From the wonderful book by W.N. Davis page 35: "In the return to Lassen's, which the party reached on May 24th, the Pit River was followed south to the bend below Big Valley, from which point the men crossed the country beyond Hat Creek and, along the headwaters of the north fork of Battle Creek, advanced into the valley."

Swartzlow page 23: "Fremont then returned to Lassen's Ranch by a different route than that he had followed northward, crossing the Cascade range immediately north of the present Lassen Peak."

--- In overlandtrails@yahoogroups.com, "Wendell Huffman" wrote:

>
> > >1846 route of John Fremont's was very easy to follow with the
> amount of
> > >horses he had.

> > I'd sure like to learn more about Fremont's route(s) from Lassen's
> ranch to Klamath Lake and back in 1846. For some reason I think
they
> returned a different way than they left--that is, one way via Cow
> Creek and return via Hat Creek and north fork of Battle Creek.
From my
> notes on that I can't tell whether this notion comes from Ruby Johnson
> Swartzlow's, "Lassen, his life and legacy" (Mineral, California:
> Loomis Museum Association, Lassen Volcanic National Park, 1964), p.
> 23, or William N. Davis, "Sagebrush Country" (New York: Garland,
> 1974), p. 35. If they indeed went and returned on different routes,
> there were two routes we can actually place Lassen on before his 1848
> opening of "his" trail.
>
> Wendell
>