Subway Cave and the Hat Creek Rim - Mile 1398 - 8/6

After a few easy morning miles I got to a small on trail campground store and had ice cream and soda. My foot still hurts but my chaffing was a bit better thanks to the creek soak and cleaner-ish clothes. A few miles ahead I arrived at the impressive Subway Cave whose smoothy and rounded ceiling actually closely resembled a subway. The cave was carved out from a lava tube and is a 1/3 of a mile long and popular with tourists. The 30 mile waterless stretch started past here but I found out about a water cache halfway through the stretch, so hopefully water will be there. Most people hung out in the cave all afternoon to escape the heat of this exposed stretch. Their plan was to nighthike the 30 miles so they wouldn't need as much water and it wouldn't feel as oppressive. Spins and I left around 2 or 3 (the hottest part of the day) heading for the water cache tonight. Te combination of a cool breeze and the smoke from the Lassen fire overtaking the sun made the exposed hike bearable. I mean I hiked 700 miles through the desert what's another 30 miles? Papasmurf showed up a few mile in and continued hiking the Hat Creek Rim with/ahead of us. Looking back towards Lassen Volcanic National Park the smoke from the fire was looking bigger and bigger even though we were getting further and further away; not a good sign for those hiking behind us. The smurf and I caught the sunset and we all hiked a couple more miles in the night to the cache and I cowboy camped under the stars. The Perseid meteor shower starts soon and I caught a few shooting stars before dozing off. A bunch of people arrived late late at night from the cave as well, they are gouge to be pretty tired tomorrow!