30. Brokeoff Mountain

Length:	7.2 miles round trip
Hiking time:	5 hours
High point:	9,235 feet
Total elevation gain:	2,550 feet
Difficulty:	moderate
Season:	mid-July through October
Water:	available only the first 2 miles; purify first
Maps:	USGS 7.5' Lassen Peak, park brochure
Information:	Lassen Volcanic National Park

This hike offers two rewards. First, you'll travel through several plant habitats with a variety of multicolored wildflowers. Second, you'll gain an excellent view of Lassen Park and Northern California that rivals that of nearby Lassen Peak (Hike 32), but you'll share it with far fewer people. However, read the warning in Hike 32, which also applies to this journey.

Find the trailhead 0.25 mile south of the entrance station on Highway 89, which is 4.8 miles from the intersection of Highways 36 and 89 and 29.2 miles from the intersection of Highways 44 and 89.

The path begins near a willow- and alder-lined creek. After climbing through a mixed forest of lodgepole and western white pine, it reaches a marshy pond at 0.8 mile. Towering red fir begin to dominate the forest as you ascend past several small meadows. For a pleasant side trip, follow the creek at 1.3 miles north 250 yards to the shallow waters of Forest Lake.

The trail then offers increasingly open views as it heads up Brokeoff's south ridge. The final 1.1 miles, a mild ascent to the summit, pass through a weather-tortured subalpine zone, where a few stunted red fir eke out an existence among whitebark pine and mountain hemlock.

The summit of Brokeoff Mountain offers unobstructed views. To the immediate northeast, a ridge punctuated by Mount Diller, Pilot Pinnacle, and Eagle Peak stretches to Lassen Peak's flanks and beyond to Chaos Crags. Long-distance views encompass the Warner Mountains in the far northeast, Lake Almanor to the east, the Sierra Nevada marching southward, the Coast Range and Klamath Mountains to the west and northwest, and the snow-clad slopes of mighty Mount Shasta gleaming to the north.

Brokeoff Mountain, along with nearby Mount Diller, is a remnant of ancient Mount Tehama, which once soared to an elevation of 11,000 to 11,500 feet and boasted a 5-mile diameter. A combination of numerous eruptions from its sides and the action of ice-age glaciers slowly destroyed the mighty volcano. Sulphur Works, part of Mount Tehama's vent, lies 2,400 feet below and 1 mile east of Brokeoff's summit. After you finish this hike, walk the short nature trail through this hydrothermally active area (located 1.5 miles north of the Brokeoff Mountain trailhead on Highway 89).