By Amy Pino

Not many people can say they’ve felt the ground-shaking rumble of a volcano in action right beneath their feet. The students and teachers that attended the Mt. Lassen camping trip last year had that amazing experience.

“I believe in experiential education,” said Sam Horton, which explains why he loves spending time leading a fearless group of students through caves, volcanic depressions, and lava tubes. “Seeing steam spitting out of a mini geyser, it’s hard not to feel connected to the earth in that way,” Sam said.

There was a lot of excitement surrounding the trip this year, with both returning and new students signed up. Sam had planned a similar trip to last year’s, with many of the same breathtaking experiences, including a hike through the spectacular hydrothermal features of Bumpass Hell.

Sam, who has been visiting Mt. Lassen since he was ten years old, described one of his favorite parts of the trip, which is laying down in a volcanic depression and looking up to see all 360 degrees of the rim.

Unfortunately, many students had to drop out due to a variety of reasons, and the trip was cancelled.

Senior Miles Levin was especially disappointed about the cancellation because this was his last year to go. He was looking forward to doing some time-lapse photography on the trip, something he is “super into.” He was hoping to do a time-lapse of the Milky Way. Miles explains, “Lassen is a zero light pollution zone, and there aren’t that many ‘dark zones’ in California.”

Hopefully the trip will be held in the future, so many more students can experience “feeling the ground rumble”!

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