Belden to Old Station

Belden:
Belden is a super small town stop on the trail. Crossing over the tracks you literally cross over into a whole new world. The town is known for its weekend raves.  The PCT takes you right through the heart of the festivities. It appears to be a cross between country fair, burning man, and hipster hang out. We looked quite out of place walking through the hordes of bikini and board short clad campers, some carrying around decorated parasols. The quiet of the trail leaves you in a bit of shock when you are all of a sudden around so many people.

In recent years they closed the post office at Belden. If you want to receive a package you have to mail it to The Braatens. These are local trail angels that take hikers in and hold resupply packages. Luckily, they live far enough away we could not hear the rave music through the night.  We picked up not 1, not 2, but 4 packages here. We were lucky enough to receive 2 care packages on top of our normal resupply and new sleeping pads. Thank you to all of those who wrote us such nice notes and words of encouragement. This helps us keep on truckin' even on those rare difficult days. I will note the gift that received the most laughs and questioning looks was the paddle ball and condoms package. "Why..." And "who...". We had to explain our failed badminton conquest. This combined gift could only come from my physical education and heath teacher friend. Keeping us active and safe...

Back on trail:
Once again, what goes down usually climbs straight back up. We got an early start on our day out of Belden. The trail climbed for 5,000 feet out of town through a South facing exposed burn area. We knew if we hit it early enough we could stay in the shade of the hillside until we were through the burn. Luckily the climb only took half the day and the rest was on easy rolling terrain.

Our second day out of Belden we hit a major milestone. The Halfway Marker! It felt so great to reach it, but also to know that we still have 1,325 more miles of great hiking ahead of us. The only downside to the day was that it was one of my worst days. I was happy to make it to the halfway marker, but wanted the day to be over so I could fall asleep and wake up to a whole new day. I am not sure why, but for some reason I woke up exhausted. I felt like I was drugged. I also had rapid movement diarrhea. Crappy! (literally) I went slow and it seemed like all I could do to make it our 21 miles that day.

Luckily my halfway hell day did go away. The third day out proved to be much better hiking for me. I must have slept hard, because I don't remember waking up at all that night. Usually I wake up at least once or twice during the night. Our third day we entered Lassen National Park.

At the recommendation of our guidebook we had intended to stop in at the Drakesbad Ranch for a drink and possibly dinner before finishing our last 2 miles of the day. When we got to the turn off we found two other hikers. It turns out management had changed recently and dirty hikers trash was no longer welcome. Oh well, we had a snack and settled on a new camp spot a little further up trail. However, we got side tracked just a half mile down trail walking through the Warner Valley campground. Chief was camping with his wife near the trail. We greatfully drank an ice cold lemonade and visited before intending to head out. Then Chief said his wife, Maureen, was slack packing him tomorrow and offered us the same option. Hmm, it didn't take long for us to decide that making this our stopping point for the day and getting more miles in tomorrow without a heavy pack was a darn good idea. Then we switched from lemonade to beer.

Slack packing:
Slack packing is when someone takes the majority of what you normally carry in your bag for you and you hike with just what you will need for the day. We were so lucky to have this opportunity. We were also lucky to camp with Maureen. She made us fruit, bread, and eggs for breakfast before we set out at 6am.  I kind of felt guilty passing Lefty with my next to nothing bag.

In addition to our wonderfully light bags we also received a little trail magic. 3 miles out of Old Station we saw a banner on the left side of the trail reading "Hiking Fools". We veered left on a path that lead us out to an open camp area with a ring of camp chairs, coolers, and our hosts, Pocahontas and Legasouras. They hiked the trail previously and have come back to provide trail magic. We enjoyed cold soda, watermelon, and bagels with Chief and Mr. Clean.

Old Station:

We rolled into Old Station around 3pm.  What a luxury to cover 24 miles before 3pm.  We found Maureen at the Hat Creek RV park and campground.  Thank you so much to Maureen for shuttling our extra gear around for us.  What a life of luxury.  At the small hat creek store we got milk shakes and some tacos since it was
Taco Tuesday.  Yeah!  Hat Creek campground also had showers and laundry.  We know it won't last long, but at least when I meet up with Mom and Dad i will only have 3 days of stink instead of 7.

That night we got two meals.  We made our Knorr rice meal and Maureen treated us to homemade chili and fresh bread.  What are we going to do when she leaves Chief?

Happy Trails!

Trail Statistics
Mile: 1,378
Days: 82
Showers: Averaging 1 per 5 days!