Red Lassic

Six Rivers National Forest

(map link)

My very last planned hike on my very last day. The goal: get to the top of Red Lassic. It's not a very long hike. There would also be one more chance to find little pink lupine in bloom. On the way, I planned to stop by a couple of small ponds. I started from camp, since it is almost to the 2WD starting point anyway.

Red Lassic looks cliffy from camp.

The spring fed pool at camp. It's a reason not to stay here if there isn't much other water.

A rough road splits off from the main road and leads to the upper pond. I followed this up and to that pond.

More rugged looking side of Red Lassic.

The pond at the end of the road next to the Mount Lassic Wilderness.

Access to the pond is protected by a low growing buckbrush.

I wandered to the edge and didn't see anything special. I dipped in a clean bag to see what that might reveal. There's loads more in there than at first glance.

There are little swimmers in here, but this isn't the ideal way to see them.

In the water, tadpoles

and milky backswimmers.

I turned away from the water and followed a faint path up to a saddle above, then turned to climb Red Lassic. Not all faces of it are steep rock and I'd got around to an area where there's a number of thin trails winding upward toward the peak on steep, but not anything like vertical, ground.

Not far to climb for this little peak.

Could this snow so near the top actually represent avalanche activity? Broken trees beside the snow patch.

Brewer's rockcress

Western waterleaf

One of a small patch of glacier lilies still in bloom!

Even more snow to navigate. I marred it with footprints going up, but came down without adding to the disgrace.

I went up up up and found myself on a peak. I couldn't help but notice that the snowy Trinity Alps had been lost to view after a couple days without any rumbles and the sky washing with them. Also, it was a false peak. Whoops.

The view past Black Lassic on the far left.

The real peak.

I had to find a way down and around a surprisingly deep little saddle at the top. People have come up here often, so there are trails through the vegetation for all of it.

Shriveling flowers on a pale-yellow stonecrop.

At the actual peak.

The view across Mule Ridge is a delightful collection of more ridges. Goat Hill to the right.

The rest of the Lassics from Red Lassic. Black Lassic on the right is much more striking than Mount Lassic stretched across the left.

Then I headed back down Red Lassic, not at all hitting the same trail I came up.

The slopes of Red Lassic where the climbing is easiest.

The most unusually brief flowers of a Pacific corralroot orchid.

Then it was on to another chance to see the Lassics lupine. Most the population is on Mount Lassic, but there is a patch the size of a garden on Red Lassic. It is lower and in a warmer aspect, so could already be blooming although those above weren't even budding. Unfortunately, the shade of nearby Jeffrey pine may be essential to them for surviving the hottest part of the summer and half of those pines were killed by the 2015 Lassics Fire. Based on a description of the location, I made my way along the slopes. A picture didn't seem to line up, but the description made a lot of sense.

The burn on the warm southwest slopes.

You better believe my shoes were clean of seeds before I went. I followed a faint but steady trail down to what looked like the right area and indeed it was and indeed those little lupine survive and indeed they were in bloom! Some were even on to seeds already! There was a very distinct trail among the flowers and I stuck strictly to it.

One of three tufts of flower on a caged plant.

Another caged plant in seed. These won't grow in your garden.

Not all of the plants are in cages. It isn't enough just to avoid cages.

Then I returned up the hill on the faint but constant trail taking note of a few other flowers that live in the area.

A pollinator in flight past the mountain blue penstemon it was pollinating.

That mountain blue penstemon up close.

A bumble bee at work at some more buckbrush.

Then off to a scarlet fritillary already occupied by aphids.

They're not all infested.

And some are looking very enthusiastic indeed.

I took the rough road back down to the main road, then just a short way to where there probably was a road once and sort of followed that down to the other pond that sits below Red Lassic.

Some very happy looking goosefoot violets.

Sonoma chipmunk freezing to invisibility. And it worked! It wasn't captured by the predator it spotted!

Looking down on the pond below the main road.

I wasn't expecting to notice anything interesting in this pond, just like all the previous ones. It has been fenced with both a slat fence and an electric fence. They both go just around one end for some reason.

The pond with its fencing.

The slats of the failed fence give a nice place to stand while looking into the water of this pond. There was immediately something interesting to notice in this water.

They're not brine shrimp, but they are a sort of fairy shrimp.

But a still image can't capture the cool of these little critters, so I took a video.

An aquatic garter snake came over to stare at me...

before swimming back off across the pond.

A forktail settles among the reeds.

Eventually I headed back up to the main road and over to camp once more.

Still too late for this kind of fawn lily.

As I drove out, I found a trail crew heading down the Mount Lassic Trail. Are they already done with Blue Jay and Red Mountain? I'm not sure they're the same ones.

I checked my tires before hitting the pavement to find the left rear was flat. That'll be the motivation to stop thinking it is nearing time for new ones and get some. My biggest complaint as I looked around for rocks to put under the other tires while I lifted that corner was the heat of being in the direct sun. There weren't a lot of rocks nearby, but there was a collection of three pretty good ones near the stop sign. I'm not the only one to stop here and change a tire.

It didn't mar my feeling that all was right in the world.

*even more photos in the album*

©2023 Valerie Norton
Written 21 Jul 2023
Edited 7 Aug 2023