Winter Adventures in Northern CA

On the long list of things to love about living in the Bay Area is that even when it's 70 degrees outside in February you can get to some snow in only 4 hours. Last weekend the kayak guy and I rented some snowshoes at REI (only $16 for three days) and headed north to Lassen Volcanic National Park. Up until a couple of weeks ago I had never heard of Lassen, it's on the eastern side of the northern tip of the Central Valley. The volcano last erupted in 1917, not that long ago and hot sulfur mud pots still bubble up in places. The snow was about 5 feet deep and the piles along the plowed road dwarfed the Ultimate Driving Machine as we climbed up to about 5,000 feet. The air was wonderfully clear and the bright sun and snow contrasted starkly with the dark redwoods and volcanic rock of the peaks. We parked in the designated snow play parking area just inside the Southeast gate, strapped on our snow shoes and headed up the unplowed main park road. At the start we saw a few other cross country skiers and evidence of other snowshoes headed up one of the trails. Not wanting to wander off up the steep hillsides in an area we were unfamiliar with KG and I stuck to the park road which afforded wonderful views. The road though unplowed had been packed down by some sort of Snowcats or other snow vehicles so the snowshoes weren't really necessary but it was a nice walk. After about twenty minutes we came to a trail junction where a large group of older skiers who had stopped to put down their large backpacks and rest. Winter camping is not for me but they looked to be having fun. The road went over a small creek right there and some fumaroles were hissing steam up out of the rocks. After passing the group we were truly alone, no other people could be seen or heard, not even an airplane or a highway. After another hour or so clouds came in and a light snow started to fall. We stopped on a rocky outcrop for some lunch then talked about heading back. Most of the way the slopes on both sides of the road were too steep to even think about taking off cross country. However there was one bend in the road where the land sloped gently down across a field of snow back toward where we had started. So when we got back to a place that looked like a manageable walk we left the road and snowshoed across the snow. This is what snowshoeing really is meant to be, except I think our snowshoes were a bit small for the type of snow and we fell in up to our thighs in the softer spots. Eventually we came to the stream that the road had crossed earlier and saw the piles of snow had made the banks about 10 feet high with no obvious way down or across. After some searching the kayak guy found a trail marker and a bridge piled with snow. The snow at the top of the bridge was only about two feet wide, plenty of room for hiking boots but a bit precarious on snow shoes. We made it safely across then had a long steep climb back up to the parking lot. I was exhausted but also thrilled to have spent a winter day in such a beautiful place. The drive back was long and tiring. For a change of scenery we took the smaller roads through the central valley, stopping in Chico for some coffee and getting back home after dark. Overall a long tiring trip but well worth the drive. It's easy to forget living in warm, sunny California that the snow can be so beautiful, so quiet and so much fun.