Day 1, 2022 - Burney Falls, CA

Middle Falls, McCloud River, CA

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A beautiful sunny morning in Northern California! Cold but beautiful. We drove in the early morning with almost no traffic for 2 hours from Yreka to Burney Falls SP. It was a decent road and there was no rushing. At the park I activated Runningbird’s SPOT and then she launched her pack up onto her back and headed out on the trail. She was definitely anxious and looking forward to getting started so she could finally put an end to the California sections. In the car we had discussed all the bizarre events of both the trail, our nation, and the world since starting out back in 2019. And there was a lot! We had to really look for any silver linings.

An afterthought: Mentioning the start of the PCT in 2019 above made me think of a visitor we had last week. Our friend Clax who we had met on Day one of the PCT in 2019 near Campo had called. He was coming to Seattle for a weekend dance competition and wanted to come by for a visit. The timing was perfect as Runningbird wanted to discuss the lingering snowpack in the Trinity Alps and the two of them had an opportunity to review some maps and updated satellite imagery do see that it was doable. We laughed as Clax told Runningbird that he refers to her as the “bad ass” when discussing her with other trail friends. Peggy also even remembered the “Soulful Peanut Soup“ we shared that very first night on the trail!

After leaving Runningbird at the State Park Beau and I headed back toward McCloud on highway 89. Several miles down the road I pulled over were I had a cell signal to check on the SPOT tracking. Uh Oh! I must have not held down the “track” button long enough when I powered it up as there was no signal. Dang! Hopefully she’ll catch that for the next morning. Once down to McCloud (I haven’t checked for a bakery yet, but it’s a fairly small town) I topped off with fuel at the Valero station ($6.29/gal compared to $6.75/gal back in Yreka along I-5) before heading for Fowler’s Campground where we would hang out for the next several nights. It was a nice, quiet NFS campground along the McCloud River. I was so cool backing the rig into our assigned spot on the first shot with plenty of folks watching. I wanted to do a high-five with Beau but he was still snoozing and had missed it all.