Burney Falls State Park to mile 1426.8.
Miles hiked: 10.3.
Got up and packed my bed and went right to the waterfall overlook to enjoy my breakfast (first one) there without many people. What a cool waterfall, with the main surface stream pouring over a volcanic rim but also a bunch of smaller streams gushing out all along the porous cliff face. Black Swifts flew to and from their nests, and there was nothing else except the misty cool rumble of falling water.
I called Libby and my parents while waiting for the store to open so I could get coffee and more breakfast (this delay waiting for the pack added a day to what I'd originally planned for this stretch). These things acquired I found my way up to a brand new gazebo sort of thing whit picnic tables and electrical sockets and a bit of Wifi signal.
Spent most of the morning there with various hikers. I'm still sort of in the middle of a big slug of hikers that is coming to be known as the Belden Bubble, resulting from 4-5 day's worth of arrivals at Belden getting sucked in by rave and then all leaving on the same day when it was over. A lot of these hikers are fun to be around, so it's not too big a deal, but it will still be nice as the bubble thins out along the trail. We had a productive conversation with some of the rangers about how the hikers sort of tend to take over this nice charging gazebo area and end up keeping other park visitors away with our breakfast beers and "clean" clothes laid out to dry and gave them some ideas about setting up a hiker area off behind the visitor center where we'd be a bit out of the way.
The pack arrived around 1:30 and I got it out and everyone came up to smell that new pack smell ogle at how clean it is. Got it packed and got the straps all adjusted right and drank some more water and joked around a bit more then got hiking around 3.
The trail wound through some forest then crossed the Lake Britton Dam blocking the Pit River, and the lake surface was almost neon green with algae. Up and over some more hot forested hills with that same artichokey smell (I think this is from a frilly leaved shrub I don't know he name of) then down a little to Rock Creek. A bridge crosses here and it's supposed to be some of the best swimming along the trail, but it ended up just being a little wading pool (middle fork of Feather is best so far) and I just dangled my feet in while making dinner and being social with various other hikers I've met at various points along the trail and who had converged together at this one point and time.
Dinner eaten I clipped my waste belt around a very full belly and walked another 4-5 miles. The trail emerged out of the forest a few times into shrubby meadows and I stopped and looked out over the rolling hills and it was so silent except for an occasional flicker call and a rustle of so soft I couldn't quite tell exactly when it started or ended, it just became apparent. I made camp just before dark on an abandoned log road and checked out the features of the pack some more and did my chores and got to sleep before 10.
Birds:
Black Swift
Osprey
American Robin
Spotted Towhee
California Quail- fledglings
Oregon Junco
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