Great day today! I was a little under the weather this morning but felt better as the day progressed. After leaving camp, we took a short side trip to the Subway Cave. The Subway Cave was actually a lava tube. It was about 1/3 of a mile long, and we were able to walk all the way through it. It was totally awesome. It reminded me of the second part of the Thurston Lava Tube on the Big Island which I visited a couple of years ago. Tourist did a great photo shoot with Nips, Shameless, and I using a headlamp to create really cool streaks of light, including one shot that actually spelled out the letters PCT. Definitely worth the trip!
We spent so much time in the lava tube that Mellow and Smiles managed to catch up. They had spent the night in Old Station. After leaving the cave, we all made our way back to the trail together. The hiking today wasn't too hilly, but it was hot and rocky. The Hat Creek Rim is notorious for being a tough section. We're in the middle of a 30 mile day stretch and all left camp with at least 4 liters of water. I couldn't remember the last time I carried more than a liter or so!
I had a lot of fun today. Highlights included the water some kind people gave us when we were resting at a trail head (beer for Shameless....now you know how he got his name!), more great views of Mt. Lassen and our first views of Mt. Shasta (5,000 feet), figuring out a bet the boys had going about me (I unintentionally revealed that outcome today!), trail magic from Action Dad, and a cooler of cold sodas in the twig-loo at cache 22 that another angel left at a road crossing about 2 miles before camp. Can't beat that without a couple of rain drops!
Due to all our slacking, we rolled into camp late tonight. I think it was close to 11:00 when we arrived, and we stopped just short of the water source. However, we all have enough water to get us through the night. I walked the last 10+ miles with Tourist and we had a lot of fun. I feel like it had been awhile since we'd last had a good Peels/Tourist session. We stopped for a great salmon pesto dinner as the sun was setting. I made way too much and fortunately Tourist was able to help me out. Our final miles were filled with lots of weird dirt road crossings and they were a bit spooky. I was glad he was there. to spice things up a bit, I decided to give us a good old case of the heebie jeebies and drew on my go to scenario of coming across a random man waiting in the bushes next to the trail. As I was describing this scene in great color to Tourist, we walked around a corner and our headlamps suddenly reflected on a partial skeleton of a cow right next to the trail. Aaaah!!!! On the skeleton, someone had written, "They're all dead!" Aaaah!!!! Now we REALLY had a case of the heebie-jeebies! WE booked it out of there, but downed branches suddenly took the form of arms sticking up out of the ground, and deep depressions became mass graves. It was all quite fun, and a little extra adrenalin does wonders for sore feet, if only for a minute or so.
Tourist, Nugs, and I are stopped
for the night about 13 miles south of the highway into Burney Falls
State Park and the town of Burney. We're all planning to resupply
tomorrow. I think Nips and Wildflower probably are camped at the creek
and Mellow and Smiles are ahead. I'm not sure about Action Pack, but
we'll definitely regroup tomorrow. We're less that 300 miles and
counting from the Oregon border now.
Have a great night!
Hiya! How do you think, has your writting technique improved lately?
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