Day 92

(Originally written on Tuesday, August 4)

I'm 40 miles farther up the trail today even though I didn't hike one step.

We (about 12 hikers) woke up in Old Station at the Heitman's to a forest fire that was ongoing. It hadn't gotten noticeably larger, but it hadn't gotten smaller either. Most everyone decided that it was time to get out of town and head up the trail. So after a failed attempt at hitchhiking, nine of us--with our gear--piled into the Heitman's minivan and traveled to Redding where we were dropped off at the bus depot.

I had been posting updates earlier on Facebook trying to figure out a way to get up to Burney and around the fire. Some great friends of mine started making calls on my behalf and I ended up getting a ride from a lady who was driving exactly by where I needed to go! So before I even really finished lunch, my ride arrived and I was on my way!

When I got to Burney Falls State Park, the air was cloudy with smoke and the sunlight was partially obscured. The resupply and bounce boxes I had here I forwarded along to my parents in Oregon and I'll just worry about them later. In the meantime, I used the camp store to resupply and it was so expensive I was wondering if I had done the right thing by bouncing my food box back home even though it was way too much food.

Tonight I'm camped with about 15 hikers and most of us are leaving tomorrow. I was able to get all my resupplying done this evening before stuff closed so I'm planning to hit the trail early in the morning. I'd like to get as much distance between me and the fire so that I don't have to worry about smoke issues. I'd also just like to get as much distance in during the cooler hours of the day.

I'm still trying to figure out what I'm going to do about this 40-mile section. I want to get it finished before I leave California, but that may not be possible.