Cold Boiling Lake is one of those things that sounded cooler on the map than it did in person. Located near Bumpass Hell, the lake is a part of the active geothermal system in Lassen National Park. The lake gets its name from the cold gaseous bubbles rising to the top of the boiling lake.
The last time I tried to tackle the Cinder Cone was exactly a month ago, and my attempt failed. This time, we started from the Butte Lake trailhead which lead to a much shorter approach. Due to an accident on I-5 the night before, we got into camp extremely late and needed to be home that evening. We had to cut our hike short and only ended up going to the Cinder Cone instead of doing the full loop to Snag Lake and to Butte Lake.
Really long days like this happen when I try to jam pack a lot of things into a short amount of time. I started at the Summit Lake trailhead where our campsite was. My intention was to go all the way out to the Cinder Cone (which I will be tackling this weekend), back and down around the whole Clusters Lake loop. It didn’t happen. It ended up being an out and back past Echo Lake, two unnamed lakes, Upper & Lower Twin Lakes, and Rainbow Lake to just a mile short of the Cinder Cone near the Fantastic Lava Beds and Painted Sand Dunes. This trail loops around Lower Twin lake and connects with the Pacific Crest Trail so you can opt to take that for a bit of a change of pace on your way back.
I had accidentally stopped by Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park and headed up the Big Sur River Gorge last summer when we stopped too early in an attempt to do the Tanbark Trail & Tin House loop at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. I mean, the names are confusing. Really.
The last time I was here, we made it up the river to the swimming hole, but opted to come back at a later time to jump in. I was determined to check this place off my bucket list! And this weekend, I did. Headed down to the park on a hot Sunday morning with some friends. We were afraid it would be foggy and cool, but the fog quickly burned off to reveal blue, blue skies for a marvelous trek up the river.
The Icebreaker Aero Tank makes me want to shave my armpits. Wait, what? Let me back it up a bit. I’m a fan of keeping things simple, fast, and easy. I’m not a fan of shaving my pits; it’s just so much more time consuming in the shower! But this tank makes me want to, so I’m not terrifying you with underarm bush while we’re on the trail.