Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Sept 6 - To Hell and Back
Sept 6, 2006
We had originally planned to use Redding as a launch point to go and check out the Redwood forests on the northern California coast. We thought that it would be easier to drive our car there as we had heard that there are some rather tricky roads on the way. 
As it turns out the roads are VERY tricky. We met some people from Quebec who had just driven the road and the guy driving said that his arms were actually sore from turning the wheel back and forth after making the three-hour drive. That three-hour drive was also an hour longer than the two hours we had projected it would be. But the final nail in the coffin for this particular outing was the fact that this road, the only road to get you there from Redding, was closed due to a forest fire! I can take a hint. No redwoods from 
northern California for us. So we switched to plan B, once again, and decided to check out Burney Falls and Lassen Volcanic National Park. We wanted to visit Lassen anyway and it turns out that the Burney Falls are not too far away. So the itinerary was adjusted and we were off. First stop was Burney Falls. Of course, it was a lovely, hot, sunny, 
cloudless day. Once again, the trip there turned out to be a beautiful scenic drive and the falls did not disappoint either. You can check the video if you’d like to see them in action. The nice thing here is that you can view them from above as well as below by taking a hike down to the river below. The falls were surprisingly loud, especially from below and we had a fun, if somewhat short visit there. We needed to get moving to make it to Lassen Volcanic National Park and still have enough time to check it out and make it back again today. We jumped into the Matrix and made it there quickly only to find that the area we 
wanted to spend time at, affectionately known as Bumpass Hell, was almost clear across on the other side of the park, another 23 miles (35 kms) 
away. It seemed a crime to rush through this beautiful, picturesque park but I think we were starting to get a little overloaded on gorgeous scenery anyway (brutal, eh?) so we pushed on through to BH. Our destination was where the most prominent bubbling mud pits are located. What we did not realize was that it was right next to Mount Lassen and that we would be climbing to about 8000 feet above sea level to get there, hence the fabulous views. We were so high … wait, let me rephrase that. We reached such an altitude (that’s better, eh?) that even into early September, after a hot California summer, there was still some snow left on the ground. And it was at least 80F (27C) the day we 
were there. Amazing! Check the video for more detail. There must have been an awfully big pile of snow there to start with if there was 
still some remaining today! The view was simply fantastic from where we started our hike to Bumpass Hell. This place got its name from a gentleman named Kendall Vanhook … yes, you guessed it … Bumpass. This gentleman had filed claim to these lands back in 1864 but on one unfortunate visit here Mr. Bumpass accidentally stepped into a boiling mud pool at approximately 240F (115C) which resulted in him losing his leg. Talk about your life coming down to basically being a warning to others. But you have to admit he was well named 
for what seemingly turned out to be his 15 minutes of fame. I mean, think about it. What if his name was Kendall Pink. Now “Pink Hell” would just not have the same effect. Or how about Kendal Holy? Very different again. But I digress. We spent about an hour and a half hiking down to the bubbling mud pits, and being very, very careful around said boiling mud pits. It didn’t take too long before Chantal and Morgan 
started getting an upset stomach because of the very strong sulfur smell, however, André-Paul and I were able to check out the entire bubbling mud pit area due to our extremely limited ability to detect fragrances. More succinctly, our noses don’t work, which I believe must be a sin qua non for any person studying of these types of geological phenomenon. We then headed back to the car, enjoying the incredible views all along the way. And then jumped in the car for our final return trip to the MoHo in time to jump in the pool and take the edge off another fabulously warm California day.
Today’s word:
sine qua non \sin-ih-kwah-NON; -NOHN; sy-nih-kway-\, noun:
An essential condition or element; an indispensable thing
