DAY 104: BURNEY FALLS

miles: 12

We loved Burney. This is not a trail town that is generally described as being a hikers favorite, but it was definitely one of mine. The Burney Falls Lodging is a little cluster of motels, perhaps all run by the same people (?), and we adored them. Our room was small, clean, cozy, pleasantly average, and had air conditioning (which is crucial here in Northern California).

Check out was at 11:00 and we were astonishingly good about getting out on time. No unexpected zero, no dragging our feet, just sheer motivation. Motivation to make good mileage tonight.

The front desk at our hotel called a local trail angel and arranged a ride for us to be picked up at 2:00 in the afternoon! So after we walked to Safeway, bought our resupply, and packed up, we were picked up by the sweetest woman named Mary and shuttled back to the trail.

Ben, Mary, me

Dr. Slosh awaits our arrival at the cache near the trailhead.

After a mile we find Dr. Slosh reclining on a lounge chair in the shade drinking a soda. There is a surprise soda/water/snack cache called Wild Bird Cache! There was a trail register and a very complete one at that. It seems as though lately trail registers have been few and far between and the ones that do exist tend to have missing names.

Dr. Slosh was waiting for us so that we could hike the next section together (Smiles had something to take care of back home and would be off the trail for a few days). He spent the afternoon lounging in the shade and blogging - very productive.

This trail register asks you to recount a story or tell a joke, which makes for highly entertaining entries. 

A sharpie was provided so we could all sign this picnic table. 

And we are off! This particular evening was quite hot and reminded me of my impression of what Africa might be like in some parts...

That dark matter in the distance is hot, sharp, dark lava rock. A massive amount of it.

The three of us (Rocky, Dr. Slosh and I) hiked separately for the 12 mile stretch between Highway 299 and Burney Falls State Park.

What bridges look like around these parts....

The river that flows from Burney Falls.

We made it in time! The store was not closed! Grabbed snacks and a few light beers to share by the water that evening.

I had not had a Grandma's Cookie since high school.

Burney Falls

Despite feeling like we should push on we decided to sit by the river and have some snacks instead of a real dinner while soaking up the views. This river sure was nice - bone cold actually. I attempted to imitate Dr. Slosh and Rocky and put my feet in the water but was not successful in keeping them in the water. It was colder than the coldest cold.

Eventually we mustered up the energy needed to hike and on we went, into the dwindling daylight. By this time, Manchurian had appeared from out of the blue (hadn't seen him in ages!) and he joined us on our evening stroll. Little did we know at the time - this would be the beginning of a long hiking engagement with Manchurian.

The daylight was quickly diminishing and I do not do well in the dark when I am hiking. This is due to a mixture of fear, clumsiness, and my lack of night vision. I was ahead of Dr. Slosh and Rocky but tailing behind Manchurian, so I picked up the pace and tried very hard to keep up with Manchurian into the dark so as not to be left alone between everyone.

We reached our pre-determined campsite at the river by dark. Rocky and I typically try to avoid night hiking whenever possible and we haven't night hiked once since the desert so this was unusual for us.

In a group - night hiking is o.k.

Kind of...

Everyone getting ready for bed on the bridge.

There were no campsites although every piece of map and information we had said there was, we could not locate a suitable spot in the dark so we settled on sleeping ON the bridge.

At least we've upgraded from sleeping under bridges to sleeping on top of them?