Water Cache - Rock Creek Spring 8/8/10 26 miles

Twenty six miles to go over our first marathon. We got up earlyish, had some breakfast with Dude and Trouble and then started the day loaded up on water. Hat Creek Rim is a Plateau over a volcanic rock covered valley between Lassen Peak and Mt. Shasta. It is a really wierd geological place. The rim is at he edge of a cliff and at 45 degree angle. Lots of sand and tatally exposed with little shade and no water. Sounds fun right? We got about 6 miles and took a break in a smaill area of woods and then continued on to the next water cache. People bring water out in gallon jugs on the dry stretches. We got there about lunch. Dude and Trouble were already there and disappointed with no water. Twenty four water jugs and all empty. It was a nice shady spot and we had lunch there. Luckily I started with a gallon of water, so I still had two quarts left and twelve miles to go. WE crossed our 750 mile mark and our half way point. Exciting! We came down off the rim. It was still dry and we had to waqlk over ancient lava fields. It was wild! We ran out of water about 2 miles before camp, but the sun was low and the trees were funally giving shade, so we were okay. We finally got to camp about 7:30pm. Would have been earlier, but we took a nap at mile 18 under an awesome shade tree withthe craziest breeze. Camp was close to a hydro power plant and there was a huge water pipe that someone had drilled a hole in to make a sprinkler. It was heaven after a "dehydrated marathon" as Kristi put it. We had dinner and went to bed, suprisingly, not too terribly exhausted. -CM