race against the clock

Day 88 ~ miles 1407.4 - 1423.5

Since we hiked until after dark last night, we slept pretty late this morning.  The extreme heat totally sapped our energy, and I felt as if I could sleep forever.  What a fine site the stream that we crossed this morning was: the first on-trail water source for the last 33 miles.  We did it, we survived the infamous Hat Creek Rim.

Our next stop was Burney, a small town about 7 miles off the trail, to buy food for the next section of trail.  Fortunately we didn't have to stand on the heated, unshaded asphalt for too long before a kind gentleman picked us up.  Of course, our first priority was to eat; we've learned the hard way that it's not wise to go to the grocery store hungry, especially as a thru-hiker!  We dined at an all you can eat pizza/salad bar, paired with a huge fountain soda with unlimited refills, it definitely hit the spot!  Then to the grocery store, followed by loitering outside while we organized our food.  Thru-hikers do a lot of loitering; consider having no car, no home, no place to stay.  We've got to have somewhere to hang out, preferably in the shade.  The people of Burney were incredibly friendly, and our town experience was short but enjoyable.

Back to the trail, we hiked a mile or so until we stumbled upon a "water cache", which was more like a hiker's wildest dream!  A picnic table with shade, solar shower, cabinet stocked with canned food and toiletries, stove to cook on, and cooler stocked with sodas were just some of the amenities available.  We had to get to the Burney Falls State Park store before it closed to pickup a package.  Time was running short, so we couldn't stay to enjoy the cache.  We hiked quickly to the state park. and figured that the trail to the store there would be clearly marked.  We hiked and hiked , until we stopped to check our maps; we should've already arrived at the store, we thought.  We had missed the trail by more than a mile, and only had 20 minutes to retrieve our package.  We took off, nearly running down the trail and made it to the store with only minutes to spare.  After that near-fiasco, we sat outside of the store with several other hikers to relax.  The ranger kindly asked us to leave after dark, so we hiked a short distance into the woods where we're camped with Thor and Ferntoe.