The sad truth about resupply stops in town is that nothing comes for free. Sure, there's the whole looking forward to showering, doing laundry, eating, and sleeping in a bed thing, and getting there inevitably involves several thousand feet of descent from the height of the mountains.
No Rave Here
Only a few miles today, all descending down a lengthy series of poison oak choked switchbacks into the town of Belden for a day of rest and resupply. Known for raves attended by thousands of people each summer weekend, the town was blissfully quiet and empty on this Monday morning. "Town" is a bit of a misnomer when it comes to Belden.
Coppertone Strikes Again
Some days everything seems to go right, and this was one of those days. Yesterday's good fortune of spending the night at Nancy & Terry's cabin in the woods was perhaps the most relaxing and satisfying surprise of the entire trail thus far and the trend only continued this morning when we were greeted with coffee, pancakes, bacon and eggs for breakfast.
The Unexpected
This is going to be a very short post as I fight the sleep that is beginning to hang on my eyelids, but the uneventful miles today quickly morphed into a most unexpected evening. Three miles before a road crossing in the late afternoon, a handwritten sign placed next to the trail described a family that was offering to host thru-hikers for the night, a mere two mile walk down the road.
The California Blues
Already mid-July, and I'm still in California. This is one long, though beautiful, state. With the Sierra gradually drifting behind us, the trail is inching lower and lower in elevation each day and tomorrow we'll briefly dip all the way down below 3,000 feet--an elevation the trail hasn't descended to since it followed the Los Angeles aqueduct over 700 miles ago.
The Psychology of Gear
I've wanted to write this particular post for quite awhile now, but it's never felt like quite the right time until today. As we began our traverse of the upper slopes of the Sierra Buttes, the loose broken rock uttering the occasional tinkle like shattered glass beneath my feet, my mind performed its customary morning wandering and eventually landed on a traditional hiker subject: gear.
Food. Did I Mention Food?
The bulk of the day was spent getting into and out of the charmingly small town of Sierra City for a resupply, a couple of town meals, and whatever attempt to clean ourselves up that we could cobble together. Only a mile and a half from the PCT, it's a convenient stop in a one street town comprised of only a restaurant, a general store and grill, a church, and a post office…