Day 91: Hat Creek Rim
Date: Tues 7/17
PCT Start Mile: 1350.3
PCT End Mile: 1382.4
PCT Mileage for Day: 32.1
Total PCT Mileage: 1382.4
The Highlights: heat, burn areas, riverside lunch break, Old Station, and Hat Creek Rim
Last night I was convinced that Shawn was having the absolute stinkiest farts of all time… until I remembered that it was the general sulphur stink from the area, still in Lassen Volcanic National Park. This smell persisted a bit into our morning hike. Yummy.
Our hike out of the Warner Valley Campground included some short and gradual climbs before eventually flattening. The morning passed through a large exposed burn area. It grew hot very quickly.
We hiked until 12:45pm, when we reached a nice shaded spot along Hat Creek to eat our lunch, already 19.4 miles of hiking in for the day. After eating, we made our way down to the river to filter water and wash and soak our legs and feet in the cool water.
The hike after lunch remained easy, hiking mostly flat trail through patchy forest that provided intermittent shade. Though it was hot, the easy terrain lent itself to fast hiking, and we’d covered the nearly 8 miles to Highway 44 in 2.5 hours.
At the highway, we took a sharp left, detouring from the trail to head into the tiny town of Old Station. We’d spent most of our afternoon hike thinking about what cold beverages we were going to drink when we got to town.
Before leaving Chester, we’d planned to eat dinner at the Drakesbad Ranch the first night, JJ’s Diner in Old Station the second night, and arrive to Burney Mountain Guest Ranch on the third night. A pretty cushy section for dinners.
So far, we’d struck out last night, and then, reading the comments about JJ’s Diner last night, we learned that it closed by 3pm on Mondays and Tuesdays. The deli at the gas station also closed by 3pm. These were the only two places to eat, and there was no way we could get in by 3pm. Strike two.
At any rate, it sounded like the gas station had plenty of other food to purchase – and we weren’t carrying any other dinners along with us – so walked there anyway.
Arriving at the gas station, the owner was super friendly, telling us where the different cold and frozen foods were and said that if we wanted a frozen pizza, he’d cook it up in the back, about 30 minutes per pizza.
This sounded fantastic and we selected a Digiorno Supreme Pizza for him to throw in the oven. In the meantime, we purchased ice-cold iced tea fountain drinks and chips and sat outside in the shade rehydrating and cooling down. Temps now, at almost 5pm, were still in the low 90s.
Soon enough we were eating our pizza – probably the best I’d had in awhile actually – even for frozen – which we followed up with ice cream.
Before starting back to the trail, we filled our water bottles from the fountain drink machine, which the owner had urged us to do as he provided us with information about the upcoming water sources (few) as we entered the Hat Creek Rim area, a notoriously dry section of trail.
He let us know that the water cache tank was recently filled and had plenty of water, which would greatly ease our burden, and that we could also take the steep side trip to Lost Creek.
While we already knew all of the information he was providing, we were very appreciative nonetheless. We love when locals in trail towns take an active interest in the PCT and keep themselves updated with information that is useful to hikers.
On our way out of the gas station grounds, we chatted with several correctional officers. There were about ten of them, driving in 5 big white vans, transporting convicts to a different facility.
A couple of the officers were familiar with the PCT and chatted with us about it for awhile. One of them excitedly asked us if we were doing our 24-hour challenge. We were planning to do this in Oregon, but he said this was another popular section for hikers to do the challenge. We could see why – it was mostly flat and hot AF – almost wish we would have planned to do it here.
Back on the trail, we took a short detour down a side trail to the Subway Cave Lava Tube. Which, in addition to be interesting to check out, was also nice and cool. Unfortunately, we couldn’t linger as we had several more miles to get in to get to a tent site for the night.
The soft evening glow of the slowly fading sun splashed across the trail and we wound our way up the trail, making the gradual climb to Hat Creek Rim.
The sun setting behind the mountains on the opposite side of the valley from the rim where we were standing was absolutely stunning. The backlit mountains a cool blue, the sky pinks and oranges, and the dull light of the sun muting the colors of the bushes and wildflowers around us. It was beautiful.
I could imagine, in the shadeless exposure of the daylight, the views from the rim might be far less spectacular, and I was happy that we were hiking through the area with the beauty and moderate temps of the sunset hours.
Weaving our way along the rim, we eventually found a great little flat spot for our tent, with gorgeous post sunset mountain views right at our doorstep.
Already 8:45pm, we quickly set up and took care of water filtering for the morning, snapping a few more pics before settling into the tent.
Tomorrow’s hike is supposed to be very exposed, and with the high temperatures over the last week (or more), we may try to start hiking a bit earlier.
We’re looking forward to arriving at Burney Mountain Guest Ranch tomorrow afternoon, which has a pool we can keep cool in! More on that tomorrow…
