Escaping the smoke and the heat of the valley made the Brokeoff Mountain field trip worth it alone. However, the beauty of the area and the many wildflowers still in bloom added to the rewards.
We had 10 participants on this field trip, making it about the perfect size due to the narrowness and relative steepness of the trail. Brokeoff Mountain Trailhead is just south of Lassen Volcanic National Park’s south entrance. It is 3.5 miles to the top of Brokeoff Mountain; we turned around at the 2-mile mark.
This trail begins in a wetland that feeds a small perennial stream, which is perhaps the headwaters of Mill Creek. The lower section of the trail includes three creek crossings shaded by mountain alder so tall it nearly formed a canopy. At the crossings, we found columbine, arrow-leaved ragwort, pearly-everlasting, corn-lilies past bloom, cow-parsnip, and a scattering of monkeyflowers. The first creek crossing was thick with lady ferns amongst the wildflowers and rocks.
Between each creek crossing, the trail winds through a red-fir forest with a few white firs and western white pines. On the forest floor were white-veined wintergreen (Pyrola picta), Sierra gooseberry (Ribes roezlii), and many patches of pallid mountain monardella (Monardella odoratissima ssp. pallida).
Many of the red firs in Lassen Park are infected with dwarf-mistletoe (Arceuthobium campylopodum), which will eventually kill a few of the older trees. We were fortunate to find both a female and a male plant on a lower branch of a red fir, with the fruit of the female plant almost mature.
Near the end of our climb to the two-mile mark, we stopped to eat lunch by a meadow that had many primrose monkeyflowers (Erythranthe primuloides), and the drier areas beyond the meadow were filled with satin lupines (Lupinus obtusilobus). The temperature stayed under 80 with a slight breeze, making for an entirely enjoyable outing. ~David Ledger
Photo taken by Doug Mandel.