Lassen Volcanic National Park

( Text up front, pictures at the bottom of this post, enjoy )

I suffered a hard drive failure on my computer, so this blog is being thrown together quickly before I leave work on a Friday. I am sorry if it sucks.

I made it back from Lassen Volcanic Nation Park. I enjoyed this park a lot. The soil was soft and easy on my joints, lots of trees meant lots of shade, and the elevation was low enough as to not be a problem. I had a blast. I hiked in 5-7 miles to rainbow lake saturday night, and then did 12-15 miles Sunday to run out to Butte lake, stopping at CinderCone and then back to the car. I can see myself heading out here again in the near future. Hopefully I can motivate some friends to come with me next time.

I made the Amaranth soup with Seitan. It was as delicious on the trail as it was at home. I really liked amaranth, and I will be using it on more trips. I was dealing with strong winds, and less than ideal fuel for my stove. Boiling lots of water was out of the question, so I used smaller chunks of glutten. It turned out a little spongy, but it is hard to make one serving of gluten under any conditions. This meal was a success.


Anyways, here are some pictures from the trip, click for bigger picture, visit my flickr page for more complete photo collection.


I entered via the SouthWest entrance

Sulphur works is closed, but here is a little guy spewing out some gases

I made my way back to the lakes from summit lakes trail head

And camped at rainbow lake

In the morning I ran out to Butte Lake, and saw this volcano called Cinder Cone along the way.

This is the view from inside the volcano. There are 3 people in this picture.

A single tree struggles to survive on the side of Cinder Cone.

A nice shot of Mt Lassen.

here are some pictures of food from the trip.

The uncooked glutten

Potato was diced fresh, but the rest of the veggies were dried from fresh at home.

Cooking over the pop can. Isopropano is a crappy fuel. And the winds weren't helping much.

Dinner is served, a wilderness version of candle lit dinner.

With the flash it looks like this. I made it with extra broth. I think it helps make the full sensation last longer.

Breakfast was porridge of corn, wheat, oat, barley, millet, and amaranth. Seasoned with honey, allspice, and cinnamon. I would walk 14 miles before I ate another meal. Better than my usual cream of rice.

Yosemite - Tuolumne Meadows

Text up front, scroll down for pictures.

I'm back from the quick trip to yosemite. The Caribbean beans and rice were declared the best meal ever by the whole crew. On the trail, the flavors were robust, and the aroma greeted us with a firm tap on the nose. Each bite with jerky was a very special treat.

One problem, I missed the cooking time goal of the meal. We would have been eating crunchy beans if I brought the alcohol stove. Cook time was over 20 minutes, but I knew going in the beans were undercooked. I just didn't realize how raw they were.


We entered the wilderness via Tuolumne meadows


this yellow-bellied marmot entertained us for 10 minutes.


like a dragon's eye watching me


while I watch the deer



Mountains rise from the flats


Lunch was hummus with sun dried tomato and basil wraps,
served with a ray of light and mountain water.
(i think this is a better picture than a bowl of hummus)

My roomie was exhausted and stayed in camp


She enjoyed time alone to reflect and eat the gummies

Clark and I did six more miles, and scrambled off trail
to get a large view of the valley in the distance.


Here clark is seen viewing the valley vista


This was a multi-ridge bonus view we caught climbing down


Last light on the valley



Dinner was prepared in the dark, so look at my other postings
to see what the food is all about.

white balance is off, but here is the dish in preparation.