Miles hiked: 28.4.
Got a bit earlier start than normal to beat the heat on the Hat Creek Rim and was hiking by 5:10. The Hat Creek canyon down below was filled with a pale light that showed only broad scale features. Rows of dad hills stacked back to the horizon, bookended to the south by Lassen and the north by Shasta. The trail traced right along the edge of the rim, at times just a couple feet from the edge. Sage and other arid-land shrubs grew out in the rocky flats of the rim and a few Ponderosas formed little groves in the gullies that cut east into the rim and forced the trail to go around.
I was happy to have gotten the climb up onto the rim done last night, since I was fresh and fast along the flat rim trail. I made it the 10 or 11 miles to an old partially dismantled fire lookout by 9, and met up with Skeeter Bait and the 2 Shenanigans. We saw there munching snacks and gawking at the expansive view. I think we can see some of the peaks in southern Oregon near Crater Lake from here. Down below the canyon floor is a lava flow with scattered trees growing on the sharp black background.
A few other hikers filtered in to this natural break spot and I filtered out. Now the trail descends down a slanted, narrowing finger of the rim, dropping down to a smaller version of the rim only half as tall. I passed Cache 22, a big water cache along forest road 22, and stocked with many jugs of water and I hear some other goodies. I decided to stick with not using water caches, so just continued on down to the lower rim. Down there in the flats we got a taste of what we mis since the trail makes a big westward swing out west of Shasta. In doing so it goes around a hundred miles or so of low, flat, hot exposed dry grass and shrubland, and instead goes over into the ruggedness of the Trinity Alps and other ruggedness of that twisted pile of mountain where the top of the Sierra bends over to where the Coast Range of California and the Cascade Range of Oregon and Washington meet.
The trail rejoined a lower part of the rim, overlooking more rough lava flow country to the west with a few hardy dry pines and scratchy shrubs. More dime novel Western outlaw type of country. The sort of place people can disappear in whether they want to or not.
I was getting a bit hangry but pushed to a fence and trail gate that was within 8 miles of the next water, then found a flattish ledge under some low juniper branches and set up for siesta. I laid back on a pile of clothes with my feet up on my backpack, arranged a few bags of snacks on my chest, and enjoyed the view. A bit less hungry, and not at all hangry, I put the food away and had a nap. But with the growing wind and nice shade I actually had to put on my long pants and lay my down jacket over me. I got so thoroughly cooled down that I was a bit shocked to find how hot it was out in the open when I started hiking again around 2. The trail cut down off the rim into the lava flow and the whole entirety of the landscape radiated heat; the sun, the warm dry air, the trees, and especially the black rocks. The sliver of red in my little thermometer expanded up past the 90 tic toward the 95. I did the math in my head: about 7.5 miles, should take 2.5 hours. Just need to put in the time.
Just before the creek which was the next water source, there was a big metal pipe heading down toward Crystal Lake with a hole in it that was spurting an irregular stream of water and mist 6-8 feet straight up. A small group of hikers gathered there in the cool humid air and shade of some oaks and stuck our baked heads and fried dirty feet into the water just and laughed at each other trying to redirect the flow back down into our water bottles. We made it through the second to last big waterless stretch of the trip (there's another up by Crater Lake), and we were all a bit giddy with relief and celebration at passing this challenging landmark.
I went another mile and a half to camp with a few others in the dry summer litter of some black oaks and Ponderosas above the shores of Baum Lake. It was a bit of a challenge getting past the reeds and grass and surface moss of this lake, low elevation stuff we're not used to, but eventually I found a little gap in a strip of alders and filled my water bag and sat down in the cool water to scrub off the dirt and recool the core. I saw some new birds for the trip that I wasn't really expecting, the pelicans and cormorants, and also my friends the Song Sparrows and a Belted Kingfisher trying to find a way into the trout hatchery.
It was still only about 7 by the time dinner was made, and I set up the bug net against the few mosquitoes and many flies and had a super relaxing evening reading and eating then talking for a bit with Baggins, a Kiwi I just met yesterday, then falling asleep by 9:30 while trying to write my journal.
Birds:
Northern Flicker
Spotted Towhee
Common Raven
Wrentit
Rock Wren
Green-tailed Towhee
Lesser Goldfinch
Western Scrub-jay
Western Wood-pewee
Turkey Vulture
Bushtit
Oak Titmouse
Osprey
American White Pelican
Canada Goose
Belted Kingfisher
Hairy Woodpecker
Acorn Woodpecker
Black Phoebe
Song Sparrow
Mallard
Marsh Wren
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
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