MISSION SURVIVE
It was only about 33° at night and not very cold at all. I woke up in the morning after having a pretty decent sleep. I packed up, had my breakfast (without coffee), then I started the big hike back up the hill. I was still incredibly tired. I really had quite overdone it the previous day. Would I have enough energy to get home? Without coffee?
The photo is from Kings Creek Cascades. As you can see, it was mostly frozen also. If you look closely, you can see animal tracks going down to the creek where the water is flowing. It is one of the very few places one could get down to get some water. I have no idea what kind of animal, but I saw a few tracks similar to this along the creek. Perhaps deer, but I did not see a distinctive hoof print in the deep snow.
It is a big ascent from Kings Creek Falls back to the road and I had just enough water to make it. I filled up with water, going down the same steep and sketchy section to the creek. Now I would have enough for the rest of the hike. After this first ascent, most of the hike back to Mill Creek Falls was downhill. From Mill Creek Falls, however, it’s another two and a half miles with a lot of up and down hiking. When you are very tired, it’s a very hard hike. You feel every little up. In painful agony. It took quite a bit of time. But at least now, the trail was very well trodden. A lot of people had been here in just one day.
I saw a quite a few hikers on the trail. None of them seemed too friendly and did not say much to me, even when I tried to say anything to them. Is it because of COVID? Well, at least all the tracks in the snow made the hiking a bit easier. I finally arrived back at the parking lot at 3PM. The parking lot was completely full. I couldn’t believe how many people had come up for the day to Lassen. Every one was hanging out (too) close together in the parking lot, and not wearing masks. Compare that to the people I passed on the trail. They were wearing masks and freaking out when I passed them (so it seemed). Shouldn’t it be opposite? It was an interesting and difficult backpacking trip in magnificent Lassen Volcanic National Park.