July 13th
To get to Beldon in 4 days we need to increase our mileage and have “big” hiking days today and tomorrow. So, we hiked for an hour and half before a breakfast of granola and protein powder.
We are finishing mid morning break at a spring near the “A” tree when Phoenix and Peaches arrive. We chat a few minutes but the need to make miles calls us onward.
The higher mileage is possible because of several factors: we are hiking at a lower elevation, on well graded trails and very little time is needed for photos or for turning around and looking back at the views behind. The woods look pretty much the same in either direction, mostly secondary growth grown up around the stumps of large old trees. What a tale they could tell.
Occasionally there are some old growth trees that time and loggers somehow have forgotten, but they are isolated and seldom have enough neighbors to actually constitute an old growth forest. There are more roads than ten years ago. And existing roads have been “improved” (paved) for the benefit of motorized travel, not an improvement for hiking solitude.
We are surprised to see several section hikers and weekend backpackers. Ease of access is about all that recommends this area for such activity. Considering all of the really remarkable places in the Sierra for a 2 or 3 day trip, it’s hard to imagine anyone choosing this part of the trail as their first choice to go backpacking. These are the miles that through hikers do in order to connect the other parts of the trail that are more scenic, that appear in everyone’s slide shows.
With fewer views we make good miles. We do cross an occasional crest and get our very first looks at far off Lassen Peak, holding the promise of more interesting mountains ahead.
We catch up with Ruth at a creek and join her for lunch. No trouble finding shade on this section.
As afternoon shifts into evening the warm air rises through slanting sunlight and we watch a layer of smog, its shade of brown unmistakable, rise above the mountains. Probably it originated in Sacramento and San Francisco. The mountains are no longer high enough to block its progress from the central valley, and it rolls in creating an eerie layer before sunset
Water on the crest is still scarce and we make dinner with Ruth at a junction where a spring lies a quarter mile away. After filling ourselves with mashed potatoes and country gravy we hike on another 4 miles until darkness descends. An overgrowth of chaparral obscures the small peak where we had hoped to camp and we hike on to a saddle where we set up a make shift camp after 28.8 miles, our longest day yet on this trip. We slide into the bag tired and glad to get horizontal.
Perhaps because everything is so quiet in this lightly visited area, the “earth’s hum” is especially prominent tonight; even the Carrot can hear it, which is unusual.
