PCT Day 81: Burney Falls

Miles Hiked: 30

PCT Mileage: 1440.6

This morning I woke up at 5am at Trevor’s House. It was the first day in so long that my body felt good when I woke up! I was still sleepy but it felt like all my major aches and pains were gone for the moment anyways. I ate an egg sandwich for breakfast with coffee and we all loaded into the car. At the trailhead we all said goodbye and thank you to Trevor. The first eight miles of the day went by so fast and easily. The trail was pretty much flat all the way to Burney Falls State Park. I listened to playlists that Diva sent me and started a new book called “The Overstory”

Burney Falls State Park was right off the PCT so we hiked off trail to go see the famous water falls. They were so pretty and totally worth the extra miles to go see! Apparently the falls start only a few feet upstream from where we could see them. All the water just comes right out of the ground. While we were there we also took a break to eat and check out the general store where I picked up a post card. Right as we were leaving we ran into Pop Rocks, Homebrew, and Downhill Daddy who had just arrived.

Back on trail it was five more miles to a planned break at Rock Creek. Two miles in we got escorted over the lake Britton Dam because they were doing some sort of construction on it. Our escort told us some information about the rivers in the area, what they were doing to the dam, and recorded where we were from. He said the most people he ever had to escort in one day is 47 people. He said he imagined that he missed some people who walk over after the construction is done for the day.

Rock Creek was nice and shady under a bridge that crossed the trail. We wanted to take a long break here to hide from the heat but it was only 13 miles into the day that we wanted to hike 30 miles on. We decided to keep going a bit farther before taking a long break so we didn’t have far to walk at the end of our day. We took our long break near a small creek. It wasn’t the best spot but it was a break and that’s all that mattered to me. We stayed there for two hours just hanging out before we pushed the last twelve miles to camp. After the creek there was water every four miles today. I was so happy about not so I didn’t have to carry a heavy pack very far. Water is heavy. The last miles to camp flew by. I hiked with the whole group and I couldn’t believe it when I checked my phone and we only had a mile left to our dinner spot and camp. For dinner I had some cheesy pizza bites and a protein shake. When we got to camp we got water from a spring down the road. The sunset with a view of Mt Shasta was incredible. I cowboy camped next to a dirt road with everyone else. The tentsite marked on our map could hardly be considered a tent site.

Happy Trails!

-Early Bird