Pacific Crest Trail: Sierra City-Belden

Day 35
1198-1221 (23ish)

After a long restless night, I opted to sleep in an extra hour before hitting the trail. The morning walk was beautiful and we were joined by a guy we've crossed paths with often, Banjo. He walked with us until our lunch break 14 miles in where we got water from a seep. I was passed by a man who was running with trekking poles and a small camelback backpack. Later down trail when he was stopped briefly we talked to him and discovered that he was going for a new PCT speed record (supported) and was on his 26th day. With some rough/uneducated calculations he should be finishing in another 25 days. We decided on making the 9 miles to a campsite with water and we were both dragging our feet with about 3 miles to go. Just then, we came over a ridge and caught site of a giant mountain in the distance. By looking at a map we were able to figure out that it was Lassen. This brightened our moods and we talked about how far we felt from home compared to where we started. I was feeling pretty proud although my feet are definitely begging me for some new insoles. We set up camp with a couple who has been sectioning for the last few years and a guy from San Diego who just started in Tuolome meadows. Once in my tent, I was hearing weird whistle noises and stomping around on nearby branches. A deer spent about 30 minutes running around our camp making a loud whistle/sneezing noise.

Day 36
1221.5-1240.7 (21.2)

In no rush to get to Belden, we opted for another slow easy morning getting out of camp. We took a break near a road hoping for some trail magic (preferably pancakes) but had no luck. Instead we sat and ate cheese crackers and laughed until our stomachs hurt for a reason I can't recall. The water sources today were mostly off trail so we had to do some extra walking whenever we filled up. We were debating between hiking a 25 mile day to a wet camp vs hiking 23 to a dry camp and packing out water. Instead, we decided on neither and got water at 20 miles then searched for a spot for about a mile down trail. We spent the evening laughing at ourselves, cooking obscure meals, rubbing feet, play cribbage...all the usual. Tonight I decided to try to sleep in my tent as a bivy since the cowboy camping was a bit buggy, we will see how it goes!.... (It was great!)

Day 37
1242.7-1267.8 (25.1)

6,800 up 5,000 down. Holy macaroli, I'm sitting at camp and feel like my body is going to shatter in a million places. The morning climb was very very long and quite dark in the dense trees. There was quite a bit of poison oak lining the trail so I was being extra careful with each step. At my 10 o'clock break I was feeling pretty paranoid about touching my shoes to take them off and touching my trekking poles to roll out. After about 30 minutes I continued my unexpected climb up the mountain. As I finally started to see blue skies, the poison oak started to disappear and the view was beautiful. A much different kind of beautiful, it was just tree covered mountains for as far as I could see. Today's lunch was a bit longer even though we knew we still had 10 miles left after hiking 15 but the view was gorgeous and the rest was needed. With about 5 miles left we crossed a road that had a cooler with some PBRs in it and we decided to drink while we walked. I hit my wall at about 23 miles and DRAGGED my feet the last 2 to camp. It's hard to describe the pain that I feel at the end of each day. It's a combination of irritated joints from all the pounding, the sore and tired feeling muscles, the bruised bottoms of my feet and the blisters rubbing all around my feet; but somehow every night when camp is set up and I'm stretching out it all feels worth it. Sure the views weren't spectacular today, sure we had our physical and mental battles but at the end of the day we accomplished a lot and became closer to our end goal which is pretty dang cool.

Day 38- July 20

1267.8-1284.43 (16ish)

We woke up early in hopes of having a full afternoon in town and thankfully it worked! The walk into Belden was pretty rough both mentally and physically. 5,000 ft elevation drop in the last 4 and a half miles or so took its toll. The trail was lined with poison oak making it impossible to look anywhere besides directly at your own feet. While moving fast both of us began to get dizzy. The trail angel picked us up within 30 minutes and showed us around the house. We stayed in a small granny flat with a nice couple. We showered, organized our resupply boxes and then made the .25 mile walk down the street for laundry and milkshakes. Along the highway were blackberry bushes full of ripe blackberries. We did our laundry and I had a strawberry milkshake, vanilla milkshake, ice cream sandwich, and some fries while waiting. On the walk back we picked a bunch of berries and then settled in to our home for the night.