Well, yesterday was an adventure......I met up with Cindy C at Mt. Lassen to hike up to Paradise Meadows, since it was a hike neither of us had done.  We did so good hiking there, we decided to head to the next spot on the trail - Terrace Lake!  The hike to Paradise Meadows was 1.3 miles (per the signpost) and Terrace Lake was "just" another 1.7 miles.  What it didn't say was that it was 1.7 miles at what felt like twice the incline than the 1.3 miles!!!  

It was a beautiful hike though, and the stops that my legs required enabled lots of photos....I didn't even pretend they were photo ops, I just needed a break.  We went as far as looking down on Terrace Lake, but it was a 0.3 mile downhill trail to the lake, which meant it was a 0.3 mile uphill hike back, and neither of us really wanted to do that to our legs!  Since the original plan called for a relatively short hike, we had water and some Kind bars with us - I should have brought the lunch that was back down in the car!

The chipmunks were out everywhere.

One of our first selfies - still early in the hike!

Paradise Meadows

Looking a bit more tired.

 

And this is Terrace Lake in the background - as close as we got!

Lassen Peak in the background

Looking a bit more worse for wear....

Hat Lake - our starting point - not much of lake, but pretty.

My watch for the hike - 4 1/2 hours, 2,089 foot elevation change, 6.85 miles.  Please note the effort was "All out"!  My feet were tired and my ankle wasn't happy at all (time for another cortisone shot??), but...this morning, I feel fine, so it didn't kill me!

By the way, if we had hiked back to our car and driven over to Helen Lake, there's a very short trail up to Terrace Lake.  Next time!!!