Day 82 - Sunday, July 18

At the Charm Motel in Burney  (mile 1411.3).  Walked 20.6 miles today.

Last night, we agreed on a 6:30 am wakeup.  I woke up at 5:30 (closer to our normal wake up time) and not remembering that agreement, started getting ready.  Frank woke up and gave me a "what are you doing" look.  I then realized my mistake but the damage was done.  I was up and wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep at this point.  We got up slowly and packed up while watching the sunrise from our camp.

Rugrat happened to be camped about 50 feet away but we didn't see her in the dark last night.  She did 40 miles yesterday and is doing 30 for the next few days in order to meet her boyfriend on the 21st in Dunsmuir...100 miles or so up the trail.  While Frank and I were packing up, a cow and some calves wandered into our camp.  Mama cow wasn't happy to find us here and mooed at us from about 30 feet away for a while before finally leaving.

I headed out and called home while I walked.  Smoke has drifted into the area with the change in wind direction and it obscured some of the views.

I got to the water cache (named Cache 22) and filled up with enough water to get to Burney, the next town 18 miles away.  There were a bunch of others here and Frank rolled in after about 20 minutes.  We gathered water and then set off.  Frank is a little slow as she's not feeling great today, so when I got a message from. J-PRO that there was trail magic 6 miles ahead, I took off, promising to save some fruit for her.

I did the 6 miles across some volcanic rock in just under 2 hours, passing the 1400 mile marker in the process.

When I reached the trail magic, it had been mostly depleted by the horde of hikers in front of us.  No fruit left, but I did get some chocolate and starbursts.  Tracy, the trail angel doing the magic was really cool and I hung out here and talked to her for about 45 minutes until Frank rolled in.  After she had her fill, we set off into the quickly rising heat.

As she was still moving slowly, we put together a shopping list as we walked and then I took off to get to town and get the things we needed so we were all set when Frank arrived.  I tore off at a pace faster than anything I've hiked so far on trail...or possibly ever.  I held a 4.4 mph pace for the first 3+ miles.  While it was flat or slightly downhill, it was also 90+ degrees out which didn't help.  I finally had to slow down when I hit an uphill stretch and started feeling nauseous.

From here to the road, I slowed down considerably but still made the total 6.7 mile stretch in well under 2 hours.  I got to the road and had a hitch to town within 10 minutes.  I checked into the hotel and then ran over to get the shopping done.  I got to the hotel right after Frank arrived.  I went to take a shower and because my clothes are filthy, I got in the shower with them all on to act as a pre-wash.  The amount of dirt that came off was appalling.  I think my clothes were more than 50% dirt.

Anyway, Frank and then J-PRO (the three of us are in the room together) showered and then we started laundry.  We then walked to Safeway to get some dinner and then ate while watching TV, finally turning in about 10:30.