DAY 106: MC CLOUD RIVER

miles: 28.5

As you may have noticed, we've upped the miles quite a bit recently. We did this gradually, although it may seem sudden. Today we did almost 29 miles. This is a new record for us.

We are pushing hard through this section (Burney --> Castella/Dunsmuir/Shasta City) due to time restrictions, all three of us have actually.

Today was gentle and mild and Manchurian, Ben and I split the day up into thirds again, while Dr. Slosh took one long break at the McCloud River. This meant he pushed 18.5 miles out before he took lunch in order to get to the river. He wanted to spend the afternoon fishing.

Shasta 

Every day inching closer and closer to Shasta.

Look who it is!

Ben among giants.

Spotted Dr. Slosh along the McCloud River at 4:00pm.

Dr. Slosh elevating his feet.

We ran into some friendly campers and managed to yogi some sodas off of them. I cannot emphasize enough how elated we are to receive cold beverages, whatever they may be.

They might not look like it to you, but these toes are swollen sausages.

Dead person feet.

My feet are killing me. It's like it is week one all over again! Hobbling up to the 100 mile marker in the dark, feet ablaze. It's like that.

Again.

AndI have new shoes! I got some shoes mailed to me in Chester, and yes, they were "used" but lightly. I'm beginning to think I may need to purchase a brand new pair from REI soon... This foot pain and hobble speed is not sustainable.

Ben is always so good about icing.

Manchurian taking an icy swim.

At 6:00pm we realize we've lingered a little too long and we must hike hike hike hike on.

The goal is 30 for the day but we will stop if it gets too dark. There is also a giant climb up and out of the McCloud River and we want to make sure to get it out of the way tonight. Dr. Slosh blazed ahead while Manchurian, Ben and I played word games for the beginning portion of the climb. Ben and I had been playing a game (we call "categories", but perhaps there is a real name for this?) where we just take turns listing different things in particular categories. For instance: Dog Breeds. Take turns listing all of the dog breeds you can think of and when someone can't think of one (and you cannot repeat any) they are out.

Very simple games like this get me through the day.

By the latter half of the climb, the three of us resorted to our iPods and powered up the hill in whatever we we knew how. Dusk upon us, we resorted to sleeping at the tip-top of the climb on an old, bumpy, dirt road in a slightly creepy type of forest.

DAY 105: WHEN YOU SLEEP ON A BRIDGE

 

miles: 27.5

WOW. When you sleep on a bridge, it is cold. 

I was interested in sleeping on the bridge, seeing as it was quite uniform and flat, which meant I would be happy (I hate sleeping on a slant or with bumps) yet I slept terribly. I think this was because I was subconsciously alarmed by the height and narrow-ness of it. In the middle of the night I woke up and was suddenly very aware of where my body was in relation to the ground... and I had a few bouts of vertigo and terror, but ultimately fell back asleep. 

Ben, Dr. Slosh and Manchurian all slept near the edge of the bridge (this bridge was one of those with the raised middle section, so on either side of this raised 'part' there were body-sized trenches, if you will, perfect for nestling into) and they tucked themselves in, very trusting of the 3-inch high piece of wood keeping them from falling off and into the water. 

I slept on the raised middle part, despite the rusty nail factor.

My bed on the left, Ben digging through his food bag, Manchurian in the distance and Dr. Slosh's feet in the foreground.

Morning routine.

Woke up to a haze of smoke. We hear the smoke has come all the way from Oregon?

The novelty of sleeping on a bridge wore off at some point in the early part of the night and I mostly just felt anxious about it, resulting in little sleep for me. When I sleep poorly, I wake up in a bad mood. When I wake up in a bad mood, I tend to get hiking earlier than everyone else, so this is how it went this morning.

Once 10 miles were under my belt, the negative mood wore off and I was excited for the rest of the day. The McCloud River has always been somewhere I wanted to see.

Lunch breaks are too short. This one was shade-less.

One would think that by now we would have a daily routine established, at least in terms of how we pace ourselves and break up our day, but this is not true.



In the desert, it was easy:

10 miles before 10:00am
(find a shady spot and rest all afternoon)
10-13 miles after 3:00pm/4:00pm

This was due to the extreme heat and inhospitable conditions down south. There were no other options, really.



In the Sierras, it was also easy:

10 miles before noon
(long lunch break + many short breaks during the day)
10-12 miles after noon

Days were longer during this section... getting dark at 10pm!

We based our days on the mountain passes, doing "a pass a day". This made it easy to determine when and where to break, lunch, and camp because it was already predetermined by the terrain. You want to get up early and get up and over a pass and camp low (by water).



In Northern California, we are all over the board because:

a) The terrain is "easier" so we need to be doing more than 20/23 miles a day
b) The weather is "milder" so we do not need a long break during the day
c) The nights are warm so we are able to get up super early and get moving, but we are also so far into the trip that we are getting lazy and wish to sleep in, making early mornings difficult
d) The higher mileage days wreck our bodies and feet (we are still getting used to walking more miles than usual) so we are more exhausted than usual, thus stop more for little breaks.
The list goes on and on and on....

Recently we have been waking up a tad bit later than usual, around 6:00am (instead of our typical 5:00am wake up) and breaking up our day into thirds. We do 7 miles, 7 miles, 7 miles, 7 miles (or the remainder miles).

This is working out fabulously for the time being!

Distant fire.

Ben making Ramen. 

Lunch #2. Dr. Slosh elevating his sore feet. 

Follow the Cascadia's.

Always following the foot prints. The Brooks Cascadia running shoe is the most popular on the trail by far, however, there are so many other shoes worn by hikers out there! This makes it interesting because we've gotten to know peoples particular print. I always know who I am following.

Pretty soon I will be able to scout out other hikers by smell.

Today we split the day up into thirds, having 2 long-ish lunch breaks and then a quick rest break near the end of the day. The last 3 miles to camp just about killed me. I (along with Dr. Slosh) am having a resurgence of nasty foot pain. It feels as though my feet are on fire with electrical activity! I think it is nerve related and hope it relieves itself soon, because it is very uncomfortable...

The rocks around here are gorgeous.

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?