Date: July 1, 2017
Miles: 1407.2 – 1430.1
Early this morning I was woken up by the large and very enthusiastic head of a German shepherd in my quilt and then the rest of it rolling on top of me, ready to play. Monster was giggling (it’s actually more like a deep ‘ho ho ho’) in the background so I knew he had something to do with it. Mike and his son Owen took us to the Rotary pancake breakfast downtown, which was a treat. I love the Fourth of July holiday and all of its trappings…the breakfasts, parades, music, cholesterol soaked foods…everything.
We stuffed ourselves and then Michael and Owen drove us back to the trail.
The next trail attraction we came to was Burney Falls, which was crawling with people who got to drive there and wear cotton clothes and walk slowly for hours. We took a few pictures, then blasted out of there. A quick trip to the gift shop made me claustrophobic, with all of the people milling about buying all kinds of things they don’t need. I’ve been those people before…I’m a sucker for cute tchotchkes, usually. This time, however, the abundance of unnecessary items overwhelmed and annoyed me.
After the short break, we headed up an 8 mile climb with humidity and the temperature also climbing well into the 90s. We stopped to dunk ourselves in Rock Creek, but then we had to keep climbing.
I got crabbier and crabbier with each mile as the heat sucked the energy out of me. I just wanted to stop hiking. Luckily, we ran into High Risk heading southbound, whom we hadn’t seen in a while, and talking to him was a welcome distraction. He said that he had a good time in Shasta, which we are looking forward to. Eventually, High Risk headed out and we did too.
As the sun started to go down, the mosquitos became more aggressive and I was no longer able to outrun them. I found the campsite that the boys had claimed and set up my tent super fast. I put all of my rain gear on and made dinner quickly as well. As soon as I could, I got inside my tent, read for a while and went to bed.
