We left Old Station a little later than intended. Maureen lured me in with fresh coffee, then Cowgirl, and before we knew what to do we had a hot stack of blueberry pancakes placed in front of us. Yes, we had another great breakfast before our start out of Old Station.
The plan for the day was to hike the first 7 miles in the morning. Stop for a long mid day break. Then continue on to the Road 22 cache where we hoped there would be water (17 miles in to a potential 34 mile waterless stretch). If there was no water there this could end up being a parched walk for us.
On our hike to an overlook, that would be our rest stop during the heat of the day, we took a detour to the Subway Cave. This cool subterranean walk is 1/3 mile long through a lava tube. The lava rock floor is very uneven. Combine this with the narrow cone of light from your headlamp and you sometimes feel like you have vertigo. We turned our lights off in the middle of the cave. This is what "pitch black" really is. Lucky for us there was light at the end of the tunnel despite the disturbing name "rattlesnake collapse" at the end. Climbing out of the cave the temperature rose back up 20 degrees and we headed back to the trail.
We arrived at the overlook and our mid day waiting area around 11:30am. The sun was already hot and the only shade was on the backside of the pit toilets. Lucky for us we arrived just behind Chief and he was on the same game plan and... Maureen was there with the camper. So we had an alternate option for shade other than toilets.
About 4:30pm we pulled ourselves away from Maureen's traveling vortex. We made our way across the top of Hat Rim. About half way to Rd. 22 there is an abandoned lookout and weather station with several roads nearby. It was nearing 8:30pm and we knew our sun light was fading fast. By the map it appeared that we could take a road paralleling the PCT. The road would be less overgrown and in the fading light we wouldn't have to worry as much about stumbling over the bulbous lava rock trail. We happily took off down a well graded wide road hoping to sneak into camp just under the last rays of light. In 5 to 10 minutes there was a feeling of unrest. Something wasn't quite right and upon further thought the terrain wasn't matching up with the topo maps. As it turned out our brilliant idea led us in the wrong direction. We were glad to catch our mistake so early, but still lost 20 minutes of light. Frustrated we trod back to the junction. Near the junction I found the road we had intended to take in the first place. It was very overgrown and looked worse than taking the trail. Mental note; not all red roads marked on the topo maps are equal in width, maintenance, or general appearance.
Yeah! We made it to the Rd 22 cache at 9:15pm and it had lots of water. We took about two liters each and then found a flat spot for the night. There were limited flat and smooth spots large enough for the tent footprint so we ended up camping next to Chief. For the first time on the trail we cowboy camped. With little light pollution and close to a new moon the stars were amazing.
From the Rd 22 cache we slowed down. We only had 25 miles and 2 days to get to Burney Falls State Park. We did still get a decent start to the day in order to avoid hiking through the heat over the more open lava beds. On our leisurely stroll we ran into an asphalt truck driver where the trail comes near a road under construction. He was surprised to see hikers wandering so close to the road. We had a brief conversation, and before he said good bye he offered us two cold drinks. He said his son worked for this small company, Yerba Matte. What a coincidence, my brother was just working with a film crew at our family cabin this winter filming an advertisement for this very drink. Sometimes the world seems so small.
The second exciting event to our day of leisure was seeing Anish (sp?) fly by us. She is trying to beat the PCT record, obtaining the fastest known time. Ironically we were taking a 3 hour nap by a small stream to beat the heat after doing about 10 miles. I would guess that when she waved hello and sped past she already had 25 to 30 miles in for the day.
That night we camped in a not so picturesque, but flat spot within 10 miles of Burney falls state park. This gave us an easy morning hike into the park. We choose to take an alternate route into the park. This alternate follows the main creek and begins at the headwaters spring. The creek starts as a muddy pool then gradually gets larger as the bed elevation drops and more springs and underground streams find their way into the drainage. This is caused by the porous and non-porous layered geology in the area. Eventually the large creek cascades over the side of a rock band creating Burney Falls.
Once in the park we found the general store and got down to business. First up, we got a swirled soft serve ice cream; followed with a chocolate milk, then a package of meat and cheese for lunch. ...maybe we are not losing weight for reasons other than being girls.
While polishing off the rest of our lunch we watched hikers come and go. Most of them where staying at the park and before too long the picnic table we were at was full. Then we got kicked out of the vicinity for drinking beer on the patio of the general store. We all moved to the campground with Chief and Maureen where alcohol was allowed.
That night 10 hikers camped together. We polished off 6 or 7 packages of hot dogs (I think Maverick won eating 10) along with too many beers and some "Redneck Red" wine. Luckily for Cowgirl and I we knew Saturday was a sleep in day because we were meeting my parents in Burney to get my dog Xena.
Happy Trails!
Trail Stats:
Mile: 1,423
Day:86
Showers: 16
Bears: Still 1
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