[pct-l] Hat Creek Rim - Water Caches Present? Stocked?

[Nathan Miller]

I hiked that stretch of trail right after the 4th of July.  I'll first echo the suggestion to contact Firefly for up-to-date info.  Now I'll share my own findings.
Yes, the terrain is gentle, but I thought the tread was kind of rock in a lot of spots and hard and unforgiving in others (in contrast to forest-floor tread with is nice and springy from all the organic detritis dropped by trees).  There's pretty much no shade from Hwy. 44 to a mile north of the cell tower, with a couple of exceptions.  There's some very limited shade just north of the burn area surrounding the vista point near the rim cache.  There are also a few trees in the first of the small drainages through which you'll pass.  There are also lots of trees at the large seasonal drainage that cleaves the rim, but that creek is quite dry.  If you're "lucky," there will be thunderstorms casting some shade for you like they did for us, although it was rather unnerving hearing thunder overhead while racing north to get out of its way, particularly as it's so exposed up there.
The Rd. 22 cache looks like photos I've seen of the infamous SoCal caches.  It's all shady and there was plenty of water.  North of that, there's a cow pond from which you could get water, but you'll want some powerful treatment measures, like first pre-filtering, then AquaMira-ing the snot out of it.  There's also some dappled shade after you drop off the rim, but north of Cassell-Fall River Mills Rd, you'll pass through a shadeless burn area, and then a mostly shadeless grassland.  After that, it's only a mile or so to Baum Lake where you can get lots of water at the fish hatchery and take a nice rest at a small picnic area.  Then there's no more water until Burney.  There's shady forest until Hwy. 299, but then another burn area north of that.
I left Subway Cave with 4.5 liters of water.  I had a half-liter when I reached Rd. 22.  That was with cooler-than-average temps (upper 80's and low 90's).  I recommend taking as much water as you can stand to carry, probably closer to 5 liters.

-Nate the Trail Zombie