DAY 102: HEY, LASSEN! HEY, OLD STATION! HEY, HAT CREEK RIM!

Bad choice.

miles: 30

I want to talk about coffee for a minute. On the trail, we miss good coffee, seeing as we are from Portland, the home of quality beans. There is a dearth of good coffee on the trail, as you can imagine so Ben and I drink Starbucks VIA (any flavor) because it is the best tasting variety of instant coffee available in small towns. We tend to add hot chocolate powder, sugar, and milk/creamer. This week I made a very bad decision. I bought COFFEE MATE. I'm not sure if you've ever had Coffee Mate, but it is disgusting. Ingredients? NOT LACTOSE. WHAT IS IT? I've come to the conclusion that it is made up of plastic chemicals. It isn't just mental, it actually tastes bad and I can't bring myself to drink it. I sullenly carried this hunk of weight nearly 80 miles just to drop it in a hiker box. Perhaps someone else will enjoy it.

The contents of my backpack.

Most of the day.

My coffee situation: Starbucks VIA, chocolate milk, sugar, shaken up COLD.

Ben and I both carry a 1 liter water bottle of some sort - Ben prefers a wide mouth gatorade bottle and I go with either a Smart Water bottle or the Arrowhead Water bottle featured above. Both of us use our bottles as our coffee mug in the morning and as our electrolyte drink container in the afternoon. Of course... we rinse it out in between uses and often we swap out water bottles when we reach town every few days or so in order to keep our "flavored drink receptacle" clean and free of bacteria.

Burn zones and orange firs.

I enjoyed these colorful burn zones, reminded me of fall.

Trail Register! 

HOLLAAAAA LASSEN.

Ben signing the Trail Register.

What is this trying to say?

Lassen in the distance - getting closer.

Blasting Devendra Banhart.

We wound up reaching the minuscule town of Old Station around 2:00 pm and were greeted by shade, picnic tables, milkshakes and a very limited selection of gas station food to choose from. Our plan was to hunker down in Old Station for a few hours and wait out the heat of the day before we set out to do the first half of Hat Creek Rim.

Hat Creek Rim is a renowned portion of the trail that is notorious for being extremely exposed and blistering hot during the day, so hikers often choose to night hike a portion of the rim when it is cooler.

This was our plan.

The plan: get as far as we can in the evening and wake up inhumanely early in order to finish the latter half in the cool morning hours.

Cheetos for lunch in Old Station.

Old Station had nothing but a small convenience store, a few picnic tables, and about two cold drinks. Everything in the store had been picked over by hikers that came through before us, so there was an extremely limited selection of cold drinks and snacks, but I managed to squeeze a milkshake out of them (which was SUPERB)...

I went over to the Post Office, which was luckily next door to the gas station, and picked up some surprise packages from Olenka! I was elated! She sent a sweet letter, my new memory card, and a box of Japanese candy. Thank you Olenka, you transformed my hot, hellish, sweaty day into an inspired one.

After a cat nap, we decided it wasn't hot enough to justify laying around anymore and chose to move on before 4:00 pm. We had enjoyed our 2 hour hiatus but it was time to move on.

Oh! I almost forgot - a family that came through the gas station was intrigued by our journey and after disappearing inside the gas station for a while, emerged with a 6-pack of Moose Drool (good beer!) just for us! It was one of the best surprise instances of trail magic yet!

Thank you Olenka. The amoebas were delightful.

Long straight line.

Hikers taking a nap in Old Station.

Sometimes all you can do is lay.

Hat Creek Rim

Once on the rim, we noticed a lot of smoke and it seemed to get thicker and thicker as we moved along. 

Hat Creek Rim

The trail on Hot Creek Rim

Hat Creek Rim is surprisingly beautiful. There is a lot of hype surrounding this section of trail and we were warned about all of the "dangers" of Hat Creek Rim: the lack of water, the exposure, the heat, the sunburns we were about to endure... all of which are avoidable if it is hiked at the right time of day. It is said to be almost as brutally hot as the desert.

So, this is why Ben and I have decided to hike huge miles into the evening, wake up ridiculously early and hike the rest of the rim.

It is exposed.

Awww a little water cache.

"A Fiery Past"

I found Hat Creek Rim to be quite gorgeous. Maybe it it was the dusk hiking?

A hazy view.

Ben interacting with the bovine creatures.

 Suddenly - Cows.

There were Hat Creek Rim cows! And cow patties everywhere. These were not just any cows, these were particularly aggressive and territorial cows. I felt uneasy as I walked past them and made sure I gave them space.

Camp spot.