What a day we had today. We slept in this morning because we’ve been feeling pretty tired the past few days. We were hiking by 8, but by then it was already getting hot. The trail today took us along the Hat Creek Rim, a relatively flat segment along the edge of a cliff overlooking the valley below. The area is a huge burn area, so while we had great views, there was little shade. To top it off, there is no water on the rim, so the day was dictated by long water carries, steep descents to refill, and water caches left by trail angels.
Mount Shasta appeared on the horizon ahead of us, growing more prominent through the day. In the meantime, Lassen Peak and the Chaos Crags were visible behind us, slowly fading with the miles. This is probably the only day we will be able to look at both peaks, and we’ll be looking at Shasta for a couple hundred miles now.
In the afternoon, we stopped for a long break in the shade near the last water cache, with 13 miles to go to the next water. 9 miles later, we happened upon an unmarked water cache of just 8 gallons. We filled up, then walked 2 more miles to camp for the night. We walked 27.7 miles today. We each drank over 2 gallons of water and hardly peed all day! This is like the desert all over again! Fortunately, we have just 14 miles to town tomorrow, and were looking forward to the rest.
