Day 83, 11.5 miles

Today I slept in! And it felt amazing. I only had 0.3 miles to get to the highway, and I got there around 8am. Within 5 or 6 minutes I got a ride from someone who turned back around out of their way to come and get me! It was a father and son and a dog named Eclipse. They were super nice! Since they turned around out of their way to come pick me up, when they said they needed to make a quick stop I was onboard! The son had his application in to work at the nearby construction company, and we stopped outside of it for a minute while he checked to see what the status of his app was! It seemed to go pretty good for him! On the way to Burney from the little detour, we sharply tuned onto a very rough dirt backroad and then onto a flatter (and faster) gravel road. We were flying this whole time and it was pretty fun! 

I had them drop me off at the laundromat on the close since of town. I haven’t done proper laundry for a while and it felt great to wash my socks and shirt and hat! The LeSchwab Tire Center next door let me use their outside spigot to rinse off my arms and legs and feet. Yay hobo shower! (I just had a nice indoor shower back at Drakesbad and still feel pretty good). Burney is pretty small, and after laundry I walked over to the Dollar General Store. 

The workers in the store were great and watched my pack and let me charge my external battery and pack all of my newly bought items into my bag in the A/C store. I bought a lot of food including a half pint of ice cream and a large Jumex mango juice to drink them and there. It was so hot outside! 

After this I went to the restaurant nearby for a very big salad and to tank up on some more water while my battery finished charging. I was looking st the weather and it seemed like the temps kept going up and maxed out at 95° around 4pm. Because of this, I wanted to leave town as early as possible and make it to Burney Falls (9 miles away) by 4pm! 

It seemed weird to leave at 1pm but that’s what I did! A very nice local man flipped around back out of his way to pick me up. He was going the opposite way! This is the second time today this has happened! People around here are so nice! 

The trail wasn’t too noteworthy. I basically just paralleled a bunch of different roads and meandered through some flat hot forest. At least there were shade trees all around! I’d didn’t feel as brutal as yesterday, even though it was the same temperature. 

Still glistening!

Neat sign! Not too bad when you put it that way!!

I didn’t take any pictures of Burney or the trail between there and the falls, hahaha. When I took the apirtrail heading to Burney Falls and the little store, I came up into a parking lot where a younger guy asked me if I was a PCT hiker. He asked if I knew Silver Fox. It was his son coming to meet him with his resupply! (I ate breakfast with Silver Fox in Sierra City.) he asked if I wanted a beer and of course I took him up on it! It was really cool talking with him for awhile. 

It was nearing 5 by this point so I decided to continue on towards the falls as I had planned on jumping in the water there as my 10 mile reward for the day! I ran into teonhikers I hadn’t seen for awhile, Anvil and Boo. They were at the upper area near the parking lot, along with Daddy and a few others. We went as a group down to the falls, which was just .3 down a pretty steep path. The falls and river was all in the shade, but the pictures still turned out ok. 

The falls were so beautiful and the nice cold mist was refreshing after the hot 1/2 day’s hike. Instead of jumping in all the way underwater, I just got in up to my neck so my dreads wouldn’t get wet and I wouldn’t have to worry about them not fully drying so late in the day. The water was COLD!! MAN was it cold! But it felt so good and refreshing! 

Back up at the top, the other hikers had planned to camp at the State Park campgrounds, but I decided to take advantage of the cool and get a few more miles in. Not of course before getting a soft serve swirl at the small store first! The trail went up for a bit, and then down. And then up again. I’m realizing how spoiled I’ve been having a nice down and flat for the last few days. I came across a cool dam, and on the way out of the valley from it there were some wild peas that I stopped to sample. I did it for my mom because she LOVES peas! 

Cool dam

Wild Peas!!

Well, I stopped in a mosquito infested forest, and got a few more bites on my legs that are really scratchy right now. Still yet, life is good and I’m feeling good too! I do have a couple blisters coming back in, most likely due to the heat and partly due to the increase in length of my last few days. I just popped them and hope they don’t come back tomorrow. It’s 9:45! Past my bedtime!

Thanks for reading!!