41.03139,-121.75040
Shared camp last night with Yellowtoe and Cyclops, both from Indiana. YT, who plays guitar on cruise ships in the winter to support hiking in the summer, is thruhiking and C flew out to join him for 10 days. Bad luck for him that his vacation time happened when YT was hiking the hottest and most forlorn stretch of the PCT.
Bade farewell to them and soon found myself hiking along a lush green lake (Crystal Lake), fed by several sizeable rivers and sporting many water birds – ducks, geese, herons – and a fish hatchery.
Also, and perhaps not coincidentally, a bear. Perhaps several bears, judging from the size and number of fairly fresh bear turds in the trail- a couple dozen in a hundred yards.
It appears that the bears must have dens in the thickets above the hatchery. They emerge at their leisure, follow a secret bear path through the hatchery fence, have their way with the fish, and return to their dens taking what must be immensely satisfying dumps on the trail as they go.
I sang out so as to not startle any bears, stepped up my pace and quickly made it past the bears and the 12 miles or so to Burney Falls State Park, where I had a resupply box waiting.
I stopped first at the falls which emerge from a lava bed (the river channel above it is perfectly dry) to drop via a thousand fissures through a hundred foot rock wall and into a pool of deepest blue.
Burney Falls
It was a good 20 degrees cooler in the deep ravine of the fall and there was a 50 foot rock scramble down from the trail to the waters edge. Although their were no “No swimming “ signs, the park was doing nothing to facilitate swimming either.
I started to head back up but then considered that I would never likely be here again and have a chance to swim in such a beautiful pool. It would be cold (the water is always 42-46F), but I would get over that.
I did, and emerged just a few seconds later remarkably refreshed and much much cleaner. Why it even felt like I was pampering myself. I was having a PCT spa day.
I retrieved my package from the general store, and for my next treat, ordered a ham and cheese sandwich at the deli along with a root beer float.
I opened my package and found about 2 pounds of delicious brownies baked by Cathy – more than I could carry but also more than I could eat. My dilemma was solved when Yellowtoe and Cyclops arrived. They were more than happy to help me eat the brownies down to a manageable size.
My next treat was to wash my filthy shirt in the bathroom sink, creating a bit of a mudflow, but resulting in a shirt that was much lighter, and merely dirty, rather than disgusting.
Feeling clean and refreshed I packed up my supplies and started hiking again in the 90+ heat up a dusty trail into the next mountain range. I arrived at my camp 8 miles later just as covered in dust as when I began my spa day. But at least I was clean for a while.