Section 12. Burney to Castella

Section 12. Burney to Castella. 7-10 August

After the most relaxing stay of the PCT yet at Burney Mountain Guest Ranch with just 15 hikers passing through the two nights I was there, I was now ready to move on. As I walked down the drive past and past the pylon I realized that what I originally thought was a stork family was in fact an osprey family. Obviously there was good fishing for them on Lakes Baum and Britton.

It was an uneventful but fast 9 miles through managed pine forest to Burney Falls State Park. The centrepiece of this park was a 130 foot waterfall into a leafy gorge. The most remarkable thing about the waterfall was the fact that the water cascading over it had travelled underground from the surrounding mountains. It permeated porous layers of rock and flowed down channels on top of an impermeable layer. Most then rose to the surface and formed a river which plunged down but some lept out of channels halfway up the waterfall cliff.

There was a small store at the visitor centre so I bought lunch there, eating with Renee, who picked up her resupply package she previously mailed to the store. The  trail now passed along the south side of Lake Britton past a few more osprey nests and a large heronry. However, one only got glimpses of the lake through the trees, but it looked beautiful. The trail then crossed the dam forming Lake Britton and climbed up into the mixed forest.

There were a few springs for water enroute. P Step and Renee both caught me up at one and we had a brief chat before they both continued their separate ways. The forest was mixed with plenty of deciduous trees, mostly Black Oaks and Maples, and also a few conifers, mostly pines and Douglas firs. As the path climbed a few red firs also appeared.

During the mid afternoon I was in the Fir forest when I heard thunder. Then the skies darkened, the birdsong stopped and the chipmunks their holes. It was like walking into a Grimm’s fairytale. However the rain never fell and the lightning and thunder remained distant.

Renee was at a spring around 6 when I arrived at it. She has other commitments and there is real pressure on her to speed up and finish at an untenably early date. The pressure is getting to her a bit. We walked a while but then she sped off through the forest of large Douglas Firs now with a lush understory of oak and maple scrub.I walked until 9 when it was getting dark. I found a nice campsite beside the cool clear waters of the Peavine Creek and called it a day with 23 miles notched up. I had to put the tent up in the dark as the forest was so dense the full moon did not brighten up the glade.

In the morning I heard a few fir cones ricochet down from the treetops. Then there was a very strange almost electronic sound. I looked round but could see nothing. Then I noticed a squirrel coming down the trunk advancing in jerks towards me while making the sound. Obviously it had chewed through the twig holding the fresh cones some 120 foot up and was now trying to get rid of me so it could search for and feast on the cones. I have noticed squirrels have a vocabulary of noise. Frequently I hear them imitating the staccato shrill of the Scrub Jay’s warning cry.

I left soon after and climbed up to the ridge. Here there was a faint view of Mount Shasta. It was an enormous volcanic mountain standing 14000 feet dominating Northern California. It towered above everything else. Unfortunately there was a haze in the air which greatly tempered its magnificence. This haze was from forest fires up the west coast from California to British Columbia in Canada.

For the rest of the day the trail pretty much kept high on ridges and through saddles. It was an area which was harvested periodically with the logging companies being quite sensitive. 20-50 acres were cut, almost clear cut, but enough seed trees were left. The seed trees reflected the natural composition of the forest with Incense Cedar, Douglas Firs, and Sugar Pines standing huge, in a renewing forest of saplings.

The recently harvested areas made up only 5 percent of the entire forest with about half regenerating, and half old established forest, which was no doubt having areas in it mapped out for harvesting. In the recently harvested areas there were many colonizer plants like willow herb, and a whole array of different plants producing berries. All the bear scat I came across now was full of berry stones.

There were frequent views from the ridge over the vast forests of North California. The undulating hillsides rolled into the distance for 20-30 miles on each side until the haze swallowed them up. This was a region traversed by forest tracks, but it was vast and remote and wildlife, like bear and mountain lion, could thrive here.

In the afternoon Aladdin and Flower caught me up. They were hiking with Deb, my old hiking buddy from the windfarm areas in the Mojave and Mount Whitney to Forester Pass. I had not seen Deb for 6 weeks. However Deb was delayed in town so Aladdin and Flower continued, leaving her to catch up. I walked with Aladdin and Flower for the last 8 miles. We got to a camp by Alder Creek at 1830 and were all keen to stay rather than grab another 3 miles in the dusk. The next camp was rumoured to have a big bear sniffing around it. I was also keen for an early night and I slept well and woke replenished.

Flower and Aladdin overtook me soon in the morning as I stopped for my breakfast of granola on a log. Just as finished Sunshine came round the corner. She was one of the most popular and happiest hikers of the PCT this year, and was delayed a few days recently because she met friends. We often crossed paths in the desert and lastly at Mount Whitney nearly 6 weeks ago. She had made it through the Sierra unscathed also.

We started hiking and chatting, initially about the bear she had just seen a mile back on the track in front of her. The bear stood its ground initially and then turned and crashed through the bush fleeing in haste. We walked for about 3 hours then stopped for water and a snack and repeated this 2 more times while talking the whole time. We passed through Deer Creek drainage basin at a good pace and I only just had time to notice there were some magnificent Douglas Firs here with a bole of 6-7 foot and perhaps 160 feet high. I think Deer Creek was too deep to be logged profitably.

By lunch we reached the McCloud River. A fisherman here told us fishing was no good today as the dam release further upstream had stirred up too much sediment. However he told us that it was trout from this river which were taken to New Zealand to populate the rivers there as they did not run to the sea.

In the afternoon we marched through more magnificent Douglas Firs and grandiose Incense Cedars over a ridge and down to a campsite at Trough Creek. The miles flew by in easy conservation and by dusk when we reached camp I had done 27 and Sunshine a few more. It was a deep camp in the tall trees, well protected and insect free so we cowboy camped with the alarms set for 5 as we both wanted to do about 20 miles tomorrow.

We set off at dawn and did a brisk walk up the hill for a couple of hours. Suddenly in a clearing Mount Shasta burst upon us. It was an enormous mountain, a volcanic cone which completely dominated everything around it in Northern California. I had not really noticed it before because it was hidden by haze, but it was now clear and Mount Shasta revealed her full snow-clad glory.

After this revelation the path now descended in a series of twists down through conifers and then mixed woods to the deciduous trees lining the Sacramento River. Here Sunshine went north to the town of Mount Shasta to resupply, while I walked south for 2 miles to Castella where I had previously posted a resupply box to. Our early start paid off as we reached our destinations around 5.

This last section did not offer any great natural beauty as it threaded a path through the extensive forests of North California, but it was wild and remote. It also offered easy walking and we were able to do about 100 miles over 4 days. The last two days were greatly improved by Sunshine’s cheery company who had the wisdom of someone twice her age. The next section of 150 miles to Seiad, were through a region called the Trinity Alps and I had been told it was a beautiful area, North California certainly needed it.

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