PCT
2009 Belden to
Cassell
During this week, a storm system moved in. It was nice to have the coolness, but that storm that made everything so wet also brought the lightning and started a lot of fires which proved troublesome the following week.
8/4 Cold Springs
"I walked 19 miles today, 13 miles of that uphill. It was a great ascent. New shoes and a full stomach do wonders. I’m considering upping my daily miles this section from 17.5 to 20. We’ll see…"
8/5 Soldier Creek
"The weather is colder now. It feels like 60’s all day and 50’s at night. I wish I had my 4 lbs of warm clothes again! This afternoon’s walk was peaceful and long. I sometimes dwell on memories. The longer I’m out here, the less cemented I am in the world of 2009 NYC. My dreams at night and my thoughts during the day skip from decade to decade. It’s amazing what a store of memories I have – childhood in Minnesota, College in Los Angeles, my time in Pittsburgh, now New York."
8/6 Swan Lake
"I’m craving certain foods – more potato chips!, bran muffins, Irish soda bread, short ribs in a reduced red wine sauce. Hmmm! Back to my Lipton noodle packs…"
8/7 Drakesbad Ranch
"Yesterday was quite wet and I crashed at the end of the day in camp. Despite the cold and wet, I had a good hike, running through entire albums in my head. This morning I woke up cold and wet." I met some other hikers who said there were possible fire related trail closures up ahead. So, instead of charging right into that, I joined them for breakfast at the Drakesbad. The people there were so nice to us hikers. I was offered a free hot shower (my first in over 2 weeks!) and got a great breakfast at a nice discount. It was so nice to warm up again. At noon, word came in that the trails were temporarily open again, so I got going right after lunch.
8/9 Just South of Old Station
The trail was closed down from here north 33 miles to Cassel. Fortunately, a trail angel couple – Firefly and Firewalker live in Old Station.
I ran into Fireweed, Mr. Clean, and Hula Daddy and we got in touch with Firefly (are you still following this?) who let us stay at her compound and arranged rides for all of us. What a great host!
At Terminal Geyser
