Crater Lake

Beautiful view! At the summit of Garfield Peak

From Lava Beds, I backtracked to Crater Lake. I stopped on my way there at a sign explaining a little about the mountain. It used to be a composite volcano and much, much taller than it is currently. It grew by having regular lava flows. Then, a super explosion blasted off the top of the volcano, covering a good chunk of Oregon in pumice (which makes up a large piece of the soil to this day). Pyro-clastic flows on the inside of the volcano filled in the remaining space and formed the bottom of the lake. The sign, and the surrounding plains, were at roughly the same elevation as the bottom of the lake.

This field is at roughly the same elevation of the bottom of Crater Lake.

On my way up, I stopped for lunch at one of the scenic lookouts. There was a river at the bottom of the chasm, but it is pretty hard to see. It was pretty peaceful and still decently warm at this elevation. That would change pretty quickly as I went further up the mountain.

I was a little disappointed when I got into the actual park and discovered that the Rim Trail, the road surrounding the rim of the crater, was closed for the season. There was snow and ice already up there, and they don't regularly plow it. I was still able to get a lot of really cool pictures and the hike to Garfield Peak was still open.

Wizard Island

Sledding hill! I will let you go first...

I decided that I would make the trip up Garfield Peak. The sign said it was only 1.7 miles. I had hiked up the fire observation point (in Lava Beds) already that day, so I thought it was no biggie. Well, I forgot to account for the elevation change (about 2000m over the hike) and the snow (knee deep in some areas). I went up with my sweatshirt, jeans, and hiking boots. I wasn't really cold at 45 degrees. It was fun, and I met a mountain climbing group (they payed for a trip to climb mountains). We talked for a bit on the climb and I stuck with them on the way down. Very cool group of people.

Made it to the top! Longest 1.7 mile hike of my life.

After the climb, my boots were a little wet. This was a problem, as everything was a little bit wet from the warm temperatures and the snow. I went to eat inside at the lodge and waited for my stuff to dry off. I got dry, but my campsite for the night didn't. Instead of setting up my tent in the slush puddle, I slept in my car. Slept isn't really the correct word, more like went unconscious periodically, but I made it through the night.

I woke up early, or at least didn't fall back asleep, and tried to take a shower. They were operational, but I question if the water heater was. The rooms themselves were not heated either, which made it feel like you were trying to warm up an ice cube in the refrigerator. Not entirely effective, but still technically warmer. After being "revitalized" in the shower, I hit the road again, headed north.

I am not sure if I mentioned this before, but you can see full size versions of these if you click on them.

Crater Lake Pictures

Lava Beds National Monument

A cool fort someone built at the campsite using lavarock.

From Redwoods, I hopped in my car and made my way into Oregon. I had to go into Oregon to get to the Lava Beds National Monument, which is in California, because there are no roads between the Redwoods and the Lava Beds.

I stopped for gas and made the mistake that nearly everyone not from Oregon makes: I tried to pump my own gas. This was a pretty big deal for some places and they asked me to get back in my car. Oops.

I drove past the route to Crater Lake, with plans to hit it later. I had to go up a mountain, however, and got snowed on!

Snow in September. I thought this was just a UP thing...

On my way, I stopped to take a picture of a lake. It was absolutely breathtaking.

I arrived in the park around 2 pm and got to spelunking! There were loads of caves, all lava tubes. They were pitch black, so no pictures of inside, unfortunately.

I only visited the caves marked as "beginner" because the difficulty escalates pretty quickly. In beginner caves, you can generally stand up the whole time, but the caves are pitch black. They recommend at least 2 flashlights. For intermediate, there are sections where you might have to crawl through. Generally, hardhats and shin pads are recommended for this level. At the top there was advanced, where you could easily get lost in the caves. There are also sections where you may or may not be able to squeeze yourself through.

I would have gone and done some intermediate caves, but I didn't think going by myself was a good call. I also didn't have any of the gear. That just means I know how to be prepared for next time!

Even in the beginner caves, there was something about completely cut off from the surface. There was a section in one of the beginner caves that I am not sure if you were supposed to go down and see. There weren't really ropes, so I decided to see what was down there. The diameter of the hole was probably about a foot larger than me, so it was kind of a tight squeeze. I get down there, and there is ice in the cave. Super cool. At the same time, part of my primitive monkey brain was screaming "IT IS DARK AND COLD AND YOU ARE GOING TO GET STUCK, RUN!". Even with that, it was a rush.

I also some pictographs in one of the caves. These were pretty cool, but hard to see.

I made my way back to the campsite and tried to dry out my gear. It wasn't warm in this dessert, just dry and cold. As I was airing everything out, I decided to go talk with my "neighbors" at the camp next to mine. They were a very nice couple from Seattle on vacation. We talked for a bit and were going to have a fire, but the weather had different plans. It started storming and we retreated to our tents.

I woke up early the next morning to go climb one of the cinder cones that had the fire lookout on top. I was a little chilly and decided to run up the mountain. Yea, bad plan. It is really easy to underestimate just how much climbing takes out of you, and how out of shape you really are. I eventually made my way up, and it was worth it. Full 360° view.

I made my way out of the park to head to Crater lake, but I got one last goodbye from some friends.

Lava Beds Pictures

Redwoods National Forest

Huge is inadequate to describe these guys

I made my way up 101 until I hit the redwoods. I made a quick stop to check out the waves on the beach. I had never seen the ocean churn as much as it was that day. It looked closer to white-water rapids than waves.

One of the fun things about traveling is that you never know who you will run into. While checking out the waves, I got to talking with a couple of women from Minnesota. After chatting for a bit, the subject of "do you have a job" came up. After explaining my situation, one of the women said that if I needed a job, I should go talk with her son and tell him that she sent me. Her son, it turns out, is president of Rosemount. I received an offer to go work their after graduating college, but picked Ford instead. This is what makes traveling interesting!

I decided that since it was already pretty late I would find a place to camp. I made my way through the pitch black woods on a one lane dirt road in my car, and ended up at a camp near the beach. Unfortunately, everyone else had the same idea that camping on the beach would be awesome, and all the sites were taken. I made my way back and settled at the second site. It was a meadow between a section of new growth forest and old growth.

I settled in and made my first fire for the entire trip! Everywhere else I had stayed was in their "no burn" season, so I hadn't had a chance to enjoy reading by the fire. So much fun, but firewood was $8 a bundle. Not the cheapest stuff! Plus, you couldn't gather wood (more on this later) so I settled for the one bundle and let it burn down to nothing.

Something about fire makes camping feel right.

By the light of my "not as big as I really wanted it" fire, I planned out the trails I would hit in the morning. I woke up early, drank my protein shake (for 32g of protein, not the chalky taste) and set out on the trail. It wasn't long before I found the "land bridge" I was supposed to cross.

Missing both the "land" and "bridge".

All the rain had raised the river to rainy season levels, and the path was cut off. I didn't really want to wade across the pool, so I turned back to find another trail.

The path I ended up taking was through a section of old growth. These trees were huge, as evidence by the stumps of the fallen ones.

That is my Nalgene tucked in there for scale. Not even the biggest one I saw.

This one split apart like lumber. Pretty cool seeing the different layers.

The trees actually depend on fires to clear away the underbrush and competition. They lack resin, which feeds fires, and have a damp bark. Fire can still damage them if there is enough brush nearby the tree. If the heartwood is damaged, the tree will die, but can possibly stay standing for years to come.

Holes like this are examples of "chimney trees", trees that have damaged heartwood.

This is why you can't gather wood. Trees can grow on top of their fallen brethren.

This is "Big Tree". Not the biggest, but pretty big all the same.

I made my way north to another campsite in the forest. I tried to take another path that had a "land bridge". Surprise!

Not much luck with bridges today.

The river here was pretty calm, so I decided I would wade across. That is until I got a few steps in and the rocks started to become not as stable. I also got a little freaked out when I saw little black things crawling around down there. My first assumption was that they were leaches, which made me hop our pretty quickly. Upon further inspection, I saw they were snails. Still didn't want to mess with them, so I turned back.

Got my feet wet! And maybe a little snaily.

I asked the park ranger if there was an alternate route and she gave me driving directions around the river to another opening to the trail.

A very elegant game of tree stacking.

Land bridge, from the other side.

I went back to my campsite and made some dinner. I forgot to take a picture earlier in the day, but here was my campsite. It was right by the river that the land bridge would have crossed. I eat with a father and son from Pennsylvania. The son was moving out to San Francisco because "Why not?". His dad was along for the road trip. They started up north and were working their way south. It sounds like they had had a pretty nice trip so far, but the weather was starting to interfere with their plans.

Mmmm, canned chili

It rained HARD that night. I stayed up a little reading my book, when around 8:30 you could hear this "CRACK, SNAP SNAP SNAP, BOOM". Yea, that was a tree falling in the woods. Pretty freaky. I heard two more fall that night.

I woke up the next day to continue on my travels, but my tent was soaked. I had to pack up everything in the rain as fast as I could, throw it into the car, and get on the road.

Redwoods Pictures

Point Reyes National Seashore

Taken on the way to the Lighthouse

After leaving San Francisco, I wanted to check out Muir Woods. The problem was that I left on a weekend and everyone in the greater SF area decided they wanted to check out Muir Woods as well. The overflow parking area had overflow, overflow, overflow parking. Instead of fighting the crowds, I decided to keep moving.

I took CA 1 to continue my trek north. On the way, I saw signs for Point Reyes National Seashore. I didn't really have any plans for the night, so I decided to head to the visitors center and see what was available. One of the draws to the area is the back-country camping. Up until this point, all my camping sites allowed me to park right next to my campsite. Forget to take something out of the car? It is a grueling 30 second walk to the car! The horror!

I decided that it would be fun to load up my pack and hike to a campsite. The closest available site was a 5 mile hike away. Most of the hiking that I had done on the trip had been longer than that, and not too strenuous. So, I loaded up my pack with my tent, sleeping bag, clothes, food, and probably 10 lbs. of stuff I didn't really need.

I started on the journey, loaded down and optimistic. It was really beautiful walking down the paths.

About 2 miles in, the weight of my pack started to get to me. It didn't help that I had done a spotty job tying my sleeping bag, tent, and sleeping pad to my pack; they were starting to wiggle loose. I didn't want to stop because the ground was still soaked from the rain the night before. This meant for the next 3 miles I would have to deal with it wiggling. No problem, you got this Jon!

The path, until the last mile or so, was more or less flat. Enter my arch nemesis: steep hills!

"Hillsssssssssssssss!"

At some point up this hill, my tent came loose. I had to carry it for the last half mile. I finally arrived at the campsite!

Victory!

Upon arriving, I take my pack off and as I do I hear a "rip, pop, pop, pop". Well, that doesn't sound good. I wonder what caused that? Turns out, my pack wasn't used to the weight either.

Holding on by a little piece of plastic.

Well, future Jon is going to have one hell of a time trying to get back to the car tomorrow.

My campsite came equipped with some friends as well.

Not sure what he is eating, and not sure I want to know.

This guy was about as big as a nickle and his web was on the path to my site. Sweet dreams!

I was tired after a long day. This was still the same day that I got my window fixed and went out for breakfast in SF, so I called it an early night.

I woke up to hear the park ranger come around in a truck to check the site. I scrambled out of my tent and chased him down. Awesome, the park ranger is bound to have some duct tape to fix my pack! Nope, just painters tape. I didn't even bother.

It had rained that night, so everything was soaked. My breakfast was an experiment: A can of black beans, a can of chicken, a can of tomatoes, and some hot sauce. I didn't bring a heat source, so I ate it cold. It was pretty good, but it made WAY too much for the morning. I nibbled on it for about an hour as I waited for everything to dry out and to while I figured out how I would get my pack back to my car.

My solution was to take my towel and some of the rope I had to make a backup shoulder strap. If that little piece of plastic gave out, I would have to use that backup to get me back. Not a fun thought. Luckily, that little strip of plastic was hardier than expected and lasted the entire trip back. I have since used the tape I had in my car to fix it up, until next time. Minor victory of the day achieved! I hopped in my car and headed north.

I saw a sign for the lighthouse. Since it was sunny for the first time in a few days, I decided to go check it out. The road out there was long and winding. It passed by historic farms and I even saw a few cows on the side of the road, greeting people.

The road ended up at the top of a peak. From here there were amazing views all the way down the coastline and some great pictures of the cliffs.

In order to get to the lighthouse, you needed to descend 30 stories of stairs. Going down was a pain, going up was torturous.

Stairs! Almost as bad as hills!

I thought it was worth it,

I made my way back to CA 1 to continue my journey north. I made two quick stops along the way to check out the sights.

I eventually stopped for the night in Garbersville, just past where CA 1 ends. I decided to stay in a motel because I was tired of waking up wet.

Point Reyes Pictures