Day 104 : Stand by me

1st August 2013
Mile 1397 to mile 1429 : Hat Creek Rim Lookout to Rock Creek Bridge
Mileage : 32
Average mileage since day 101 : 23.5
About 5 years ago i was completing my Master's at Manchester living in a suburb called Withington sharing a house with Dave, Tom, Helen, Sarah, Ted, Carrot Top and Simon. I remember one winter's evening watching a film called Stand By Me, a coming of age story about group of boys exploring the forests of the American outdoors together one summer. In one scene, the protagonists are wandering across what they think is a disused railway bridge high over a river when suddenly they are surprised by train coming directly toward them across the bridge and after much nail biting on the part of the viewer they escape unscathed and continue their adventure. Today i crossed that same railway bridge and incorporated it into my through hike from Mexico to Canada along the Pacific Crest Trail.
Following my ordeal yesterday afternoon on the Hat Creek Rim i was determined to get down early to escape the baking heat and the sharp rocks of the lava flows, and so was up and doing the early morning hiker hobble before the sun was up. I loosened up quickly and hiked as.fast as was possible over the rocky terrain and before long was down off the rim and crossing the last lava flow before making it thankfully to the first natural water since Subway Cave 30 miles ago, and sat in he shade for almost 2 full hours rehydrating and tending to my still sore feet. Later that afternoon, much recovered after my long lunch break, i detoured off the trail.a short way down the now disused railway line towards the bridge on which the pivotal Stand By Me train scene was filmed. The railway line has long since been removed, so there was no danger of me having to inadvertently reenact the scene from the film, but the bridge was still there towering above Lake Britton far below and i sat contentedly in the afternoon sun high up above all the pleasure craft zipping along the lake below. Given the bridge was technically off limits to the public, i decided not to linger too long on the bridge and crossed back across a nearby road bridge before enduring a short and painful road walk to Burney Falls State Park where i intended to camp for the night. My road walk complete i headed back to the trail and the falls via the campground store for an well deserved icecream and a couple of beers. Icecream and beer in hand, i made my way to the river to soak my feet and found Dr Slosh, T-Rex and Rocky by the river doing the same thing. Infuriatingly the river in which we were soaking our feet was actually too cold for our sensitive feet, none of us could manage more than a few seconds before it would become too painful. The reason the river was so cold is that its source is only a few hundred metres upstream. Apparently it is one of the places in the world where an entire river, i.e not just a small stream or creek, emerges from the ground in this way. I was tempted to go up river to see it, but it was in Tue wrong direction and i couldn't justify the time as i still wanted to make another 6 miles before nightfall, so i had to content myself with cold, painfall feet as proof. That evening the 4 of us managed another 6 miles to Rock Creek taking me to my biggest mile day in a while at 32. Surprisingly, my feet didn't hurt at all during these last miles, no doubt due to a combination of the ice cold water and the 2 beers i had had prior to the 6 miles. Usually a 30+ mile day means finishing in he dark, which i try to avoid as my head torch is nothing special and only really illuminates the ground directly in front of me and is mostly useless for anything else. This proved problematic when we arrived at Rock Creek as none of could see the campsite which was somewhere nearby, so in the end we all ended up sleeping directly on te bridge itself, and that turned out to be a very good decision. The nights are still usually too hot to warrant my high performance sleeping bag, but the creek right below us cooled the air considerably to the point where i was just right temperature-wise as i got in my maggot. Also, the river provided a great source of white noise helping me pass out even quicker than normal. A good end to a good day.








The first sign where Mexico is farther away than Canada, I'm getting there slowly but surely