The last few days we have been ahead of schedule. We meet up with Katie's parents Saturday and even with 2 low mileage days in a row, we werte a day early into our meeting place, Burney Falls SP. The good news is they had a General Store with soft-serve ice cream and coin-operated showers, so we had no problems waiting here for a night. We sat in the shade for a few hours eating meat and cheese and drinking water when we saw Chief come around the corner. He had taken the day off today and was camped at a nice site. Chief and Maureen asked for us to join them and that they could have up to 8 people at their site. Sure enough, an hour or so later there were 8 other hikers that showed up. We grabbed a bunch of beers and hot dogs and all camped together sharing stories of the trail.
On a separate note, I am in desperate need of new shoes and thankfully they arrived in the knick of time! My shoes have over 700 miles on them and have been through the Sierras, numerous stream crossings, as well as lava rock. Needless to say, the tread is wearing. Worse than the tread are the condition of my insoles. The cushion is gone and I am wearing through the material in places. The constant dirt in my shoes doesn't help with the wear either. I have a pic below of my old shoes and insoles compared to the new pair. Nasty!
Also, my feet are starting to feel a little weird too. My toes go numb often while hiking and at rest. My feet also swell quickly when I am not walking. I have tried to be good about elevating them, but it seems to help only temporarily. I have asked other hikers about their feet and it seems to be a common problem. I guess that is good to know I am not alone, but still doesn't seem right. Hopefully the new shoes will help!
Lastly, Midnight Chocolate and her dog, Sleeping Dragon (a.k.a. Xena), had a reunion here in Burney today. Sleeping Dragon will be with us until Ashland! Katie's parents flew her in and will be spending the next couple of days with us.
We plan to make numerous changes with gear to help lighten our loads, especially since we can send stuff back with them. We decided to not use the stove until after Crater Lake as it has been so hot that cooking seems more of a chore than anything. We also got rid of our cups, extra pens, batteries, etc. and Katie swapped out her backpack. Hopefully these changes will help make our loads more comfortable.
Trail stats after 87 days and 1424 miles:
# snakes: 22
# bears: 1
# days rain: 3
# pushups: 580
# nights indoors: 12
# showers with soap: 17
# loads laundry: 13
Pics from top to bottom:
- Budweiser trail magic!
- The trail into Burney
- Lava fields
- Old vs. new shoes
- Katie and Xena
- Hat Rim
- More awesome trail magic
For those of you following the girls, they look amazing! They are relaxed yet focused on what needs to happen before they begin the next leg of their trip. We met three of their "co-hikers", Gumby, Double-It, and Texas Grit. They are in great company. And now with Sleeping Dragon on guard they are definitely in good hands or should I say paws. It was hot when we dropped them off at Burney Falls, but they were looking forward to the next swimming hole ONLY 7 miles away. They kept referring to that 7 miles as ONLY and I kept thinking ONLY 7 miles in this heat and I would be crawling into the swimming hole. They are truly on a "Happy Trail".
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