8/24/2023
Section: Milepost 1444.1 to 1419.4
Total Trail Miles: 1520/2650
Distance: 25.56 Miles
Moving Time: 09:32
Elevation Gain: 2326 ft
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Woohoo!!! Day 100! And we got up at 5:30 this morning!! Took us 90 minutes to get going but, you know, little victories. Quite a few NOBO’s came through while we were preparing to leave and 1 or 2 SOBO’s - weirdly busy this morning. We enjoyed some granola and I had some more delicious coffee crystals. IDK, drinking decaf coffee is kinda strange. It’s like drinking NA beers - your body expects a certain reaction that just isn’t there and it throws it off a little bit. In any case, we were up and out an hour earlier than the last 3 days, and that was nice.
Our objective today was Burney Falls State Park. The route stays pretty level for the first 12 miles, maintaining between 5000 and 5500 feet along the edge of a large basin. Relatively flat ground maintained on our left (west) while the earth seemed to give away on our right in a collection of deep river valleys - we are definitely in the heart of some geologically big volcanic activity. At Rock Creek, around mile 8, the first descent is reached, shortly after crossing Summit Lake Road. The trail descends about 400 feet onto the floor of a plateau before snaking across it, heading southeast and eventually switching down its southeast corner to where it crosses Rock Creek on a beautiful bridge. From Rock Creek, the PCT makes a short climb up and out to the southwest corner of Lake Britton where it crosses the “Pit Number 3” dam and traverses another half mile of flat ground to arrive, finally, at a primitive campground in Burney Falls State Park.
Our more specific objective today was to reach Burney Falls state park before the visitor center and small store closed at 6 pm. Gaia said it was 24 miles and we hiked at around 2.4 mph on a good day so it was going to be a minor miracle to make that happen but I am an over-optimistic person and was foolishly hopeful as we started out under lighting skies. The first half of the day was pretty flat as we made a good 25 minute mile pace. We did not encounter LightWeight on the way out so either she was out before us or really well hidden - probably the former.
About 2 hours into the day we ran into a 70 year-old woman named Miss Elegant. I think she was used to Thru Hikers blasting past her with a cursory “hello” or nothing at all so when we seemed open to talk she took some time to chat with us. Her name was Miss Elegant because she insisted on hiking with her pearl necklace, which she was keen to share with us and her goal was to hike the entire PCT in her retirement, summer by summer - going as far as she could each one. She told us she hiked about 6 -10 miles each day and had already completed the desert and some of the Sierra but was skipping the portions she still had there this summer for obvious reasons. She had a lot of cool stories and we told her she was a model for how we wanted to spend our retirement. During the storm, she had actually had to press her SOS button because she could not stake her trekking pole tent down well enough and it collapsed on her a few times and she started to get cold. After we had talked to her for 30 minutes or so we went our separate ways, wishing each other luck.
The trail continued to be very green-tunnely and we experienced some moderate blow-down but, other than that we cruised. Around noon I stopped on a ridge with Amanda and made a call to the Old Station post-office. We were scheduled to be in Old Station in 2 days, which meant a Saturday arrival. I had looked at FarOut and Google and was getting conflicting reports as to whether the Old Station post office was actually going to be open on Saturday or not so figured a phone call would be the best. The postmaster picked up the phone and I explained our situation. “Oh, that’s no problem - I will be open from 1 to 2:30 for package pick-up if you can get there by then. If not, I can probably work something out for you.” I told her that I thought we could do that and that what I really wanted was to see Cheryl Strayed’s entry in the log book and so we would leave extra early to make it. “Sounds good!” she said in a kind voice before hanging up. I explained the situation to Amanda and that we would likely have to get up around 4 am, which earned me a solid eye-roll before putting in an order to REI for freeze-dried meals, zipper conditioner and tent sealant. Our next stop was Chester in 4 days and I was hoping I could make some field repairs on the tent there. The zipper was really starting to act up and I was worried it wasn’t going to be functional much longer.
We carried on from the ridge, dipping back into the trees. The rest of the afternoon passed without much incident. Mostly hiking in a tunnel, occasionally passing out onto exposed ridges where you could see out a bit. At the 11 mile mark we started the long slide down to Burney Falls state park. 4 miles after that we checked our water and noted we both had about half a liter left. I asked Amanda if I could hike ahead and get the filtering process started so that it would be mostly done by the time she got there. She said sure and I took off. I’ll be honest here, I ran. Amanda and I hike together - there’s really no point doing this as a couple if we meet up at the end of each day at some predetermined spot - but sometimes it’s fun to see what I can do. I cranked up the jams and, for 3.3 miles, kept up 16.5 minute miles down to the creek - it was a blast.
About an hour later, I rounded a corner and spotted a nice bridge over a beautiful creek, marking my filter location. I crossed over and found Green Bay hat guy coming up from down below. “Enjoy the creek,” he said as he jetted off south. I climbed down to the bottom and dropped my pack before digging out the 2 liter dirty water bladder and loading up my 3 liter platypus with fresh drinking water. I figured Amanda was about 20 minutes behind me and the creek looked very enticing so, after filtering and having a little snack, I found a nice spot where the water pooled in a little eddy and sat down in it to wait for Amanda to come by. Sure enough, about 20 minutes later I saw her coming down the path. She stopped on the top of the bridge and looked down at me, smiling, before she made her way down and got in as well.
We soaked for about 10 more minutes before begrudgingly getting out of the cool and wonderful water and reorganizing our things. As we headed back up to rejoin the trail I took one last look down on the little creek - it was a perfect spot, easily one of my favorite dips on the trail so far. After rejoining the trail we carried on south, climbing up and out of the ravine which hosted Rock Creek. The path flattened out before we descended into the Pit River ravine, crossed the Pit River Dam and, again, climbed up and back onto the shelf. As we climbed out of the Pit River ravine we ran into a local with jeans and his derpy little dog which ran headlong into Amanda's trekking pole as she stood to the side of the trail to let the pair of them go by. We all chuckled before heading off in opposite directions.
We made it to the little campground at Burney Falls State Park about an hour before sunset but, alas, not before the store closed - this all despite my indomitable optimism. A group of SOBO’s was already there, eating around a full picnic table. We set up our things and boiled up some ramen which Amanda then added some beef sticks to for protein. We took full advantage of the amenities afforded by staying at an established campground before wrapping up for the night and passing out.
