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I got up when my alarm rang at 5:50am, but I'd been up for almost
the past hour, not being able to get back to sleep.
It was cold again, almost as cold as the previous morning, but
at least there wasn't a thick layer of frost on the picnic table
this time. I used my headlamp, but it rapidly grew brighter and
I turned it off soon. Looking up at the sky, I was glad that there
weren't any storm clouds brewing. But I could tell it wouldn't
be as clear as the previous day. Yesterday, it'd been crystal-clear
in the morning. Today, I could see some high clouds.
I spent the next 85 minutes eating breakfast and breaking camp.
Since this was my last day here, I had to dump everything into
the car. By 7:30am, after a short drive, I was at the Lassen Peak
Trail parking area, ready to hike up Lassen Peak.
After the hike, I drove to the Lassen Chalet, where I changed
into some clean clothes, then purchased the cheesy "I Climbed
The Volcano" t-shirt. The cashier asked me if I'd climbed it,
and I told her I had, in fact, done it this morning. She asked
how it was and I complained about the haze.
Finding nothing appealing in the snack bar, I started the long
drive home. As I drove south on I-5, south of Red Bluff, I could
see that the haze was not a local phenomenon. It was so thick
in places along the freeway that visibility was less than half
a mile. It did get better the further south I drove, so perhaps
it was (as everyone seemed to think) a consequence of the numerous
brush fires in Northern California.
I stopped in Williams for 30-40 minutes for food and gas. I made
decent time, leaving the park at noon and arriving at home in
Sunnyvale at 4:40pm. I started cleaning up and putting stuff away.
I turned the calendar from August to September, and lo and behold
-- a picture of Lassen Volcanic National Park. I'm not making
this up. Not that I ever got a good look at Cinder Cone in person.
Another trip, another time.
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