Fri. Sept. 23    Miles today: 22.1     Total so far: 2,344.8      Miles to go: 294.8      No. CA N   Burney Falls Park

This morning was chilly, with clear sky to the south, but clouds in the north.  Even though we had 3 miles of hiking to reach Hwy. 89, we could hear the cars and trucks already.  We passed by very pretty Arkwright Flat with its meadow, and walked through the forest to the highway.  A half mile roadwalk (with lots of huge garbage transfer trucks roaring by) brought us to the impressive stone gate of Burney Falls State Park.  We walked in and had a nice chat with the ranger lady at the entrance kiosk.  She was very much interested in our hike, and also commented on the weather, which was looking ominous.  The “clouds to the north” now covered the whole sky.  “Don’t worry, it’s not going to seriously rain,” she said.  (And it turned out, she was right!) 

So we walked on to the store, which didn’t open till 9:00, and it was only 8:00.  No problem–we were very hungry and ready for breakfast. We got out our stove and breakfast stuff on the picnic table in front of the store, but we’d only eaten a few bites of our granola when a guy named Mark came by and invited us to his campsite for breakfast!  While he was making coffee, Bill tried out his hammock.  Was it comfortable?  Bill said  “Absolutely!  It feels great!”  We had coffee, juice, oatmeal, etc. with Mark, who works as a nurse.  He wanted to know about our PCT adventure, and we had fun talking to him till a bit after 9:00. 

Our box was waiting for us at the store, and wow, was it a good thing we showed up on a FRIDAY.  This time of year, we found out, the store is CLOSED from Tuesday to Thursday!  I was busy sorting out the contents of the box, when yikes!  It began to rain!  We quickly moved our stuff under the overhang of the store.  Bill was busy eating a breakfast sandwich he’d just bought.  He is feeling better, and his appetite is coming back, hooray!  I finished the sorting, bought some more stuff at the store, packed th packs, and we were on our way into PCT Section O, with the rain stopping.

We walked across roaring Burney Creek on a bridge where a dad and kid were fishing.  They had already caught one fat trout!  Not far from the bridge, we were back at the PCT.  A walk through pretty oak forest finally took us to the Lake Britton dam.  We got to walk acros the top of the dam, and then the PCT took off up the hill till we had an awesome view of the Pit River far below.  Then came a downhill to Rock Creek with its bridge and waterfall.  The PCT hiker grapvine had been warning that the creek water might not be safe, so we didn’t take any–just enjoyed looking at the falls.  Bill’s hiking today has been the best he’s done in a long time.  And when we stopped for lunch, he enthusiastically ate it all!

Once we left Rock Creek, we began the 8 mile, 2,000 foot climb up to Peavine Creek, where we planned to get water.  Bill did pretty well on the long uphill; he did have to slow down, but he never needed to stop and collapse as he’d been doing.  The fall foliage along the trail was just beautiful, too.  At Peavine Creek, Bill collected water, whle I took some photos of the autumn leaves.  On the other side of the road by the creek, some naughty PCT hiker had left a note on a “Sale Boundary” sign, and right by the PCT itself was a HUGE “Entering Logging Area” sign.  No kidding, as it turned out!  All along the trail after that, it was obvous that  selective tree-cutting was going on.  However, there were no workers today.

In the afternoon, the weather turned windy and cold.  It was almost like the gray clouds and th sun were having a war up in the sky.  We weren’t sure which would win, and fervently hoped it would be the sun!  The temperature was only 50 degrees.  Brrrr!  That was sure different from yesterday, when we met a fat rattlesnake sunning himself right on the PCT.  There was little sun today– Bill and I were wearing raingear and gloves just to stay warm.  After supper, we finished the climb up to Red Mountain, which included a very dramatic scene of huge powerlines “plunging down” into a deep valley.  We also caught a glimpse of Mt. Shasta, covered with clouds. 

But the long climb finally began to take a toll on Bill, plus the temperature continued to drop, till it was down to only 40 degrees.  He walked more and more slowly, till it got to the point where every step he took was an obvious effort, and by 6:45, he stopped and said, “I can’t go on.  I am wasted.”  So up went the tarp and we wore most of our clothing to bed inside the sleeping bags.  A bitter cold wind was blowing in the treetops.  I listened to it and thought, “I hope that wind blows AWAY the clouds!”  And I prayed for Bill.  We have less than 300 miles to go, now.  Please, Lord, help Bill to be able to make it.