Trail Day 89: Tentsite (mile 1364.7) to tentsite (mile 1394.3)

29.6 PCT miles

This was another day of starting before sunrise, although I started closer to sunrise than originally planned. I was so tired from yesterday that I hit the snooze button so many times that I got up 1.5 hrs later.

The hike during the beginning of the day was so easy. I was walking through a wide, flat forest of well spaced trees that was carpeted with pine needles.

Morning on the PCT. 

Eventually, I started coming across more and more lava rock on the trail from some ancient flow. I hit the junction for a trail that would take me to the trailhead of Subway Cave, a lava tube. As much as I wanted to explore the lava tube, I knew I didn't have a lot of time for side trips, so I  just headed towards the trailhead to fill up on water.

Trail junction to Subway Cave.

However, as I passed the exit and entrance, I  noticed that the tube parallels the trail anyway and decided to take the lava tube route on the way back since it was cooler (in both senses of the word).

Subway cave exit.

After taking a water and food break, I did just that. There were little interpretive signs along the way, but no lights. It got pitch dark very quickly. I had to use my headlamp to navigate through it. It wasn't a particularly long tube and I was out the other side without wasting much time.

Subway Cave entrance. 

Light at the end of the lava tube.

Soon after I hit Hat Creek Rim, which is a notoriously hot and dry section of the trail. There was a fancy new water tank installed for this year several miles down trail but at last report (and confirmed by a southbounder I passed), it was empty and the valve disassembled.

I  passed a couple of trailheads and walked for miles on the flat, exposed trail. It wasn't as bad as the Southern California section of the trail, but I was baking in the sun and sucking down a lot of water. There weren't a lot of trees. It was mainly dried grass and low lying shrubs.

Hat Creek Rim.

View from Hat Creek Rim.

In the early afternoon,  I got to the junction for another water source, Lost Spring. People have complained about getting to and from this source because  the side trail was very steep.  I have to agree with them. It was a slow shuffle all the way down the canyon.

Junction to Lost Spring.

The spring itself was pretty and it was running fast and cold. There was even shade to sit while filtering my water. I had some difficulty filling up the water because my filter bag started leaking. I was losing a portion of the water I had gotten each trip to the spring to refill. I tried to angle the bottle so that the unfiltered portion dripped into the dirt and not the bottle.

Lost Spring.

Trail back up from the spring.

By the time I had gotten back to the trail it had taken me 45 minutes to refill my water. I had still planned to take a snack break but it was putting me behind schedule for the day.

Because of this, I had to walk at a faster pace through the heat another 10 miles to a cow pond to fill up on water again. This is where the water tank would have come on handy. If I skipped the cow pond it would be 20 miles in between water sources, and I did not have the capacity to carry that much water.

I walked fast and hard, passing near the water tank about 2 miles before the cow pond, cursing it for being out of water. I reached the cow pond as the sun was setting. It was a gross as it sounded. There was definitely “evidence” of cows in the area and the pond was stagnant with lots of algae and bugs.

I filtered the water as best as I could with my leaking filter, then headed about another mile to the campsite. There were two other hikers there chatting. When I complained about the cow pond they asked, “Did you miss the big water tank?” Apparently, it had been refilled in the last day or two.

Sunset in the valley next to Hat Creek Rim.

Damn it! I had been so behind in my schedule for the day that I hadn't been able to check it myself and it was now 3 miles back. I grudgingly made my dinner with my pond water and hoped it would not make me sick.