This past weekend I went camping with Michelle and Edward. Not just wussy car camping though.  Instead, we went hiking through Lassen VOLCANIC National Park. It takes about 4 hours to make it to the park from Davis, so we left early on Saturday morning. Once in the park, we decided to hike around Butte Crater, up the cinder cone (800 steep feet of scoria), and then onto Snag lake. The scenery was surreal. At the beginning of the hike, the cinder-cone dominated our view. Once we made it up the cinder cone the view of all of the volcanic stuff (yes, that is the correct term) was amazing. We hiked a total of 9 miles the first day, and decided to spend the night on the edge of Snag lake. Instead of sleeping in a tent like normal human beings, the three of us slept outside under the stars. The view was amazing, but it got a bit cold during the night, When we awoke in the morning, our Nalgene bottles were frozen solid, and there was ice on the edge of the lake (we all guess that it went to about –5’C over night) . In the morning we took it easy, before hiking the final 6 miles around Snag Lake and then back to Butte Lake.  Northern California keeps on surprising me!

The picture is of Michelle and Edward, still happily asleep. The white stuff on the ground is frost.