Sundial Bridge
Me on top of Mt Lassen
Looking out over the devasted area from the north ridge of Lassen
Burney Falls
Glass Mountain
Welcome to Oregon!
Wizard Island
The Cliff Dive into Crater Lake
Edit: This is rather dry and factual. I think I had gotten a little tired of typing after an afternoon of catching up on photos and stories.
A few selected photos for my first update....
This is a very condensed version of what I've been up to for the last week or so. For the full story, go to www.tweak.net.au/pics2 and look for the particular story you want more info on. (More pictures there too)
I drove out of San Jose tuesday afternoon, and given the hour, didn't feel that I'd make Lassen that day. I decided that I'd try and check out the Sierra Nevada Brewery in Chico on the way instead. It was lame. The beer is still good, but the tour was dissappointing. I drove on to Redding the next day, and saw their brand new and most excellent sundial bridge. On to Lassen, climbed the peak, then left.
After a slightly rough first night, with mosquitoes, and a bit of fear for the first night out, camped on the side of the road, I now had the system working well, and headed north past Glass Mountain, a superb and very different geologic point of interest. It's a ridge of Pumice and Obsidian, with nothing but a dirt road and a sign that says no rock collecting.
Lava Beds was next, with it's collection of lava tube caves. They are quite pretty, but I can't really imagine doing much serious caving in them, they are generally linear, and very very rough. Some nice lava features though.
Jumping off a cliff into Crater Lake's beautiful blue waters was a delight, and so was turning up at Smith Rock at sunset, and wowing at how much bigger it was than I'd imagined.
Climbing Monkey Face, one of my goals for the week, on the first day there was cool, but getting stood up by the same guys the next morning wasn't so cool. Meeting Tom and his son, Matthew from Montana was cool, and watching thirteen year old Matthew working a 12a was neat. I got to climb some good hard topropes with them, and they've offered to show me a bunch of local climbing in Montana when I get there.
Getting a cloudy day to sit under a tree by a creek and type and look at pictures was a welcome change from the sweltering heat of Smith Rock.
And there you have it, the very brief version of the last week and a bit. From here, I'm headed to the Olympic Peninsula, Hell's Canyon, Glacier National Park, then Bozeman, Montana to meet up with Tom and Matthew again.
Sundial Bridge | Me on top of Mt Lassen | Looking out over the devasted area from the north ridge of Lassen | Burney Falls |
Glass Mountain | Welcome to Oregon! | Wizard Island | The Cliff Dive into Crater Lake |