Castillo to Burney Falls

The last views of Castle Crags leaving Castillo.

After we finished charging our phones and batteries at the camp site, we packed up and hit the hot and dusty trail again. Right before and after this town, the terrain has been slightly creepy - cobwebs everywhere, moths flying around you constantly, lizards scurrying away underfoot. The forest is very dry and dusty, and something you might think is a dead leaf beneath your footsteps could come alive as a moth, flying around your legs. Not to mention the swarms of gnats that tend to hover inches from our noses and mouths - not biting, just an unsettling nuisance.

Today had a big climb, and I was feeling pretty good, but Radio was having a tough day. They say Northern California is the toughest part of the trail mentally, and it can be hard to be stuck walking every day when there are so many new things we want to try. When our minds wander during the day, we are constantly struck with inspiration on how to live better lives back home - what habits to pick up, what new hobbies to master, how I want to decorate my next apartment or statement pieces I want to invest in for my closet - yet our reality has us trapped in a hamster wheel of 12 hours minimum per day spent hiking, and little else.

We ended up camping near a really nice fishing and swimming creek, washed our sweat and salt-stained shirts in the water, and attempted to make some instant pudding - apparently water isn't quite the same thing as milk - but we still had a few spoonfuls of sugary goop.

The mental challenge and disappointing landscape continue for the next day - we only do about 20 miles - and discuss quitting or skipping at least three separate times. It's hard to stress how draining the hike can be at times when to people in your real life think you are taking a vacation.

The next day was another bummer of a hot, dusty day. It reached 100 degrees and we had several long stretches without any water or shade on a ridge line, overlooking smoky mountain ranges. When we stop at one of the few cool springs of the day, we run into Dan, another southbound hiker we had met and camped with at Castillo. He's a really nice guy, and nerds out about backpacking about as much as Radio, so we had plenty to talk about. The next seven and a half miles flew by and we camped together at the next spring.

The next day is another scorcher as we enter Burney Falls State Park. 15 miles into our day we finally reach a nice swimming creek - where I completely eat it trying to walk down the sandy slope in front of about three onlookers. We swim and drink and see Dan come up behind us. We hike the rest of the hot and terrible 6 miles to the state park.

What a shock to the system. I had no idea it was Saturday, let alone Saturday of a three day weekend. The general store at the state park was packed with tourists, the car camping area was completely full of barbecuing families, and my hiker brain struggled to keep up with the yelling and buzz of activity around me.

I picked up my box of new shoes ordered from Amazon and unceremoniously tossed the old ones. I had put 686 miles on these puppies and my sore feet thanked me for finally retiring them. While the exterior had a few tears that really only developed in the last 100 miles, the tread had completely worn down and who knows what had happened to the insole.

We meet a few other hikers outside the store - I think we can recognize the smell of our own kind - and grab our treats including soft serve ice cream. Later we came back for deli sandwiches and Blue Moons for dinner.

We camped in the PCT camping section of the park for $5 and enjoyed our $1 8-minute shower, did some sink laundry, and tried to avoid moving too much in the heat before turning in for an early bed.

Burney Falls to Chester

We woke up before dawn the next day to do about 8 miles to The Guest Ranch at Burney Falls, a ranch with a small resupply store that we heard we could do our full resupply at instead of hitching into nearby Burney for a Safeway run. They also served meals, had showers and a pool, so it definitely seemed to be worth checking out.

Trail magic right before Burney Falls Guest Ranch.

Hikers signed all over the picnic table with their trail names.

When we got to the Ranch we ran into The Director and a few other SoBos relaxing and charging devices on the porch. It was brutally hot, but the owner Linda welcomed us with delicious strawberry ice cream while giving us the low down about her ranch. Everything was a self serve, keep track of your tab set up; and she also warned us about the "friendly" neighborhood mountain lion. We hadn't decided if we were spending the night or not, but we checked out the amazingly well stocked mini hiker store and took care of our 3-day resupply to Chester with new backpacking foods we hadn't tried out yet.

Friendly ranch cat - not a mountain lion!

We also signed up for burger lunch, when Dan walked in. He had camped at a different camp site than us last night and slept in, and the heat drove him to stop at the ranch. We were happy to see a friendly face again!

We had a great time relaxing and chatting with Linda about the hike, and she doled out some great advice. We decided to stay for dinner (make your own giant burritos) and head out while it finally cooled down outside. Dan was on board with this plan as well and we enjoyed spending the afternoon in A/C with wifi.

Dan and Radio enjoying warm trail magic beers.

An almost full moon guiding our night hiking experiment to beat the heat.

Once dinner was over, we started the hike out of the ranch. It was still extremely warm outside, but we ended up hiking well into the night doing 8 miles and using our headlamps and the bright moon as our guide. We set up in literally the worst tent site squeezed together and vowed to wake up super early the next day to beat some of the heat.

Starting the day with headlamps again was not fun at all, and the scenery turned into an "African safari" coined by Dan, as much as Radio tried to convince him that a safari is something you do in Africa, not something you are in - like the savannah. His cynical commentary is a welcome break on the trail and his pace keeps us energized and focused.

Today was extremely hot again and we busted out the "sunbrellas" after the water cache (aptly named Cache 22) for the 16 mile carry along an exposed ridgeline to Old Station, the next town and our goal for the night.

Apparently there were amazing views from this ridge but the smoke obstructed anything worth seeing, and the day dragged on. I opened a liquified Snickers bar for lunch, and could just feel the heat burning down on me. Radio has been struggling, mostly because he needs new shoes now too. By the end of the day we finally made it to the Subway Caves and a water spigot near the town, and we made it to the gas station where we filled up on chips and salsa, oranges and iced tea. We camped behind the gas station that night.

Chips and salsa for dinner - our favorite!

Our goal for the next day was 28 miles to Drake Ranch, where Dan was picking up his next resupply package. We ended up sleeping in and grabbing breakfast from the gas station - I absolutely love eating bowls of cereal and milk whenever we can - and actual coffee! We hit the trail and prayed that today would be a little bit cooler as our sources have been saying.

We entered Lassen National Park today and the scenery finally became pretty. We had some nice views of Mount Lassen, saw some nice creeks, and even had a break by a lake where we went swimming. While we were laying out and drying off from our dip, dark clouds started gathering and we heard a lot of thunder.

A full thunderstorm broke out as we walked the rest of the day to the establish campsite at Warner Valley where we were planning on spending the night. Due to new restrictions at Lassen Park, bear canisters are required for backcountry camping for the 20 miles or so that the trail falls within park boundaries. Camping at an established site allowed us to bypass this requirement.

We ran into two other north bound girls at this campsite, who said they had seen Dan at the ranch. Apparently his package had not arrived in time and he had to wait until the morning. We set up camp between intermittent showers and had dinner together before turning in for the night.

The next morning we said goodbye for now to Dan as we walked the 18 miles into Chester, a nearby town we had to hitch to for a milkshake, hot meal and resupply. Our plan was to stop here and use the grocery store to make and mail out our resupply boxes for the Sierras.

This lake - aptly named Boiling Lake - had steam coming off of it and it was a unique sulfuric color. Cool side trip this morning!

The morning went by fast, and I actually saw a mountain lion cross the trail about 20 feet in front of me as we got close to the highway. Thankfully it was running off the trail in the other direction, and that was all we saw of her. We easily hitched into town and continued our amazing streak of luck with hitch hiking.

Week 9: Castillo to Burney Falls to Chester

Castillo to Burney Falls

Burney Falls to Chester