Mile 1,372.3 - 1,395.2

Today was a combination of highs and lows. Lets start with the highs, because they came first. One mile from where we camped we walked into amazing trail magic. Out friend "Acorn" was already there so we joined him. It was Chef & Jerrycan providing trail magic. We hit the jackpot here as Chef is a real chef in Crater Lake and we reaped the benefits. Chef made everyone Emu eggs and raisin pancakes. Other hikers soon joined us as well.

Just a few miles from there we came to the tiny town of Old Starion, which is just a resort and a small store. We bought some expensive goodies and pushed on.

Still the good news, we came to Subway Cave and took a short detour to see It. This is a 2,000 year old lava tube formed from several flows. You need a flashlight and you can walk the 1/3 of a mile cave. It was only 46 degrees in the cave. That felt really good to us. 

Now the bad news. It is 1pm, and over 100 degrees and we are about to start a 32 mile waterless stretch. Very nerve wracking because how do you judge how much water to carry and can you carry that much.

It was horrible. The heat was brutal and our water quickly turned tepid if not hot. We just craved ice in the worst way. Nothing is worse than drinking hot water in 100 degree weather. We got to lookout point and a water cache was there but only a tiny amount was left. 2 section hikers were at the top and were done with their hike and had a gallon of water left over. They happily gave it to me. That just made our lives a lot better. We can now drink as much as we want tonight and not go to bed dehydrated. We camped just down from lookout point but today beat us up a little mostly due to the intense heat. Tomorrow is going to be hotter. We feel like we're in the desert again.

Jerrycan & Chef at their trail magic this morning.

Emu omelet and raisin pancakes. The green oval is the Emu shell. No you don't eat the shell but I put it in the photo just to show the size of it.

Balance inside Subway Cave. Nice and cool in here. Always 46 degrees.

Mt Lassen in the distance at 10,500'. The trail went around Mt Lassen and not over it.

A great sign to see. This is a very long waterless stretch for all hikers in extreme heat. Not a good combination. The first water cache we came to was almost empty. Very scary. We were so thristy when we got to the cache and had luck on our side when the 2 section hikers gave me a new gallon of water. We drank half of it tonight. The other half is for tomorrow.

So happy to have today's hike over with. Although we were treated to a nice sunset and a phenomenal moonrise.