Slept in until 5:30 am this morning and broke camp at 6:30 am. I left camp before Frank and hiked 2.5 easy miles down to Hat Creek. This is the last on-trail water source for a long time. Frank and Phantom Dooker passed by and I joined them in hiking into Old Station.
On the way I discovered that my new shoes that were supposed to arrive here no later than yesterday weren't here yet. This pissed me off severely as tomorrow is Sunday (no mail) which means they wouldn't be delivered until Monday and I would be well beyond here by then. I also need new shoes pretty badly.
We got to JJ's Cafe in Old Station and ordered breakfast. Meanwhile, Frank opened some boxes that she'd gotten and she now has a brand new outfit: Shoes, leggings, and shirt. All her old stuff has holes in them so she's happy to have new gear. Also her new shoes (unintentionally) match her outfit so she's very fashionable now. There were so many hikers that it took about an hour for the food to come out and it was a little underwhelming. AB and Mama showed up and we exchanged stories and then J-PRO came over and we all hung out.
I called the post office and found out that my package would likely be there today and could pick it up if it arrived. We went next door to the gas station for drinks and ice cream. I called the post office again and my package had arrived, but I had to get down there by 3 pm when they closed (less than one hour from then). It was 4.4 miles away. I started walking down the road with my thumb out and after half a mile or so, got picked up by a colorful gentleman who told me that when he hitchhiked back in the day "I got many more rides from n****** than whites". After he dropped a few more n-words, we arrived at the post office and I got my new shoes. Package in hand, I got a hitch back from a local lady who also picked a couple of other hikers. We got to the cafe and I unboxed my shoes. They're a new color so we'll see how they look.
About 4 pm, J-PRO, Frank, and I headed back to the trail. We wanted to leave earlier, but it was just way too hot out (lower 90s) and this next section is very exposed. We took a detour to the Subway Cave which is a lava tunnel that you can walk all the way through.
Even better, the temp is in the 40's here so we hung out for a bit and stayed cool before going back into the heat. Once we got up to Hat Creek Rim, we had a view of Lassen Peak to the south and could barely make out Mt. Shasta in the distance to the north (it's mostly obscured by smoke).
J-PRO went ahead and Frank and I stopped at an overlook and chatted with Boujee and Vagabond.
We then hiked on into the evening which eventually became night.
The night hiking was pretty mentally taxing and we decided to stop 3 miles short of our goal for the day. We arrived at a spot next to a communication tower about 10:30 pm and set up to cowboy camp here. We're in a pasture that's being actively grazed so we hope we don't get visitors in the night. We can hear mooing not too far off in the distance.
A lava tunnel sounds intriguing. Did the mooing lull you to sleep? Did camping near a communication tower mean that you had cell service? I heard that the smoke from the western wildfires has drifted east and I noticed the sun on my way home from work (about 8 pm) was red like one of your photos.
ReplyDeleteExhaustion lulled me to sleep haha. And yes, we had cell service.
DeleteI feel like this is the second weirdly racist hitchhike you've had. Lava tunnel looks really cool! I would think night hiking would be extremely taxing.
ReplyDelete2/4 of my solo hitches have been weirdly racist...all the others with other people have been fine...
DeleteWe went into some lava tubes at Craters of the Moon NP in Idaho! They are very “cool”!
ReplyDeleteI really liked them. Very neat and as you said, cool!
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