August 3, 2017
Old Station (1374.8) to 1396
Pacific Crest Trail Thru-Hike: Day 90

Cave exploration day! Also, I can queue/design instagram posts and just post them in town! YAS! I might finally catch up! The cave was on the way out of town and a nice moment out of the sun. It was already 80F at 9am.

JJs Cafe

Ate breakfast at JJs Cafe. We ordered, are you ready for it?

Pastrami burger with 100% grass fed beef, housemade brioche bun and house-smoked pastrami
Vegetarian hash with perfectly crispy hash browns,
A pancake
Housemade biscuits with gravy
A housemade cinnamon roll muffin
A beer
A coffee
A second cinnamon roll to pack out

We comfortably finished all of it except the second cinnamon roll. Best food on the PCT so far, no question. The pastrami burger was a surprise hit, I didn’t expect to like it but everything worked together so well. Real food, in this random ass little town that has a gas station, an RV campground, and the best f-in food I’ve had in a loooooooong time. Yes, better even than anything I ate in San Diego or on the road trip down to trail. Thank god I had the appetite to eat everything I wanted on the menu.

Hat Creek Rim

We’ve started hiking the Hat Creek Rim where there is zero shade or water. Talked to dad and he told me it’s a heat wave in this part of California—some of the hottest weather they’ve had in a long time. Well of course it is.

The only place for water on the Hat Creek Rim is Lost Creek, about 1500 feet straight down a slippery decaying rock wall. We had planned on resting here for several hours before pushing it to at least the next water source (Cache 22), but though the creek is shaded, there is nowhere to sit except large pointy rocks and several snakes lurking underneath the boulders, swimming around in the water. On the positive side, the water is ice cold.

We’re at the top of the creek now under the shade of a few sparse trees and it is sweltering. But, sitting under a nearby tree just a few feet away is…Vice and Boathouse! It’s over 95F and Vice just offered me hot rum from a gatorade bottle. I really can’t think of anything worse, but he’s adamant. “Haven’t you ever heard of hot buttered rum?” Not today Vice, not today.

Cache 22 or Cow Pie Water

Walked until a ridge that had the faintest breath of a breeze. It is insanely hot even at 10pm and we’re dangerously low on water, but 11 miles from Burney Mountain Guest Ranch. Cache 22 was empty on account of it being wildfire season. The water trucks are busy fighting fires and don’t have the capacity to refill the water cache. The other option was taking water from a cow pond. I decided I’d rather go thirsty than drink cow pie water. It was very, very stagnant and appeared to be fermenting. After Cache 22 and deciding against cow pond water, we knew we’d be low going into Burney Mountain Guest Ranch.

We found a tree to rest under until the sun got lower in the sky. Once it became twilight, we hiked a few more miles and put up our tent, planning to wake up just a few hours later to hike before the sun came up in the morning. Avoiding the heat, trying not to sweat off extra moisture. I’m sticking to everything in the tent.

I did get to talk to mom and dad today, and mom re-read Wild since I started trail. Even though I don’t like that book and get real sick of every dude on trail asking if I was inspired to hike because of it, it was so cool hearing her talk about all the things we’ve experienced. And to have her recognize some of the BS we’ve gone through. She even brought up a water tank in NorCal being empty. I said “hey! That happened to us today! We’re living it!”

Looking forward to some nice things to drink tomorrow. Forgot what it was like to hike in the desert. Missing the creeks of the Sierra.