We slept well in the east bedroom of Heitman's palatial three room tent, standing up to get dressed (standing in our tent is impossible). The Heitman spread is so large that we were way out in the north 40.

Hikers helped cook a sausage and French toast breakfast.

We were the first hikers back to the trail but started farther back than the other hikers. Later, when we were hiking behind them by no more than a hour, we saw bear footprints over their footprints! We looked for the bear but never saw him.

Then came the best part of the day. We met up with Team GottaWalk's Photo Editor, Linda, who drove 200 miles from the coast to meet us at the Old Station PO. We discussed future photos while eating our way from Old Station to Burney. Linda brought fruit, scones and cookies.

While doing chores in Burney we found Voyageur and Galahad needing a ride back to the trail. They were very surprised to see us in the Lexus that stopped pick them up. What a good trail angel Linda is!

Tonight we sleep in a real bed. Tomorrow we take on the infamous Hat Creek Rim on what will probably be a hot day.

Linda drove us to Old Station after a big Burney breakfast. We stepped onto the trail at 8am. Today the "hiker" in front of us was a cow and she left more than footprints on the trail. We wondered if she and yesterday's bear happened to meet.

We hiked up to the Hat Creek Rim escarpment so we had great views all day from Lassen Peak to Mt Shasta, both snow clad and magnificent. We could see blue ponds, bright green irrigated farms, dark green forested areas, stacks of dark to light blue mountains and Highway 89 below. The escarpment has been pushed up 800' to 1100'.

Clouds formed and evaporated all day in the breeze that helped keep us cool. Water caches at the Viewpoint (with tables, toilets and binoculars) and Road 22 eased the waterless situation. At the first cache we ate blueberry scones from Linda and washed them down with lots of water. Tea was at the second cache, again with scones that packed a wallop of energy.

Just before we finally started to switchback down we saw Jen and Yeti eating dinner. They were the only hiker sightings of the day.

At dusk we put up our tent near the paved road, thinking that darkness would hide us. It did but there were very few cars.

As we unpacked I found the homegrown peaches from Linda. I ate mine immediately. Absolutely delicious! Never has an appetizer tasted so good.

The ants wanted a slumber party in our tent. We kicked them out and now they

We hiked down to a low of 2950' at Burney Falls State Park. At lower
elevations we have to watch for ticks, poison oak and rattlesnakes. Plus the temp was a lot warmer. We didn't need that.

We hiked down to Crystal and Baum Lakes where there is a PG&E power
generating facility and a CA State Fish Hatchery. One of the facilities had a one foot diameter water pipe running across the trail. The pipe has two leaks where water shot into the air like fountains. Any on trail water is convenient for us!

At the hatchery Ken saw pelicans looking for easy food in one of the
adjacent lakes. Workers had strung wires over the fish tanks to foil the
pelican's easy food ideas. After gettig water at the fish hatchery we started down the road but couldn't find our trail junction. Soon the lady from the hatchery was driving towards us to point out the trail. Finding the trail must be ongoing problem!

We enjoyed the lakeside trail, especially after the dry rim. We were dashing to Burney Falls State Park to pick up our box ($5 holding fee at the store). We had cold drinks and hot dogs at the store with Yeti and Jen. The store
didn't have a lot of hiker food. None of us was in a hurry to move on until the day cooled a little.

We left the falls and walked over the dam that makes Lake Britton, a
swimming, fishing and boating recreation area. We resisted the swim after washing up at the park.

At Rock Creek we used our new SteriPen to kill all biological matter in dipped water. The pen uses UV light and weighs half of our water filter. We camped by ourselves soon after the creek.