Sept. 15, Thurs.–17.6 miles–No. CA M Belden

Thursday, September 15th, 2005

Thurs. Sept. 15        Miles today: 17.6                   Total so far: 2,203.3 miles      No. CA Section M   Belden

Bill had a rough night last night.  He felt awful, with some sort of stomach cramps, which finally went away, but I don’t think he (or I) got much sleep.  Since Bill felt so sick last night, we basically had just crawled into our sleeping bags, with no tarp–the result was this morning our sleeping bags were covered with dew.  Bill looked very pale and said he felt extremely weak and tired.  He only ate a few mouthfuls for breakfast and said he felt too nauseous to have any more.   Our hiking pace was reduced to “very slow”, since Bill felt too weak to walk at anything like our normal pace.  But we did succeed in following the old road all the way to the top of Spanish Peak, and we got a great view of Mt. Lassen up ahead, which made us both cheer!  We love Mt. Lassen–that’s where we first tried this amazing activity called “backpacking.”

After Spanish Peak, the PCT was mostly running through a very messy, trashy forest–hope they don’t get a lightning strike in there!  What a forest fire that would set up!  Groan!  But there was one interesting thing about it–almost all the trees look like a demented giant reached down and painted them a bright chartreuse green down to about 10 feet above the ground.  Very weird–but apparently that shows the depth of the snow around here.

Eventually we hiked by (high above) more pretty lakes.  Silver Lake had a perfect forested little island.  If we were camped there, a swim out to the island would be a MUST.  I tried to cheer myself with thinking about how fun that would be to do, but I was more and more worried about Bill.  Usually we stop for a rest break once in the morning and once in the afternoon, but he is so wiped out that he had to stop frequently, not to “rest” but to just plain collapse.  In spite of the frequent stops, we managed to reach the crest, where the PCT is a sandy trail through chaparral, and then at last we came to the big downhill to Belden.  It began with long switchbacks through the chaparral, among wonderful rock formations, some of which plunged right over the edge of the river canyon. 

Partway down we stopped for lunch.  I was starving, but Bill could not face eating anything.  All he could do was drink one cup of lemonade and another cup of Emer-gen-C.  He looked very pale.  Another backpacker came by and welcomed the chance to rest and chat with us.  He was from the Midwest, and wished he could live here in California, but couldn’t afford it.  We enjoyed talking to him, and I think it cheered up Bill a bit.  After lunch, we headed down to Belden, Bill first, because he said “Downhills are easier for me–I just let the gravity take me down.  If I go first, I can go fast and not worry about crashing into you.”  Well, the gravity pull must have been working well, because soon he was way out ahead.  I was moving right along, too, but I did slow down occasionally to look at views, till the shady woods took over the trail and the views ended.  Shade was a good thing–it was a very warm afternoon!

Near the bottom of the canyon, I heard th sound of an approaching train, louder and louder, but I could not SEE any railroad tracks.  Then suddenly, there was the train, right BELOW me!  That’s one of the few times i’ve had a bird’s eye view of a train!   Bill was waiting where the trail crossed the tracks, sitting in the shade and watching the train go by.  I joined him, and then…the train STOPPED.  We dared not try to climb between the rail cars to reach the trail on the other side, since we had no idea when the train might start again.  So we just sat and rested and waited till the train got going again and the tracks were clear.  From there it was a short walk into Belden Resort. 

The first thing we did was see if we could get a room for the night, but the staff guy said, “Sorry, we’re full up…unless you’d be OK with the tepee.”  Hey, a tepee is just a big tent–we could handle that.  So we put our packs inside the tepee and went to get something to eat.  But poor Bill could only manage a few bites of his juicy hamburger before he had to put it down.  “I just can’t eat,” he said.  So I finished my hamburger AND his, too.  As we ate, we were having a great converstation with another newly-retired couple who were touring California on a MOTORCYCLE!  They thought what we were doing was incredibly brave, and I felt the same about them!  No way would I dare try riding those mountain roads on a motorcycle!

After that, we went down to the Feather River to “sloosh off”, since no showers were available.   Then Bill took one of the foam pads that serve as “beds” in the tepee, and lay down outside in the shade of a tree, while I went off to do laundry and writing.  Then I was hungry again, so I went alone to eat, since Bill said he could no way face eating anything.  Needless to say, at this point I was praying for him like crazy.  I could not figure out what was wrong.  He had no fever, no sore throat, no “runny tummy”, no flu symptoms of any kind.  He just had no strength and couldn’t face food, only drink a little bit. 

When it finally got dark, I went to bed in the tepee on a very comfortable foam pad, serenaded by the river and the train going by.  Bill was sound asleep, and he seemed to be sleeping well, thank God.  There was no repeat of last night’s cramps and misery.

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