Made some coffee this morning for Soho and me.   Decided to ram down some dehydrated eggs for breakfast (good choice!)   While we were packing up, this doe kept nosing around our camp.   She is not timid.   Came within 10 feet and wouldn’t scare.    I walked over to a fallen tree and took a piss and she follows me and starts licking it up.   Apparently they are jonzing for salt.   

Another big day.   Going to bust out 27 again.   Got 4k up and 5k down on this one.  

Good news is that there is plenty of shade.   Bad news is there are not too many vistas.   In one clearing I did get a good look at Shasta.   Now that is an impressive dormant Volcano.   It is 14k feet high and I think most of the surrounding hills are less than 6k   Check out the clouds bunched up around the top.     

Mostly I either get shade and no views, or logged areas that look like a wasteland.

There is a dude ahead of us named Trent who is riding northbound on a horse.   Well horses.  One of them is a pack horse and the other he rides.   I think he switches between them.   He told us at Burney that he does 3 to 5 days, then meets his Mom with the horse trailer to resupply and give them a rest.   It is good to see a few trying to horse it on the trail.   He is probably a day in front of us.  

What isn’t so good is that their is fresh horse shit all over the trail that I have to dodge.    The biggest bummer is when there’s a particularly steep / tricky bit of trail.   I’m out of breath, legs burning, at the top and there is a big pile waiting for me to step in.   Apparently horses like to relax the anus after every big climb.    Trent is leading two of them, so double the fun.  

Not much happened most of the day.   Just tunes and walking.   Stopped at this view for a bit and ate a snack in the afternoon.   While I was sitting here Soho shows up.    We are chatting away when we hear a pine cone fall near us.   Then another.   After a while another one falls.   I get up and look around and can’t figure out where they are coming from.   I figured a squirrel was doing his thing.   Well, after another falls closer to us, I put on my pack and make some joke about the Squirrel Prince of the forest trying to drop one on us, when Jackalope steps around the corner.  

Apparently he was 15 feet up the trail resting when we stopped.   He just sat there throwing stuff at us.    It was funny.   We spent some time catching up.   He is trying to make Dunsmuir by Sunday morning and we are aiming for the afternoon.    

While catching up, Land Mammal shows up.   I haven’t seen him since Walker Pass at 650 or so.   He is trying to catch up with Rise and Shine, Snakebit, Cake, and the others.   He says they are only a couple days ahead.    Apparently Shine’s parents visited them a few weeks back and left her dog who is now hiking with them.    They are slowly building up pace again, but right now keeping it to 15 or so.    Apparently the dog got into a skunk last week, so by the time they got into town everybody smelled the same.   I think that is over the top even for hiker trash.  

I left the guys early and hit the trail.   I’m usually running slow on the hills and wanted to get this over with.  

Made camp at 8 with a couple of other hikers.   There is a doe hanging around this place too.    Skeeter’s are all over the place, so I zipped up and cooked in the tent.   Ate and crashed.   This was a long day, but did make the 27 miles.   

The ball of my left foot is killing me.   Got some kind of bruise there.   These extra miles are going to hurt.  

 

While at Old Station, I had a brief exchange with Steph and her crew from Portland.   They are aiming to link up with us on August 19th in Oregon and hike into the Jefferson wilderness to catch the eclipse.   Here is a bit of the exchange: 

Thanks for the pep talk, RIch.    I’ve been thinking about what it means to do a 20 mile/day average and it means going a lot faster than we have been.   Even with 20+ / day on the trail, the town day to rest/recover brings the average down to 15 to 18.    So we need to turn in better performance to make it in time.  

Today will be one of the tests.    26 miles is the goal.  

Stopped briefly at Burney Falls to snap a picture, then kept hauling. 

It was mostly green tunnel stuff on this hike.  Thankfully, we are well past the lava rock misery.   Forgot to mention that yesterday we saw Paul roll into the Ranch.   He was last seen at JJ’s double fisting beers.    Turns out that he was hauling ass on Hat Creek Rim, tripped, and face-planted on the basalt.   He had a 1 inch wide scrape from his forehead, over his nose, to his chin.   He basically looked like someone drove a car over his face.   Wish I got a picture of it.  

Anyway, the trail is soft and wide.    Lots of shade, but nothing much to look at besides trees.   The trail was over grown in a lot of places, so much so, that I couldn’t even see my feet.   That made for some interesting stumbles.    On a positive note, my feet actually fit in my shoes now.    There is actually some padding now between my foot and the rocks and as an added bonus I actually have some tread.   I should have changed these out 200 miles ago.  

This was an interesting lake below Burney falls.   They are dumping water pretty fast out of here.

   

Ran into a gal named “Flame”.   She and I crossed paths in the desert before Kennedy Meadows.   She flipped up North and is now south bounding.   Her Dad joined her for a week of hiking.   They are doing about 15 a day.   We visited for a while and swapped some stories.   

Made camp at about 7:30 that evening at Clark Spring.    Tent up, ate dinner, and collapsed.   This was almost a 27 mile day.   

Today was a lounging day.   I was planning to go into town to resupply, but after looking over the contents of the store at the ranch, I found all I needed.    

Found a my box with my new treads.  I’m now comfortably equipped with size 12 LA Sportiva’s.    My old shoes did about 700 miles and held up surprisingly well.   Now they go to shoe heaven.  

Lot of hikers coming in/out of here.   Most stay for a day, some for 2 days.   Soho and I were talking to a really trippy dude named Megaman.  

Megaman used to be an amateur boxer and was raised uber-Mormon.   While he was on his missionary gig (I guess it is 2 years), he decided it wasn’t for him and ran away.   He had a big bag of nuts to eat.   Meanwhile 30 Mormons and the cops were looking for him.   His parents told the cops he was a suicide risk.   I suppose there was some truth in that, because he later got hospitalized because he ate too many of the same nut and got some kind of poisoning.

So now this dude is on his own hiking the trail.   Because he (now) believes one should control his own fate, he does not want to grow old and die of Cancer or whatever.   He has decided instead that at age 40 he is going to Alaska and pick a fight with a bear.   Mano a Mano and see what happens.   Someone should implant a go pro in this guy’s forehead and sell the footage.    

 

Taking off early tomorrow morning.   I’ve been writing blog posts, but this place must be on a satellite Internet connection.    Downloads are fast, but uploads are incredibly slow.   Have to post at the next stop.  

 

Woke up to the sound of cows roaming around our campsite.  They dropped some fresh pies for tonight’s hikers to enjoy with their empty tank of water.  Packed up quickly and got out.   

After a mile or two I passed our “alternative” water source.   A pond full of cow shit.    

Too bad I cannot blog the smell, it was really, really special.  Found out later that Jackalope tore through here last night and got water from an adjacent pond.   He said it was better…fewer cow pies.   Uhh, I don’t think so.   I think I’d rather die. 

Had another 10 miles worth of crappy lava rock trail.   Once in a while it would seem I was getting back into dirt only to be hit with a bunch of lava pebbles and toe stumpers.    

 

Once we left the rim, the trail dropped down into a stream bed.   I think this is one of the streams feeding the FAMOUS Baum lake.   Scrappy, Soho, Sing Song, and another dude named Mike were hanging out here.  I had 1 liter left and didn’t want to get sucked into lounging.   Told Mike I was going to check on my Lake.    He said he was going to pee in it and make it his own.   Hmm…I better hurry ahead then.

Walked past the fenced in Baum homestead, past the Baum hydroelectric power station, to the lake access.   The excitement is building.   It must be a gigantic body of water supporting all sorts of water sports.  

Finally I got to the vista looking over my lake.   It turns out it is really just a big swamp.   Figures.

My lake turned out to be such a bust that I didn’t even bother getting some water there.   I was dry for the next 3 miles to Burney Guest Ranch.    I was pretty thirsty when I finally arrived.

This is has been one of the nicest spots to stop on the trail.   The owners are super hiker friendly.    They have a tiny general store filled with EXACTLY what hikers need to resupply.    The ‘fridge is full of soda, gatorade, and ice cream.   All this is run on an honor system.   You grab a sheet and fill out what you use, then settle up before leaving.   

Susan, the owner, gave me a cup of sherbet and the lowdown on the place.    Soho and I will be staying a couple of nights.   Nice gal, save for all the preachy Jesus stuff.   Later I found out that Papa Bear and her went to the same High School in Carson Nevada.   She reluctantly names some of her friends and it is clear from Papa Bear that this was a nasty crowd.   Her ex boyfriend spent a lot of time in the pokey.   She is a gal of extremes.  

They have a huge dining room/rec area done up very tastefully.   There is a laundry, pool, nice deck in front.   All the fix’ins for a good lounge spot.

Passed the day on the front deck chatting.   I watched Jackalope consume two fresh Mountain Dew cans and two ice cream sandwiches together in less than 10 minutes.    On my 3rd or 4th Soda I found out that the famous Optimistic Turtle was here!  

Wrote about her earlier.   She is all over the water report sending in updates about the streams and water caches.   Given all the snow, you can just about assume every known creek is running, but our trail reporter seems compelled to tell us  “Good Flow” anyway on the water report.    Soho and I have been joking about meeting up with here for weeks now…..and there she is.    We told her she’s wrong about the 500 gallon tank on Hat Creek Rim.   Sure enough, she whips out her phone and starts furiously typing in an update.

Her trail name came from her boyfriend.   Apparently she kept saying they would do “20 miles” that day but instead turned in 10.   She took off shortly there after.  The turtle will be phoning in reports of flowing water ahead of us.

It was a 17 miler today.    Susan is laying out yet another all you can eat buffet for us.  Going to Zero tomorrow.   

                        

 

 

  I didn’t get any water at my lake….my disappointment over

 

 

 

Had a great sleep.   We were camped a few feet from Hat’s Creek which is flowing fast and furious over some cascades.   I’m finding I like to sleep next to that white noise.   Or maybe it is the “negative ions”.  

On second thought, I think exhaustion is the likely explanation. 

Anyway, Soho got the jump on me today.   Our destination is JJ’s and I think he is inspired by the potential breakfast/lunch combo.   The rest of the folks were still in their tents, apparently uninspired.

Trail was generally flat and boring.   Which is fine by me.   I want my French Toast ASAP !

The Hiker Hunger thing is creeping up on me again.   I last felt it after doing about 3 weeks straight in the desert.   Food.  It becomes one of the primary topics in my hiking thought chain.   Footstep placement, French Toast, View of surroundings, French Toast, Playlist selection, FRENCH TOAST.  Man this 7 miles is taking forever. 

Got to 1374, walked the highway, and found JJ’s.   Soho was there already with his order in.    I ran into a German Couple that I haven’t seen for a while, Ironman and Mashed Potatoes (aka ‘taters).   Last saw them near Acton.   Joined them for the breakfast and lunch combo.    

They are a South bounding for a bit, then jumping up to Ashland and going North again.   They have some convoluted plan to hike the High Sierra in September.   Hopefully I’ll see them again in Oregon.   They are a nice couple.  

Iron Man gave us the 411 on the Burney Guest Ranch, which is our next destination.   Good place to stay, good resupply, a little too heavy on the Jesus thing.   He was particularly bummed that no Beer was allowed there.   Hmm, I share his bummage.  

After my mega breakfast, I had a milk shake.   Iron man finish his breakfast, then ordered lunch.  We were all doubling down.

We headed over to the gas station for a couple snacks to pack out and Soho ran into a gal he hiked with in the Desert named Jitterbug.  She is hanging with some other guys Lost and Found, Polar Bear, and another dude.   They went through the High Sierra’s.   I can tell these folks are doing big miles now.   They have the look.

Before hitting the trail we walked through the “subway” tunnel.   It is a 1000 foot long lava tube.  Pretty neat diversion.

The next 41 miles is known as Hat Creek Rim and does not have much water.  It is a long plateau of basalt that was barfed out by Lassen during its last eruption.   There is a reliable water cache halfway through that most of us are depending on.   Some locals setup a 500 gallon tank and keep it filled at mile 1391.   According to Iron man, who just traversed it, there are 300 gallons left in it.   He mentioned something about pushing down on the spigot to get the water to flow.   That registered as suspicious to me, but I let it go when another local at the gas station said he checked it yesterday and there was plenty of water.

Turns out they were all wrong, but I wouldn’t find out until I got there.  

Since there is plenty of water waiting for us in 15 miles, I downed a liter from the town’s water spigot and filled up 3 liters for the journey to save weight.    Going to hit the cache dry tonight.  

This segment absolutely sucked.    The climbing was exposed.   The sharp lava rocks are killing my feet because my shoe’s padding is non-existent at this point.   The trail is full of uneven fist sized blobs of basalt which I keep tripping over.    My toes are all cramped in my shoes, so I get to experience the pain in a fully immersive 3D experience.    God this sucked.

There was a nice view of Mount Lassen to the South and Shasta to the North.   Here is a pano. 

Shasta looks damn big even at this distance. 

Soho and I keep crossing each other on the hike.   He gets ahead, rests, I pass him, then he passes me.    Just before the communication tower at 1388 we run into a pair of South bounders.   They were at the 500 gallon water tank and said there IS NO WATER THERE.   Dry.   This could be bad.   Between Soho and I we have maybe 2 liters of water to last us for another 20 miles.

At the communication tower, there are a bunch of 5 gallon empty jugs.   I kick a bunch of them around while we mull over our fate.   In 3 miles, we either figure out how to get some drops from that tank or we are going to be night hiking.  

 

 

We got to the tank around 7.   The gauge on the tank says “300 gallons” but the thing is empty.    So the mystery is solved, the damn gauge is broken.

Jitterbug and her crew are there.   Someone has unscrewed the valve at the base of the tank and according to One of the guys you can get water from the remaining 6 inches of tank below the pipe.     They were sucking water into their hollow  trekking poles and spitting it out in a jug.   That’s pretty gross.   Soho and I think about it a bit and work out that we can use the tube and filter from my hydration pack to siphon water from the tank.    I sit there for 20 minutes slowly filling our bags and bottles.   We are saved, but I pity the next groups coming through.   

The place is  next to fenced in cattle loading area.   Cow patties dot the landscape.    We cowboy camped next to the tank in a bunch of dried cow crap.   The smell adds to the experience.   I think there are a couple dried patties under my ground sheet poking me in the back.  

22 miles today.   Can’t wait to leave this miserable spot.