 hours, but up at the top we had a great view of Shasta that was only partially muddled from fire haze. We also walked out to Bumpass Hell and marvelled at the wonders of hot water.

The hottest water to come to the Earth's surface comes out of one of these springs at Bumpass Hell.

We also managed a quick trip on my birthday out to Yosemite where we hiked up Dana Point. There's a 'kind of' trail that starts just before you enter the park from the Tioga Pass side. We left the truck outside the park and made out way up to the top. The mountain is rather deceiving because once I started the last third of the hike, the top looked so close but took a while to get to. I was surprised we couldn't see Half Dome from up there, but we could see the tip of Tuolumne Meadows and most of Mono Lake.

From the top of Dana Point.

We hiked back down and spent the night at Mono Lake where we took a kayak trip the following morning. It was pretty awesome to paddle close to the tufas and see tons of Ospreys. I was surprised to learn that 90% of California's seagull population is born at Mono Lake. We picked a perfect day to go because there was no wind on the lake (winds tend to spring up late morning/early afternoon). We stopped by Buckeye Hotsprings near Bridgeport on the way home. It was full of Burners (folk heading home from Burning Man), but they were friendly enough and we didn't stay very long.

Looking towards South Tufa from Navy Beach on Mono Lake.

That's it. My summer is over. I'm going back to work, but not before Ken & I hike up the Ophir Creek Trail which heads out of Davis Creek Park (near Bower's Mansion) and ends up at the Mount Rose Meadows. It's a great way to tire myself out before the all-day flight back to Japan. Thanks for keeping up with me during the summer and I'll report soon about my adventures in Japan!