6/17/14 Tuesday. Trees as Far as the Eye Can See. 6/18/14 Wednesday. Section M Ends at Belden. (M means climbing up then down then up & down again)

17 miles

We were up at 5:00 to finish the big climb in the forest, there was no view, only trees, for hours.  Finally we were out  on top of a ridge with a view...but all there was were treed mountains.

Crossing from one forest to another.

 On we hiked in forested quiet until we came to Lookout Rock. 

I'm carefully peeking over the edge.

Miles and miles of forest. 

This is a spring where we got water.

We crossed a road and saw a Ranger truck parked in a pull out by the PCT. I hoped we would run into him because I had questions about tree identification. 

Sure enough, we saw him, a really nice young guy, a hydrologist studying stream reinforcement along the trail. He helped me identify White Fir and another fir I kept getting mixed up with it.  The other was a Red Fir which I'd not heard of before.  He also identified a blueberry oak bush and a chinquapin bush for me. 

Taking a break along the trail, my pack rests beneath fir trees, new growth at the tip of each branch is bright green.  Peggy & I both commented on the brilliant blue of the sky. 

An example of the forest trail, soft needles under foot but no views except trees and more trees. 

I shouldn't complain, after the desert, the shade of trees should be very welcome but it's been chilly all day and when the wind hits our sweaty shirts we get cold fast. 

Late in the afternoon, crossing the paved mountain road going into the town of Quincy,  we had a short break then started to do a few miles of a long climb.  We wanted to break it up a little and camp in a flat spot halfway up that we hoped to find. 

On the way up we passed a historical marker on the side of the trail marking a wagon trail route. 

Peggy has been interested in knowing what existing trails were used to link together parts of the PCT, here's one trail. 

The Beckwourth Trail (a wagon train), it includes a quote from James Woodworth August 17, 1853.  They "found the ascent very difficult",  we concur! 

On the way up the last 2 miles before camp the sky was pretty with these clouds but we wondered if they were bringing the chilly weather. 

Upon reaching a small spring where we'd planned on getting water, Peggy said she wasn't feeling well.  Maybe she needed food & water, maybe being chilly for a few days had taken more energy than she was able to produce on our limited diets. After we both had food, water and rest we moved on, trying for 3 more miles before camping. We made it about 2 miles and we were not able to go further.  We found a flat spot and made camp.  Tents up, food hydrating 100 yards from camp, we ate and turned in.  Neither of us have food for another night out, we have breakfast and lunch for tomorrow so we need to get into Belden tomorrow, 18 miles away. 

 

6/18/14 Wednesday. 18 miles

The alarm went off at 5:00 am but It was really cold so we gave ourselves another hour and got up at 6.  We hiked with jackets on for a bit,  it was cold in the forested shadows.  A few times we came out to clearings of rocky outcroppings that dropped steeply away to small lakes set in granite bedrock. 

You could see the pattern of wind on the lakes even from this high up. 

Lupine along the trail smells sweet.

Bracken fern grows in the shaded forest near a boggy meadow. This was a nice change from dark forest and was just before we crossed over onto dry sandy granite mountain tops covered with low growing brush.  

 This begins our long descent into Belden. 

From an overlook the next valleys are red colored soil and pretty barren. 

As we begin descending this is a look at our back trail just below the trees. Nothing but brush and granite sand. It was 4 miles of switchbacks through this, then scrub oak, then black oak then lots of poison oak as we descended in elevation along the trail.   After 2 hours of switchbacks we popped out beside railroad tracks, crossing those we walked a dirt road right into the Belden Lodge & restaurant.  We got a room, showered, did laundry, rested, got our dry clothes and went to dinner. Some of the thru hikers we'd met in the trail were here having dinner; Homeless Guy, Benco, Alpaca & we met Bones and Reboot, older guys doing the thru hike that started in March. 

Tomorrow 6/19/14 will be a zero day for us, hydrating, building calories etc. we will hike again June 20th for another 6 days, our next destination is Old Station, California, another resupply stop for us. 

Somewhere in the last few days we passed our 800 mile mark and tomorrow we'll cross the 1/2 way mark of our California PCT hike (850 miles)!