Belden to Bushcamp
28.7 miles
Mile 1315.3
Morning came quicker than I’d have liked. My feet screamed as I walked gingerly to the bathroom. I felt better after the shower, despite it’s not quite hot enough water. After some coffee and a snickers bar, we finished packing and left our room to find the trail.
The day started off with a short, but sketchy road walk.
After playing frogger through traffic we made it to the trailhead where we found an old stamp mill.
From there, the trail began what would be a 5000 ft ascent over 14 miles…
We were moving slow, but not as slow as this guy.
The beginning of our ascent consisted mostly of the charred remains of long dead trees.
Eventually we climbed up above the burn area, entering into Lassen National Forest.
We spent the rest of the morning ascending through lush forest, crossing waterfalls and creeks every mile or so.
Towards the top of the climb the trail opened up quite a bit.
When I reached the highest point, I found a nice rock to chill on to take advantage of the phone signal I’d found to upload some blogs.
Spikes caught up to me while I knocked out my chores. Half an hour later I was heading back down the mountain in pursuit of Spikes.
There were TONS of butterflies on trail.
As the day progressed water became more scarce, so I was forced to collect water from a less than desirable source. This would be the first time in over 600 miles that I filtered my water.
From there the trail meandered through differing terrain until I reached our campground where Spikes was waiting.
I arrived at camp just past 7 to find Spikes prepping her dinner. I laid out my ground sheet to join her for the meal.
Shortly after I’d arrived a hiker named Tags walked up. Turns out he was about a week behind us in the Sierra, so had utilized my blog for the snow report. The three of us chatted for a bit before he decided to setup camp nearby.
Spikes and I were both feeling absolutely beat from the long day and intense climb, so sleep came easy.
Cheers!