Wednesday, June 1, 2011

100 Mile Views on the Hat Creek Rim

The PCT has been calling my name all winter long! Finally, I had a chance to backpack on a section which is a little bit lower in elevation. I did this 31 mile stretch solo, so in order to avoid doing a out and back trip, I ended up biking 29 road miles at the start of my adventure! I began the trip by dropping off my backpack at the PCT along highway 299. I then drove to the PCT trailhead on highway 44. From there, I biked the 29 road miles back to my backpack, stashed my bike and then hiked to my car! It was awesome!!

The trail ended up being everything I had hoped for. The temp was cool but the sun warm. After getting through a few storms on the afternoon of day 1, the blue skies returned. On day 2, I hiked up onto Hat Creek Rim and had about 20 miles of near-continuous views of mountains and valleys. To the north was the massive bulk of Mount Shasta. To the south was another massive giant in Lassen Peak. To the west was Burney Peak and Thousand Lakes Wilderness, both still white with winter.

I tried out my new tarp (photos below) and was mostly happy with it, although a cool wind came up on the second night which made me quite chilly. All in all, it was a big success and gets me dreaming about the next PCT adventure a little over a month away!!

Burney PeakOld firetower on Hat Creek Rim

Second campsite with Lassen Peak behindNear the end of the route with Lassen Peak glistening to the south

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