August 3 - Hat Creek Rim

You can baaaarely see Shasta in the distance

Flat. Hooray!

Today was Hat Creek Rim day. Our first 30 miler! We left at 5:50 after downing some cold VIA (thanks Kevin!) and climbed up to the rim.

All you ever hear about Hat Creek Rim is that it's hot, burned, exposed, and there's no water for 30 miles... we were expecting an ugly walk, but it's actually absolutely gorgeous. We walked on a ridge hundreds of feet above the flat valley floor, and we had commanding views of Lassen to the south and Mt. Shasta to the north. It took my breath away. It was hot, but we had our umbrellas and there was a stiff breeze all day. We also heard somewhere that there is only one big shade tree the whole rim. Not true. There were trees everywhere! They didn't shade the trail, but since we had our umbrellas, that didn't matter.

Our first 30 miler day was also our first nap day. We stopped for lunch, then a two hour nap between 2 and 4, and still made it to camp by 7:30. We camped at a fish hatchery - another place we didn't know if we could camp, but then people who worked there drove by and waved and didn't yell at us. I really wanted fish for dinner (the pools are open to the public), but we thought we wouldn't take advantage of the hospitality. :)