We had planned to do this climb for some time and just took our chances that when we were able to do it the weather would cooperate.
This being Oregon, the answer was no. A weak cold front moved in the night before our ascent and stuck a cute little lenticular cloud right on the summit, absorbing all the views in the process. We still did the climb but for this much gain & pain, a view would have been nice. The trail seems to start out fairly level but is really beginning a relentless and ever steeper climb upward. The first 4 miles or so are in trees (which get ever smaller) and is fairly easy to negotiate.
At about 8200' you reach a sandy open spot where the clear trail essentially stops and a maze of use trails start up the volcanic ridge.
We stayed right on the ridge both up and down - there were a few spots requiring scrambling but most of it was just use trail and scree. Once on the summit, it's tempting to just head down a big scree slope to the south but this will not necessarily re-connect you with the trail. The views we could see only emphasized what we were missing by climbing in a cloud.
Reaching the summit was gratifying but our joy was somewhat dampened by the all enveloping cloud.
Certainly a climb (all 3900' of it) worth doing at least once but best done on a clear, sunny day.
PS - We followed the driving directions in Bond's book to reach the trailhead - which involved 1/2 mi of unmaintained road that would have been impassable to our passenger car if it had rained while we were out hiking. The driving directions in Sullivan's book - via Fourmile Lake - take you the whole way to the TH on good gravel roads.
PS 2 - Seems I've now climbed all of the volcanos between Lassen and southern British Columbia over 9,000' except Bachelor & Lassen itself. Lassen next year. Bachelor not so sure - I keep getting distracted by the bar at the top of the lift.
