We headed out to the road to hitch a ride back to the trail in Burney. Within a few minutes a nice woman pulled up, opened the back of her truck, we hopped in, and we were on our way. After getting dropped off we began heading north again until we reached a side trail to go see the bridge from Stand By Me. We took a quick nutrition break and continued on our way. After about 8 miles we arrived at Burney Falls. We took the detour to view the beautiful falls and then headed to the store for lunch. The store had microwaveable frozen burritos and we also got ice cream. After an extended break we continued our hike to the Lake Britton Dam and then farther to camp on top on a hill. Shortly after we pitched our tent it began to rain. We climbed in our tent, had dinner, and rested for the night.

More Snow

We woke up and headed out on the trail. The forest was green with dogwoods blooming everywhere. There was also poison oak and blowdowns everywhere too. 10 miles into our hike we had a decision to make, either stay on the trail where there was exposed snow traverses that someone had to be rescued off a couple days ago due to a slip or take a road and bushwhack our way through. Since this was a long journey we chose the safer option. We headed off trail to find the road. At first the road walk was fine, but then it turned into manzanita hell. We pushed our way through the bushes with bruises and scrapes on our bodies. Then to our surprise we came to some snow patches that we had to traverse. We put on our microspikes and made our way across. We continued going through bushes with alternating snow patches for a few miles. Then the road and trail merged back together. Most people were taking the ridge but we had to go around some rocky summits by going to lower ground and back up to the ridge. We could not find a well walked footpath, so route finding was cumbersome. The snow slope was steep at times and with the afternoon melt the snow was soft. Before we knew it the afternoon became evening. We found a dry tent spot and decided to camp there for the night and continue the snow hiking in the morning when it was more firm. It was 7pm and we had been hiking for almost 11 hours, we were tired. We pitched our tent, ate dinner, and quickly fell asleep.

More Blowdowns, More Snow, More Mosquitoes, More Poison Oak

The next morning we woke up determined to get passed the snow. The trail was snow free followed by snow slopes and then blowdowns. Our bodies were still tired from the day before and the hurdles we had to continue to climb over, under, and through began to wear on us. We decided to hike a shorter day and let our older bodies recover some. After getting passed Grizzly Peak we found a camp near Deer Springs. We had two deer visit our camp through the afternoon. It felt good to rest. I used the downtime to make a makeshift camp sandal out of my spare insoles. It appears that I lost one of my camp sandals on the snow day.

Trying to Recover

The following morning we got up and tackled the day. We still felt tired but we were determined to make our miles. We hiked through the green forest with more blowdowns and poison oak. After 7 miles we arrived at the trailhead where there was trail magic! Yay! We had chairs to relax in while we heated up some cans of soup and raviolis for lunch. After a while we packed up and continued our way to camp. We crossed a bridge with the glacier blue water coming from Shasta. It was beautiful. Then we gathered water and began our final climb to camp. There was a nice breeze keeping the bugs at bay.

Hike, Eat, Sleep, Repeat

We woke up feeling rested and we were tossing ideas through our heads. Do we continue our journey or should we stop because it just has not been enjoyable with the bugs, blowdowns, sketchy snow traverses, and our bodies are just not recovering quick enough to cover big miles. My feet hurt! We hiked, talked, hiked more, and thought things through. After we got to a trail junction where there was possible trail magic we went to the bridge to check it out and get water for the night. Score! There was chips, candy, and ice tea mix. We took a break and then I had a crazy idea. Since we are at a trailhead where we could possibly get a hitch to McCloud. There was beer and pizza. So, we did it! We started walking the road and about 4 miles in a van pulled over to pick us up. When we got to town we ordered 2 beers and a pizza and life felt okay again. After we had lunch we got another hitch to Shasta. We are going to double zero to figure things out and let our bodies recover.

Thanks for following along!