Since we had to wait for the Belden post office to open, I “slept in” till 6:30, then got up to see about making coffee for all the hikers.  When I walked into the kitchen, I discovered that the Braatens had left two big platters of watermelon slices and fresh chocolate zucchini muffins. So I snagged a muffin while hunting for coffee supplies.  Everything was there except filters…so I improvised with toilet paper!  It worked fine, and as various sleepy, tousled hikerheads emerged from their various spots, they were very happy to see hot coffee!  But for thruhikers, a muffin, watermelon and coffee are just an appetizer, not a serious breakfast,  so pretty soon we were all making the 0.25 mile trek down the road to the Caribou Restaurant for big HOT breakfasts.  Before we left, though, I washed all the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen, while Bill talked to Mr. Braaten about gold mining. 

Turns out that the Little Haven property does include a gold mine!!!–BUT there are so many government rules now about how you can mine and all the procedures and equipment, that ordinary folks like Mr. & Mrs. B can’t afford to mine on their own property.  And this is the case for many of the small goldminers along the Feather River.  Their operations are all shut down.  Only the “big guys” who can afford the required equipment are allowed to continue.  Mr. B said that a few “little guys” have banded together and are sharing equipment.  Good for them!  But to add insult to injury, now the US Fish & Game department has decided they will no longer plant fish in the Feather River.  The result is that there are very few fish, and those few are wild, wary and hard to catch.  So the Feather River canyon has gone from being a busy, prosperous place (goldmining and fishing) to a place that’s barely surviving, thanks to government regulations.  Grrrrr!

Once the kitchen was all cleaned up, Bill and I walked the quarter mile down the road to the Caribou Cafe.  We had the “Hiker Special” breakfast–really good!  The place was filled with other hikers, and what was interesting—nobody ordered coffee; instead we were all having fresh fruit milkshakes!  Awesome!  We walked back and went hunting for Mrs. B so that we could get a ride to the post office.  Turned out she was working on building a retaining wall behind her very thriving vegetable garden (so that’s where the yellow summer squash came from that we ate last night!) 

At the post office, which is basically the enclosed front porch of a house, we were greatly relieved to find our box waiting.  It had everything we needed, so all I had to do was divvy up the food and put it in our food bags.  We wasted no time then in heading back to the trail, still disappointed because we’d hoped for an early start in the cool of the morning. It was 10:30 am before we were able to start, the day was already hot, and it’s a 14 mile long 5,000+ foot climb up out of Belden, at first going up the Chips Creek canyon, then on up into the mountains.  There was no shade for some time, because the canyon had a forest fire a few years ago, and there are no trees left in the fire’s path.

The trail at first was in much better shape than 2005–no need to literally fight your way through the bushes while feeling for the trail with your feet!   It was  a hot day (I put up my umbrella for shade to hike under!), but many creeks crossed our path– at one of them a hiker was pouring water over herself!  I didn’t try to hike too fast, because I knew from experience that this is one LOOOOONG climb up.  Chips Creek nearby was very pretty, cascading and roaring down the canyon.  The trail had obviously been worked on, with all blowdowns cleared, and the trail tread very nice.  Finally we came to a sign that said, “This section of the trail was maintained by the California Backcountry Horsemen.”  THANKYOU!! 

But just beyond the sign, oh my! We were once again climbing over and around blowdowns, fording creeks, and even dealing with a bit of snow. Sometimes it was hard to figure out where the trail went.  And some of the creeks were so deeply gullied by snowmelt runoff that it was hard to get across–we had to climb down steep, eroded creekbanks, cross the creek, then climb up the other side.  It was a mess, but we persevered, with a plan of stopping for water at Poison Spring, which is totally misnamed–the water there is wonderful, and it’s actually not too far from the top of the big climb.

By suppertime, we were up at the top. It’s a rocky ridge with amazing views.  Mt. Lassen to the north was surrounded by impressive thunderclouds, and when we looked south, there were more thunderclouds behind us!  Overhead, the sky was a gorgeous blue.  We were sitting near the trail enjoying our food, when  a number of young guys passed us– they were on a tear to be in Chester tomorrow night!   I’m sure they’ll make it–in fact, Bill and I figure we should be at the Chester road by tomorrow night, too.

Today was kind of tough, with the late start, the heat, the uphills, and then the messed up part of the trail.  The mosquitoes got pretty bad by 6 pm, so when we stopped for the day, we set up the net tent, and now they are whining and humming all around us, trying to get in.  We’re up on another rocky ridge, with a very pretty orange sunset.  One nice thing was, I had NO back hip problem today because it was all uphill.  I took one Motrin when we first started, and didn’t need any more after that.  Tomorrow the trail will go up and down, so we’ll see how I do.  Looking forward to heading into Lassen!

Walk to Rauros: West bank near Amon Hen

The Williams family (Nancy & Terry & their nephew who was visiting) were up at 5am to be sure all of us “earlybird hikers” got at least some coffee, cereal and toast  before we hit the trail at 5:45. They are awesome folks! And the trail was awesome, too, pretty much all day, and that was good, because it’s only 24 miles to Belden, and our next resupply.

Back on the PCT, we did the nice comfortable climb up to Buck Summit, stopping for a second breakfast along the way.  There were no blowdowns on the trail–hooray!  I wouldn’t have wanted to hike this section a couple of months ago, though–it was obvious that there had been a lot of trees down, but the trail gorillas had recently (you could tell by the freshlooking woodchips, sawdust and cut logs) cleared them all out of the way, AND fixed the trail tread.  Thankyou, trail gorillas!!

Another great thing about the trail today was that it was so well-marked.  There were silver diamonds on the trees, main points labelled with signs (so you know where you are) and excellent signs at junctions.well-maintained trail tread and no big uphills. We were in forest a lot, but through the treetrunks we could see big canyons, huge dropoffs and dramatic cliffs. The treetrunks in this area are “painted” with fluorescent green lichen down to “snow level”, which looks like it’s about 10 or 12 feet deep.  Whew!  That’s a lot of snow!  Glad we didn’t have to deal with any of it! 

Clouds were building up in the east, and we could see rain falling in the distance, but it was the kind that doesn’t even hit the ground.  Around noon there were a few rumbles of thunder.  It was a very warm afternoon, and I was thinking “A bit of a shower would sure feel good, but I’ll take a pass on the lightning & thunder!”

By early afternoon we were out in the clear with a 360 degree view above timberline! Wow! We could see way down into the Feather River canyon, and we headed into the zillion switchbacks that take you down to Belden. I took a Vicodin and was able to sail down with no pain, only by the time we reached the bottom, my “downhilling muscles” were pretty fried.  What an amazing trail experience that is, though!  You start in what feels and looks like a high alpine zone with dramatic rocks, awesome views, scrubby trees and groundhugging plants, and by the time you’re down, it’s like you are in the green jungle, with (sigh) poison oak hanging over the trail.   The switchbacks at the top of the descent are pretty steep, but the lower you go, the longer and gentler they are.  At one point, the trail goes along a cliff, and it almost looks like you could jump off the trail right into the river, except that wouldn’t be a very good idea–it’s a LONG way down!

Finally we crossed the railroad tracks, and on our VERY tired feet, came walking into Belden Town resort.  Not bad, though–it had taken us from 6 am till 3:30 pm to do 24 miles!  We revived with lots of lemonade (3 tall glasses each!) and burgers at the much improved restaurant.  A kind motorcyclist let us use his cell phone to call the Braatens, and Mrs. B. said she’d come get us at 4:30.   Other hikers began drifting in; first to arrive was Noga, from Israel.  She looked exhausted, and collapsed on a bench in the shade to wait for her friends. 

Mrs. B picked us up, took us to Little Haven, and showed us the ropes…there’s a shower, but no laundry (other than rinsing socks) and no food (except for a bit in the morning, and whatever might be in the refrigerator.)  But when we went to the pile of resupply boxes to get ours, oh no!  Our box was not there!  We asked Mrs. B about it, and she said, “Oh, it’s at the post office.  If you’d called me a couple of days ago, I would have brought it here to the house.”  Megabummer!   The reason we sent it to Little Haven was to AVOID having to wait for the post office to be open.  And how in the world were we supposed to know to call her?  If we’d known, we could have called from Honker Pass.  We were very disappointed.  Our plan was to leave early tomorrow morning, but now we have to wait till at least 9 am, and then I still have to sort the food and put it in the packs.

So Bill and I claimed a couple of beds, I washed our socks and hung them out to dry on the deck, and then I scrounged in the fridge for dinner ideas.  I came up with some salami, yellow summer squash, and cheese, so I made a sort of stirfry concoction out of it.  Bill and I were the first hikers to arrive at Little Haven today, but by 6:30 there were a lot more.  The deck was full of hikers sorting their resupply boxes and trading stuff.  I actually got a couple of items that other hikers decided they didn’t want!  And since the river was just across the road, a group of young guys decided to go swimming.  We thought about going, too, but again, we were just too exhausted.  Bill spent most of his time just collapsed on the bed.

It’s a very warm night, and even with the windows open, almost too sultry to sleep well.  But I love listening to the sound of trains going by on the other side of the river!  I did pray, though, that all will go well with getting our box tomorrow.  Bill and I agreed that when we do the PCT again, we will skip Little Haven and send our resupply box to Belden Town Resort. That way, we don’t have to deal with the post office at all! 

Walk to Rauros: The Argonath