lassen1.html

Lassen National Park July 3-7 2003 cont.
drakesbad stream

Back at the camp after my hike, I took off my dusty boots and yuky stinky socks and sat with my feet in the freezing Butte Creek right behind my campsite. I think that helped... then I ate some ravioli from a can, drank a glass of wine, and sat down next to a fire with the laptop. I sat typing and typing and was interrupted shortly by two men from the campsite next door paused near me. They were laughing and when I looked over, they said "We were arguing about whether or not we were actually seeing the glow of a computer screen out here in the pristine wilderness!" I laughed, said it was indeed, and showed them the page I was working on. THey were really nice, slavic from the accent, one fair skinned man and one I assumed was Indian earlier. They offered anything I might need and said goodnight after laughing at the yuppie tied to her computer.

photots from L to R: my clothesline, the chair in Butte Creek (cold!!), and my chair, with the alcohol in a natural "cooler" next to the log.

Butte Creek campground ROCKS. it's far from the main "stuff" in Lassen, but it's only 2 miles from the park boundary on the remote north east side. Better yet, it's free. The sites are HUGE, there are only 10 spots, there are no facilities, however, but I much prefer to pee in the woods. There are vault toilets, actually, but as I said I prefer to do as nature intended with my little trusty shovel than brave the flies and stench of the outhouses. Butte Creek is a freezing crystal clear creek of alpine runoff coming down from Butte Lake 4 miles up the mountain in Lassen NP. It was just about as perfect as I wanted- small, it's easy to forget there are actually people around you, the constant loud babbling of the water and the possibility to bring your camp chair into the middle of the stream and sit there with your feet in the water to cool off in the 90 degree days. Perfect.

Saturday, 5 July 2003. Old Station, CA. 16:01pm. My laptop died on me last night, suddenly shutting down and losing everything I had written the night before, so I drove out into Old Station where I remembered seeing a little place you can pay to have a hot shower. I stopped, and sure enough, there are two electrical outlets on the side of the shower building so here I am sitting in the heat hoping nobody kicks me out while my laptop recharges. Oh, Shelby. You geek.

Today was probably one of the coolest all time things I ever did... I woke up with the intention of hiking into Jackey Lake, but the footsies were sore, and it was already 1pm when I got out of the camp. Too late, really. It's a 6 mile hike. INstead, I decided to go into Butte Lake, only 4 miles down the dirt road from my campsite. I was very rewarded! Wow!!! I hiked the moderatley easy 2.5 mile loop around two small lakes called Bathtub lakes, then over the bramble of loose lava beds to the northeastern tip of the lake where it overflows into Butte Creek. I brought along my little tube of biodegradeable soap intending to find a remote copse and bathe in the alpine water... :) I did.
creek

Butte Lake is a great site for a stay, if you don't really intend on going into Lassen NP proper, but want a relaxing family atmosphere with opportunities to hike and just to lie in the sun on the beach and swim in the freezing water. They installed flush tiolets and running water since last year, so that's a great improvement, but still no showers or hookups. I prefer my little slice of wilderness to the campground in the park, since our sites are about 4 times the size of the tiny sites in the national park.

Butte Lake is at 5500 feet elevation, and you can walk to the cinder cone- a strenuous uphill hike to the very mouth of an active lava crater. You can actually look down inside the thing. I didn't do that, probably too much for me, but opted instead for a lazier lake walk. Butte Lake is large- and very pristine, as all the lakes in the NP are- no motorized activity on them whatsoever. There are two small, shallow lakes adjacent to Butte called Bathtub lakes since the sun heats them up to warm temperatures compared to the freezing cold water of the lake. All around are the towering Pines, and in the middle of the lake a peninsula of loose lavarock just jutting out. The hike is about 3 miles round trip, you start by going up the steep hill to the bathtubs, then around behind them (where I walked up on a guy peeing, oops) it's easy to feel like you're suddenly totally alone with the wilderness- into an area they did a controlled burn on in 1998, the ashes and charred downed trees are all around you. Down into a little valley where you hike along butte creek for a ways- it's gorgeous- absolutely gorgeous- little waterfalls and rapids at your feet, so tempting just to sit down in those rapids for a while to cool off- then up hill again a short distance to the northeast tip of Butte Lake. I was totally alone there, so I felt ambitious, and quite heated, so I stripped down to my skivies on the lava rocks, and dove into the FREEZING lake water. It's crystal clear in there, all you see are tiny little chubs swimming around in the lake, rocks tapering off to ash soot a few feet off the bank. I took my little tube of soap with me and bathed quite alone in the alpine water, totally loving my wildness! Just me, the fishies, and perfectly pure mountain water and nobody to see except the trees. It was perfect! I felt much better after cooling off, you don't actually get used to the water temperature, but rather you feel numb after a few minutes in there, so it's invograting.
Back on the rocks, I dressed and hiked over the lose ramble of lava rocks around the lake to the trail directly adjacent to the water. The ramble ends and is replaced with ash instead, and closer you get to the parking lot there are more and more people in the water. I loved it! I've actually bathed in an alpine lake now. I'm so proud of myself!

Shelby, mountain queen.

It was a very fufilling day. Back at camp, I ate a can of soup, washed my gross socks in the stream and hung them up to dry on a line. That brings me to here- Old Station where I will buy more film, let the computer recharge a little bit, then go back to the site make a fire and go to sleep again in the cold air.

Ah, camping. It's a qustionable activity for me, with my relatively serious antisocial tendencies (as Bradshaw says) to take off for 5 days alone like this. I'm left to brood about a bad conversation I had with Gitlin before I left, and dream about work and whatnot alone. Even without the dog. Not sure it's so great. I miss Al, since the last time I was really out in the wild was with Al at Lake Isabella for the Leonid Meteor Shower. It was freezing- literally, well below freezing in the high desert in October, and he stayed up till the shower began at 1am while I slept in the cramped back of his VW Golf hatchback. I was getting sick, and I remember getting frostbite on my feet because I laid there with my feet touching the metal of the car through my sleeping bag all night going through kleenex like there's no tomorrow, feeling very miserable... Al stayed up for the start of the shower, but fell asleep at the peak of it while I laid there watching the sky. It was amazing... really amazing. I guess that makes me see that if you can go with the right person, I suppose it's better to have somebody else to do this stuff with. I don't have anyone, and frankly I don't want to wait to see things like Lassen till I have someone I can do these things with again. hmm.
I guess I'm just still a little stressed about the situation with one of the docs I work with. He's kind of a narcissitic jerk, and I think we really both hate eachtother. It's hard to work with him. I confronted him about some mean things he said behind my back to the staff (they all hate him, so of COURSE I hear all this stuff form them) and he was nicer than i expected. I was probably way too angry to talk to him at that point, but I didn't want it to wait till I got back, so I did a very poor job at communicating myself, didn't say what I wanted to, and ended up flaking out and getting teared up in his office so I left. Flake. I hate estrogen. I t SUCKS to be a woman. I wish I could just control the waterworks a little better. Estrogen sucks.

anyhow. No stress out here. I'm going to get back to camp now, and back to my seated spot in the stream while I drink more vino and get to sleep...

good night Lassen.

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