Soon after hiking out I ran into a post which held another PCT-register. I checked who were ahead of me to find out that Photo-op, Rocket and Birdman had passed this point the day before. Same for the Canadian family. Would be great to meet them again, haven’t seen them since Mammoth. Unfortunately none had written down their arrival-times in the register, so there was no way for me to interpret how far ahead they might be. I wrote a happy-birth-day message for Jukebox, whose birthday it’s tomorrow and went started chasing the others.
The surroundings were much of the same, and still the smoke of the forest-fires lingered in the air. In short; another day of smokey forest… Back to podcasts and listening music again. At several points today I had cell-service. I used the opportunity to make phone-calls to my buddy Gino and my brother. Good times catching up with both of them!
After 5 miles of gradual climbing it the trail dropped into the valley again for a long, long stretch. It was another boiling day and I was keen to get down to the river fast. There’d I would rest my body at the establishment of Belden, where hopefully I could get my hands on some icecream, soda and food. With only 2 days of hiking left, my food-bag has shrunk significantly and with a lighter pack I was making good pace down the mountain.
Just before arriving in Belden I heard somebody call out: “Flat Earth!!”. It was the Canadian family! Hurray! It was real fun to catch up with Gord, Johhny and Alex. We chatted about the past couple of sections and hiked down together towards the cafe next to the river. Once there, all of us ordered burgers with fries. Sheltered from the burning sun with a large fan blazing, it was comfortably cool inside. All was good.
Around 1630 after grabbing a quick ice-cream and a drink, we hiked out again. An 11 mile climb awaited, which none of us were psyched about.. The afternoon sun was still shining brightly and within a couple of minutes of uphill, all of us were dripping with sweat. Stopping often at one of the many springs to fill up water-bottles was a necessity. Eventually I hiked past the lads and pushed forward with a hiker I met today called Same Same. Just before dark we made it to camp, and after checking my mileage it turned out I did another 28-mile day. Let’s see if I can keep this stride going!
It’s understood, I said it many ways
Too scared to run, I’m too scared to stay
I said I’d leave, but I could never leave her
And if I did, you know I’d never cheat her
But this I ask, it’s what I want to know
How would you feel, if I should choose to go
Another guy, you think it’d be unlikely
Another guy, you think he’d want to fight me
She’s a dove, she’s a fucking nightmare
Unpredictable, it was my mistake to stay here
On the go and it’s way too late to play
I need a girl that I can train
Dumpweed – Blink 182
