We attended our first Lance ralley ever this year. It was the 9th annual rally held at Shingletown/Mt Lassen KOA Holiday. What a wonderful kampground and very nice bunch of people!

Day 1

We drove up I-5 through California’s Central Valley and encountered the usual traffic along the way in Stockton and Sacramento. But as soon as we got past Woodland all the traffic just seemed to disappear. We didn’t even see the trucks leave the freeway, they were just… gone. We stopped for lunch at Granzella’s in Williams and then finally arrived at the KOA at 3:15pm.

We were warmly greeted by both the KOA staff and the Lancer’s who were organizing the rally. This rally is put on by the Lance Owners of America and is only one of many. Lance campers and travel trailers have a very small and loyal following. I got the trailer levelled and set up (with not a little help from Cristy) then went and got the T-shirt I had orderd, got a raffle ticket, and then we took a nap. Usually one of the first things we do on a travel day. The day ended with an appetizer pot-luck and introductions. We were the only new people so only we got introduced!

Day 2

The next day was a free day so we took off and went up to Mt. Lassen National Park. I haven’t been there since I was 12 or so. We took our time and stopped at the Loomis Museum and Ranger Station at the north entrance to the park. It was only a 15 minute drive from the campground. We took a walk from the ranger station down along Manzanita Creek down to Manzanita Lake. A quick 15 minute walk. Then we set off along Lassen Peak Highway.

We drove along until we came to Summit Lake and got out to stretch our legs a bit. It was pretty but there really weren’t any trails so we moved on.

We drove on and finally stopped at Kings Creek Trailhead. It was lunch time and we were ready to eat. We walked down to the creek and found some nice rocks to sit on next to a small cascade in the creek.

We continued on up the highway, and I do mean up. We took time to stop at some pull outs and admire the views.

Finally we made it up to the summit. We were determined to see how high up the summit trail we could hike. We made it from the parking lot to the sign that said, “Summit Trail” before we decided to turn back. A couple of flatlanders attempting to climb the summit of Mt. Lassen with no preparation, what could possibly go wrong. We decided that the truck was an excellent mountain climbing vehicle and we had made it as high as we were going to go. Incidentally if you zoom in on the picture on the right, you will see the foolhardy souls who opted not to drive their truck up to the summit. Also, that rocky point in the picture on the left is NOT the summit, it is quite a bit higher than that.

At this point the road finally started sloping downward. It was a very short drive to Helen Lake. I had a lot of fun telling people we drove to Helen, took some pictures. It makes more sense if you say it out loud.

Our next stop (about 500 ft away) was Bumpass Hell Trailhead. I will cut to the chase and say we did not hike all the way to Bumpass Hell but we did make it about half way until the altitude and lack of water got to us and we turned back. Still there was some beautiful scenery (and shenanigans) along the way.

Our last stop before turning around and headed back down the highway was the Sulphur Works. It gives you a small preview of what Bumpas Hell is like but without the hike.

And that was about all we had energy for. We made the hour and 20 minute drive back to our campground, cooked dinner, and watched Thursday Night Football. All in all a great 2nd day!