Day 70 – The Hat Creek Rim Double Marathon
Originally published on Mason Hikes the PCT 2017.
Mileage: Lots.
*Disclaimer: *Lots o’ words for lots o’ hiking
Today was the day. Ever since Belden, I’ve been eyeing this stretch as a a fantasy flat section in which I can hike 50 miles, but I hadn’t fully decided to actually try it until yesterday. The bear can restriction had forced me a few miles further than I would have liked and made the end of the 50 miles an uphill climb, but I was still going to try it and see what happened. My plan was to aim for 60 miles, because as they always say, “Shoot for the moon… Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars!” which is a weird way to say, “Try for 60. If you fail, you’ll probably have done 50 at that point, so you’re good.”
I woke up at 11:30PM, as planned, and started preparing by tearing down camp and eating a hearty breakfast of a Snickers, a Twix, and a bag of mini muffins. I overshot my start time of midnight by about 10 minutes, but I figured it probably didn’t matter much in the grand scheme of things.
I started my morning night hike without any issues, quickly making it towards some forest service roads on the map. By 1AM, I figured I was alone in the dark, so I was quite surprised to see (and hear) some rowdy gentlemen on ATVs roaring through the forest. They were getting closer and closer and had definitely seen me, but luckily they cut their investigation short when they ran out of road, so I was back on my own in no time. Or so I thought…
A few miles later, I heard a rustling in the bushes next to me, which caused a reflexive head (and headlamp) turn toward the source of the noise. Standing less than two feet in front of me was a large skunk, who was so overjoyed by my headlamp in his eyes that he was smiling a huge toothy grin at me. In that instant, my mind had two competing thoughts: 1) take a picture, and 2) RUN. Not wanting him to turn around and show me how much happier he could be, I immediately ran the opposite direction and didn’t get a picture. 😔
Night hiking is interesting for a few reasons, mostly for the stars and new creatures you can see, but I dislike it for a few other reasons. You don’t get to see any awesome views, you have to try not to wake other hikers up, and investigating suspicious noises is much more difficult. All three reasons came into play soon after the skunk incident when I got to the Hat Creek Rim scenic viewpoint.
Obviously, I couldn’t see whatever scenic view they were trying to show me at 3AM, so I was bummed. Immediately afterward, I needed to walk through an occupied campground, so I took a wide berth to avoid waking anyone up. Instead, I lost the trail. In my attempt to find it again, I was walking through a meadow when I heard sticks cracking and leaves rustling up ahead. I turned my headlamp all the way up, but I still couldn’t see the source of the noises. All I could see were eyes. No me gusta.
I eventually found the trail while I kept my eyes on the unidentified large animals (wolves? deer?), but quickly got some clues as to what I was watching so closely as I stepped around pile after pile of cow manure. As I became more confident that I was worrying about a herd of cows, I walked through some trees and was greeted by around 20 pairs of disembodied eyes floating above the ground and staring at me from about 15 feet away. Yep, definitely cows. 🙄
After my fun animal experiences, I kept walking in the dark up and down some small hills. Every minute or so, despite paying attention, I would stub my toe on a rock, trip over a rock, twist my ankle on a rock, etc. and get flustered by not having seen the rock. It was time to fix this. Why was I flustered? I kept tripping over rocks. Why was I tripping over rocks? I couldn’t see them! Why couldn’t I see them? They didn’t have any shadows so they looked like everything else. Why didn’t they have any shadows? Because the headlamp was illuminating them from basically right in front of my eyes, so there was no difference in angle to cause a shadow. Ohhhhhhh… okay. As soon as I moved the headlamp to a different angle, I saw immediate improvement. Perfect!
Before
After
Now that I had figured out how to walk in the dark, the sun came up. I was treated to magnificent sunrise views of both Mount Lassen and Mount Shasta, which were likely better than the viewpoint’s view of just Lassen.
Mount Lassen
Mount Shasta
The sun made it infinitely easier to walk, but it also brought the heat. Over the next few hours, my water consumption skyrocketed, simply because I was sweating in the sun. Luckily, I had made it quite far before the sun came up, so I was fairly close to a water cache called Cache 22, so named both because it was on Forest Road 22 and likely also a reference to Joseph Heller’s most famous work, Catch-22.
It was a lovely place to let my feet breathe after the first 21 miles of the day, but I needed to press on if I wanted to make it to Burney Mountain Guest Ranch to pick up my package. It was getting hotter and hotter by the minute, and I didn’t want my precious water to go to waste!
I soon encountered an older gentleman resting beneath the shade of a large tree on the trail. Hmm… that sounds too relaxing. How about this: I came upon an old man slumped over from dehydration and exhaustion underneath the only available shade for hundreds of yards. He was clearly struggling, so I stopped to talk to him for a little to make sure he was okay. He was speaking coherently, looked healthy, and had plenty of water left for the 7 miles he had to go to get back to the road, but I still didn’t feel good about the situation based on what he kept saying. I asked multiple times and in a few different ways if he was okay, and each time I got a very short “Yes!” but he also said things that implied he didn’t know if he could hike anymore in this heat. Eventually, it seemed like he was more angry about being asked if he was okay than he was incapable of walking the 7 miles, so I left him alone under that tree, hoping he was telling the truth. May the force be with you, old man!
I pressed on, eager to get to Burney Mountain Guest Ranch both for package time (maybe 😬) and for ice cream and cold drink time. Getting there was a climb through some hot hills and lakes, but oh man was it worth it!
Air conditioning, snacks in the store, FREE ICE CREAM UPON ARRIVAL, a swimming pool, my package (!), and wifi were just a few of the wonders awaiting me at the ranch. They had an immaculately kept lodge and store in a beautifully scenic area, with a huge front porch for hikers, so I really couldn’t have asked for anything else.
I spent a little more time there than I should have (1.5 hours), but it was so worth it. I had walked 41 miles in 14 hours to get there, so I was going to enjoy it and give my feet a break!
All great things must come to an end, and so I eventually needed to leave my newfound paradise. It was a bittersweet goodbye as I walked out of the air conditioning into 98° heat to go pursue my trail dreams. Maybe I need new trail dreams…
A few miles after the ranch, I crossed a road and stumbled upon some TRAIL MAGIC!! I always love trail magic, but on a hot day like today, the 5 gallon cooler of ice cold lemonade was greatly appreciated. I even got a brain freeze!
I drank another glass a bit slower and signed the hiker log with one of my favorite jokes:
Q: How many tickles does it take to make an octopus laugh? 🐙
I carried on with my hike through Burney Falls State Park, and started getting close to 50 miles! 50 miles in a day is a ton, so I was happy to achieve that goal, but with just 2.6 more miles, I could do a DOUBLE MARATHON! I’ve never done a single marathon except on trail, so that distance is pretty meaningless to me, but I was so close that I might as well, right? Adding the 2.6 extra miles only added about 800 feet of elevation gain and 800 feet of elevation loss, so it was still reasonable. The 60 miles I was originally aiming for added a whopping 3200′ up and 1400′ down. No thank you! I was already exhausted and that climb sounded impossible.
As I was contemplating my decision, I noticed a PCT marker on a tree that had been defaced.
Persistence Creates Toughness
Well, I guess I’m going for 60! I think it was a combination of the timing on this strangely motivational trail marker and the fact that I’ll likely never try something like this again that drove me to keep hiking. If I was going to hike for 20 hours, I might as well hike the additional 4 hours to round out the full day of hiking. Looks like a 3200′ climb is what’s for dinner!
As I said, night hiking isn’t my favorite, especially around campgrounds because I hate to affect other hikers’ hikes, but there was no avoiding it as I trudged ever upward into the night. At this point, I’m really not sure what was powering my body besides determination and the bag of gummi octopi I ate a few hours before, but I was flying up the mountain. Maybe it was how close I was to the end of the day and being able to finally stop moving, maybe it my desire to break the 60-mile mark for the first and last time, maybe it was Maybelline. Whatever it was, it worked. I shot for the moon and I hit it! 🌙 🔫 ✅
I made it up to Peavine Creek at 11:30PM, having hiked continuously (kinda) since starting at Hat Creek at midnight (12:10AM 😔). That makes 63 miles, with a resupply in the middle, in 24 hours. Why not keep hiking until midnight, you might ask? I need water to survive, and I was not about to camp a mile away from it just to walk an extra mile. 63 was enough.
So what does one do after walking 64 miles in a day? Eats a celebratory beef stroganoff Mountain House, eats some celebratory candy, and then passes out for all eternity. Luckily, I only walked 63 miles, so I get to wake up at some point! 😜
I learned a lot about what my body is capable of today, and I’m very lucky that things worked out in my favor. I hope I never feel the urge to test my endurance like this again, because I bet some things are going to be sore tomorrow! For now, I feel fine, but I need some sleep! 😴
A: 10!