Memories from July 15
I got up at 3am with Little Red Riding Hood to hike as much of Hat Creek Rim before the sun caught us in the open. Sunrise was just a plus.
The view from the rim as the morning processed.
After the rim, the land looked a lot like this. The dry grass is one of the things I most strongly associate with summers growing up.
When I finally stopped at the first water, I’d successfully crossed 32 waterless miles without support (OK, there was a stream near the trail you could have climbed down to and Cache 22 had water but I didn’t use either).
I took a nap by the stream and visited with some other hikers on their way through. It’s been hot in a way which gets to you so I didn’t hike on until early evening. At some point I came across a sign on the trail pointing to Burney Mountain Guest Ranch with the promise of showers, laundry, and resupply. I was feeling tired despite not having hiked that far from the stream so I stopped in for dinner and resupplied figuring I was trading the time spent resupplying today for the miles tomorrow when I’d planned to resupply. Before showering I saw myself in the mirror and my face was quite red. I’m not sure when I got burned but it explained the exhaustion.
Dark had fallen by the time laundry was done but I walked back to the trail to avoid paying for a campsite. The family which runs the Burney Mountain Guest Ranch are good folk and I would have paid to sleep on their dirt instead of sleeping for free on public dirt if I hadn’t set my mind on hiking out before I hiked in.
Isaac Takes A Hike 