Day 82, Out of the Rabbit Hole

Part 3, Northern California, Day 82

Out of the Rabbit Hole

Miles: 22.73

Total Miles: 1299.25

I woke up at 6am, and I was completely drained. I got up anyway because, what the hell else am I gonna do? I looked across the mountains and couldn't see any smoke plumes, so the fires I saw last night must've died out. Belden was 6 miles away, so I began the long descent. 

Have I mentioned that I hate long downhills? They destroy the body as it constantly absorbs all that weight. I walked as fast as I could though, and it seemed like it took forever. I finally started to see signs of civilization. A highway down below, a river, and then some railroad tracks.

I didn't need to resupply here, but the trail runs right through this place. They do have a bar and restaurant, so I planned to get breakfast. I walked slowly down the road at 8am, with a growing sense of awareness that something strange was going on.

Then I started seeing the tents. It looked like hundreds of tents nestled together along the river. 

The number of tents grew the further towards Belden I walked. It looked like a mini Woodstock. Some ultra hip fellow walked past me and said, "must be pretty surreal for you, huh?" 

Yeah. Now beat it.

He told me there was an electronic music festival/rave this weekend. Ah! So that explains all the glassy-eyed individuals aimlessly roaming around. That's still no excuse for them to be dirtier than me. It was weird to emerge from the wild to this scene. What's funny is that, among these people, I was the strange one. I received many stares as some dirt covered guy with a huge pack wandering wide eyed through their little village. I continued on. 

Belden is a pretty cool place. I'm not sure why this place exists, but it does, so I went inside. It was much more calm inside, and I sat at the bar to order breakfast. 

I saw several thru hikers, some who'd participated in the weekend fun. It did seem pretty fun, I must say. Part of me wanted to go outside, and ask the filthiest raver for whatever designer, synthetic, nightclub drug he was peddling... But I had hiking on the mind. I ordered from the limited menu; chicken fried steak, again. I needed some major calories and this was the only thing on the menu that might provide that. The order took ages, but it ended up being really good. I did find one long black hair in my food. I put it aside and forgot about it. The way I've been living this summer, a hair is nothing. 

I ate fast. I knew I had to get going or I'd start finding reasons to stick around. I checked out the small store to see if I could use anything. All it sold was beer and canned food. I went outside and walked toward the highway. 

I saw hikers I hadn't seen since the desert. I talked for awhile, and it seemed that nobody was climbing out of Belden today, since it was so hot. Most people were staying with a local trail angel in her yard a mile away. I was ready to hike though. The climb out of Belden was slowly becoming infamous. Rumors spread about how long and brutal it was. I did my homework. It had over 5,000 feet of elevation gain and went uphill for 14 miles. That's big, but I wanted to get it over with. I walked over the North Fork of the Feather River.

After crossing the road I checked out this old stamp mill.

I saw that something special was coming...

Here's Belden Resort from a bit higher up:

You can see some of the tents along the river:

It was nearly 100 degrees down here. I was all the way down at 2700 feet, after all. I filled up on water here, at the base of the climb. 

I passed Bonus Miles. It was good to see someone I knew taking on the climb today. 

After about 500 feet I was soaked with sweat. 

The clouds far up looked disgusting, but soon burned off. 

It was so hot and steep that o wondered if I should've waited until early morning to climb this. I kept moving.

I was hypnotized by how purple these flowers were: 

I entered Lassen National Forest! It was a reality check of how far I've hiked since The Mexican border.

All day I charged uphill. The trail was beautiful and the weather was perfect.

I stopped and dunked my head in Tinder Creek. 

I passed a few more hikers on my way up. This was the biggest and longest climb of the home so far, including the High Sierra Passes, and it was hot out. I was hiking out of my mind, and in a real groove. 

After 5 hours of hiking uphill, I finally arrived at the summit and saw to the North a sea of green trees. I could see Mt. Lassen in the distance. I sat for awhile and stared. 

I continue to be in awe of Northern California. I thought about doing more miles today but opted to camp at the first good spot. I am pretty tired. 

I paused at this sign for awhile. 

In my mind, I pictured a mountain covered with frogs and ruled by a giant frog king wearing a lily pad crown. I figured that the reality of it was probably not as awesome, so I moved on. I made camp on an uncomfortable dirt patch, too tired to care.

The sunset was all I cared about...and dinner, of course. I made potatoes and stuffed whatever I could dig out of my food bag into it. Cheese, some tuna, who knows. Everything has become pretty normal out here. I'm also, by far, the dirtiest I've been. 

Now check out the colors: