Warner Valley hydrothermal

By the time I had posted my last blog entry via the Chester library's WiFi, it was late evening so i just overnighted at the PCT TH at Domingo Springs.  Next morning decided I needed a shower and drove back to Chester for that and do my laundry and get some groceries (and coffee&doughnuts.)
Managed to do that all fairly efficiently and drove back up Warner Valley Rd to the Lassen Park gate, verifying that it was mow open, then driving back to the end of the pavement, dropping off my bicycle, then driving back into the park to to Waarner Valley Campground, leaving my car there, then walking the two miles on the road back to my bicycle then bicycling the hour's worth of mostly level road to Domingo Springs, hiding my bike at the end of that paved branch of the road and walking the few hundred feet to the PCT trailhead.  I guess it was early afternoon by then.

Most of the trail was a viewless climb and west-slope traverse of Flatiron Ridge, finally getting to a sign saying Terminal Geyser .2 miles. Nearly a whole mile downhill later, I finally got a first glimpse of steam, although I could smell it the whole time, as the trail tangentially circumnavigated a .2 mile radius for 180 degrees counterclockwise before completing the catenary toward the steam vent, not a geyser, at the canter.  It was still worth the look.

 
Continuing on, the trail passed along the east shore of Boiling Springs lake.  A trail circled around the north and west sides of the lake. It was late in the afternoon with the west side already shaded by trees, but I spent about an hour there takinglots of photos and panoramas.

The rest of the way to Warner Valley was fairly unremarkable.