Day 90: Hat Creek Rim

July 18, Day 90: 1373.5-1400.1

Miles Hiked: 26.6

Gratitude of the Day: I’m thankful for my sun shirt today, it saved my ginger skin. 

It was a slow start to the day today, I started hiking at 7am. The terrain ahead was fairly flat but it was the notorious Hat Creek Rim which is known for being exposed and hot with little water for roughly 30 miles and it did not disappoint. My watch died a couple days ago so I’ve just been hiking to certain destinations or water sources and not keeping track of my pacing. That’s a habit I still have from my running days. But by noon I was at Lost Creek, the lone water source for the first 12 miles of the day. It was a steep decent into a canyon to get the water but definitely worth it at is was flowing very well and it was cold. I sat in the shade and drank 2 liters and then washed my feet. 

Then it was the long trudge back up the canyon and then another 8 miles to a water cache called Cache 22. I reached this by 5pm and I sat down in the shade with other hikers and cows. I ate some dinner and then a hiker who’s off trail but driving around supporting his trail family pulled up with a cooler of beer and soda. Beer for dinner!

I’d already done 20 miles for the day but it was cooling off and I wanted to go a little further. So I headed back down trail at 7:40pm with intentions of going another 6.5 miles to the 1400 mile marker. I got into camp around 9:30 and set up camp in the dark. The evening hike was quite stunning, I could see Mt Shasta to the north and the setting sun was brilliant, probably because of the surrounding fires.