PCT 76 – Burney Falls

Daily Miles: 20
Total Miles: 1427

After Beardoh finished writing the blog last night, he came back to our campsite and found that ants had covered his backpack, hammock and quilt. The trees his hammock were hanging from were crawling with ants. We ended up moving his hammock to two different trees. SweetPea even sprayed DEET on the tree straps to ensure that the ants wouldn’t come onto his hammock. Luckily things quieted down and we both were able to get to sleep.

We had a really warm night of sleep. Probably the warmest night so far on the trail. The heat wave we are in seems to extend even through the night.

We headed back to the trail at 6:50am. Within the first six miles of the day, we came upon two trail magic locations. At the first spot, we had sodas and signed the picnic table along with all the other hikers who had passed through. It was fun to look for the names of other hikers we know and to see when they came through. The second trail magic was a cooler of beer and we all shared two bottles. Gazelle and SweetPea felt a little tipsy walking up the trail. 🙂

We entered Burney Falls State Park and look an alternate trail to the falls which passes the headwater pools of the falls. We could see how the water accumulated into a stream and then a river before going over the falls. We took a trail down to the base of the falls. The temperature of the air was so cool near the falls and it felt so good after walking in the heat. He falls were really beautiful and we stood admiring them before we headed back up the trail.

We headed straight for the general store to get some snacks and to take a break. MountainMan was dealing with a migraine headache, so we figured it would be best to relax in the shade for awhile. We went to the store and got some snacks (corn dogs, ice cream and nachos) and then chatted with the other hikers there, some of which we hadn’t seen in over a month.

After hanging out for at least two and a half hours, we decided to head out and try to get another 11 miles in. Before we left, we went to a spigot and wet our bandanas, shirts and heads in an effort to start off feeling a bit cool. The temperatures were really high and the sun felt really intense.

Once we left the park, we did a fair amount of climbing and started to get some nice views of the green mountains around us. After five miles, we came to a creek and all of us sat with at least our legs in the cool water. It felt so good to cool down a bit. As other hikers arrived at the creek, they all went in the water as well. Before we continued on, we again wet our clothes and head in order to cool ourselves down.

We got to camp around 7:30. We are dry camping with no other hikers around. The night is very still and warm again. We decided to wake up early tomorrow in order to hike in the cool temps of the morning. It seems the heat is going to stick around for awhile, so we need to modify our hiking hours.