How I got to the top of Lassen Peak. And fixed my broken sunglasses there!

At the top of Lassen Peak.

I wasn’t sure I could go to the top of Lassen Peak until I met Bob.

“Maybe I’ll just hike to the Grand Vista,” I told myself. “Because I should really get on the road. And I’m tired. And the top looks so far!”

Then I passed another hiker moving very slowly up the mountain.

“Have you hiked this before?” I asked as he stopped to let me pass.

“Yes, every year!” said the 77-year-old, explaining that he had been coming to the park every August, during the sweet spot when it's not too hot and not too cold, for the past few years to summit the 10,457-foot peak. “And I’m going to keep doing it until I’m 80.”

That was cool.

Because he gave me the inspiration to not stop until I reached the top. If Bob can do it, I told myself, I can, too.

Even cooler, though, were the two girls who inspired me to hike even further than Bob.

“That’s where I stop,” he said of the last 200 feet or so of scrambling up rocks, many of them loose, to reach the very tippy top of the peak, located about a quarter of a mile from a nice flat area with amazing views where many of our other fellow hikers were happy to stop, too.

“The most amazing is when you can see Mt. Shasta,” another hiker told me on his way down from the top, explaining that I was not far from what he called “the best sign ever,” since it announced that you were only a half of a mile from the summit.

And after I passed that glorious half-mile sign, then stood at the ridge up top, soaking in the views and gazing at Mt. Shasta, which looked like a big cupcake with vanilla icing that I could reach out and grab, I started to think that I might have gone far enough. 

But then I saw two parents leading their young girls down the rocks from the summit.

“Hey, if those girls can do it, I can, too!” I decided, marching on and meeting the mom along the flat path between the ridge and rocks as she held the hand of her youngest daughter, who appeared to be about six.

“How was it?” I asked, admitting that I wasn't going to try the last section until I saw her daughters coming down. And as she began describing the difficulty of the “scramble” up, my sunglasses broke in half, one lens and ear arm falling to the ground.

“Curses!” she said, which is a good swear word to choose if you’re holding the hand of a first-grader, and I said, “Maybe my sunglasses are trying to tell me I’ve gone far enough!”

But soon I put my glasses back together and secured the broken lens with my hair band — one that I luckily found the day before and picked up because I had forgotten to bring one from home. Yes, the trail provides! — and decided to trudge on after watching the woman’s second daughter scrambling down the rocky peak with her father.

Fixed my broken sunglasses!

And while the little yellow hairband, likely belonging to another young girl, was a bit too small for my hair, it was the perfect size for securing my broken sunglasses, especially since I still needed to see out of them. And Lassen Peak is not a hike you want to do without sunglasses, especially on a bright, clear day with the sun shining off the white rocks.

Once at the top, I chatted with a couple who were enjoying the view and a celebratory beer, which the male half declared “a must!” before tackling the most difficult part of all: heading back down the steep, rocky “trail” on very shaky legs. Thank gosh for my trusty walking stick, which saved me more than once.

And speaking of that stick, it is now adorned with my first summit medallion, a sweet little souvenir sold at the park visitor’s center that luckily my friend told me about, otherwise I might never have bought it.

Because now I can look at it every day, with every next step I take with that stick, and remember not only how I got to the top of Lassen Peak, but all the cool people I met on the way.

That is very cool. 

See more of Lassen Peak in this video:

Walking across the Delaware to New Jersey!

And ss cute and useful as that little yellow hairband was, however, my favorite find on my travels was the ball cap waiting for me on a park bench in Philadelphia, just when I needed it most: while walking around Philly a few years ago without a hat on my first visit there because I didn’t think to bring one. I knew nothing about the city’s weather and planned for days much cooler than the 80-degree heatwave in May! 

But luckily on my first day of walking everywhere in the blazing sun I found a pretty cute, pinkish hat just sitting on a park bench near the Liberty Bell.  So I washed it in the bathroom sink with some soap and water and it became mine. Park benches provide!

Another cool find in Philly was a woman making “hot, fresh donuts!”