16 Jun Day 55 – Burney Falls

At mile 1432.7. Hiked 20.3 miles today.

I spied a rookery with large storks of some sort nesting all over a dead tree. Occasionally a stork would spread its large wings and take off in flight. It would swoop back with a long stick in its beak to be woven into one of the platform sized nests.

I made the side trip to Burney Falls where I also stopped at the General Store to buy 2 ice cream bars and a little ice to keep my 50 sausages cool (now down to around 35). At the Falls I met Bobby Blaine (@thebobbyblaine on Instagram) who hiked the PCT in 2017 (a record snow year) going through the Sierras in May. More recently he hiked th Florida Trail.

He really wanted to get me some trail magic, but I didn’t need anything. 

I crossed this dam. The water from the turbines was blasting out of a pipe near the bottom.

Here is the footbridge over Rock Creek. I ate lunch here next to the creek and was so exhausted I fell sound asleep. Later after I awoke I heard kids voices in the distance. A dad and his kids came walking across the bridge. I mentioned that I had been sleeping earlier. The dad said, “I know. We passed from the other direction earlier when you were asleep.” I hadn’t heard a thing.

Just 100 yards below where I slept, Rock Creek passes over these Falls. The kid had climbed down to the Falls pool where he caught a couple of trout.

People:

Around 5pm Soda passed me as I was taking a blogging break. He had gone into Burney, but it had taken a long time because he had to hitchhike and the road was closed to one lane causing a 30 minute delay in both directions. Looks like I made a good decision to bypass Burney. I was planning to hike just a little further, Soda was going on until nightfall in order to make up lost time. He’ll be to Canada in no time.