Day 54,   26 miles

The forecast for today was for 27 degree Celsius.  It reached 32 in the shade.  The plan was to leave before 6am to avoid the heat.  We still had at least 13 more miles along the Rim to hike.  We didn’t leave till after 7am.  Somehow we managed 10 miles before 10am.

Mid morning is when we started noticing the mosquitos.  They were relentless.   If I stopped to go to the bathroom, I got swarmed.  I had a small amount of Deet, which I shared with Sweet.  Poor Tugboat, wasn’t with us.  She got eaten alive and is covered in welts.

The trail came down off the Rim to miles of grassy path.  It looked innocent enough, but hidden behind, and under the grass was solid clay and rocks that would not budge when I kicked or stumbled on them.

The afternoon was lots of waterways, a bird sanctuary, then 7 miles of, ahhhh, shaded forest.  It was still hot, but tolerable.

To the south we’re leaving views of Mount Lassen and now we are looking at and hiking towards Mount Shasta to the north.