July 30th
Warner Valley Campground/Drakesbad(1354.2)-Hat Creek(1373.5)
Today’s Mileage: 19.3mi
My new strategy is to not wear myself out in the heat and give my body a chance to build up to the bigger mile days. I slept really well last night and still felt tired this morning. My energy is getting a bit better, but I’m going to be careful about not doing too much. Before leaving Drakesbad Guest Ranch, we all had a great breakfast and we got Meow Meow and Funyan on the horse!
We were doing a shorter day, so we left leisurely around 10am. I am hiking with Liz, Meow Meow, and Funyan. The plan is to possibly set up to do a night hike of Hat Creek Rim tomorrow night, so logistically, we needed to do a shorter day today.
It was nice to do less mileage today before a longer day tomorrow. The trail was very level and fairly uneventful. Again, really good for my ankle, which likes the level soft trail. The mosquitos have really come on strong, so deet is my new best friend. The mosquitos also make stops to gather water or use the bathroom very quick and irritating. No big views today, but a lot of areas where trees had been burned or you could tell they had been planted uniformly. I liked it.
The park ranger is new to the area and joined us half the day and that was cool. I enjoyed my new headphones and the day went by nicely. There is a slight chance of thunderstorms the next few days and some clouds gathered. We are hoping for possible overcast or partly cloudy skies tomorrow for the notoriously hot and waterless Hat Creek Rim.
By the end of the day, I had an update from Blister who is 5 days ahead of me. He said it wasn’t as bad as people say and that an early afternoon break for a few hours should be sufficient. Then we can hike a bit later into the evening and do the rest in the morning to get through the 30mi+ hot area. We decided not to do the hike overnight and we’ll just see how the day goes tomorrow. That’s pretty much it for today. We are sleeping in tomorrow to set up for tomorrow’s afternoon break and I’m looking forward to that! I think this extra rest is helping to get my body where it needs to be for bigger mileage soon.
