Belden

We got a hitch from Bishop to Mammoth from a trail angel Debi. Worked out great, she’s also letting me store my bear can at her house till I get back. Thank you! I then grabbed a rental car at Enterprise at Mammoth airport and drove us the 5.5 hours north to skip the seriously melting fast second half of the Sierras.

I camp outside of what I think is the only store in Belden. I wake up at 5AM and Seven and I are on the move by 5:45AM. The trail starts off up a side of the mountain overlooking the river. Beautiful views for the first climbs of the day. Looking at the map it’s the most uphill we’ve done in a while.

Luckily there’s plenty of water on the way up, I stop twice and at one crossing actually slipped on the rocks. Woops, these rocks are a lot more slippery than back in the desert. As I cross the third water crossing it’s time to get my feet wet. I go in up to my knees and it’s refreshing.

As I continue up the trail I enter the burn zone from the Dixie fire. It’s scarred, charred and ultimately destroyed. As the days heat warms up I want to get a move on but I also just spent 3 hours bush whacking through zero trail at all. This section needs desperate maintenance. My morals slipping.

Finally the trail appears and I see snow ahead, damn snow again. I toss on my microspikes as it’s a traverse across a steep slope, yuck it’s slush too. These spikes are useless anyways. Seven goes first, he kicks boot steps in the steep slope and makes it down instead of across. I go next and follow his boot steps. I slip half way down and sled 45 feet on my ass. Alrighty then. Not what I wanted but I’m ok.

After we both get to the bottom we realize we have to climb up another ridge to avoid more switch backs in the snow. Ugh. We kick boot steps in and make our way over the top. Finally dry trail. We get a move on and look at the map for the next and last water source of the day.

In 2 miles we hit the next and last water source, we fill up 3.5 liters for the hot sun and a dry camp later and then get going again. It’s 2.5 miles to high point junction and we’re going to camp right after it.

We approach a beautiful meadow and it’s soaked, we trudge through the sloppy muddy meadow and get into the next burnt section. As we climb climb climb we’re back into snow. I look at the map again, I’m going to pull up short and camp on dry ground instead of snow.

I see a dry spot and there is home for the night, I pitch my tent, dry out my shoes, socks and everything else. I sit down on the dirt and cook Annie’s Mac and cheese tonight. I mix it up in a freezer bag to keep my cook pot clean from the cheese sauce.

After dinner I retire to my tent and watch a movie. “Entourage.” Honestly- I was a huge fan of the show. Like absolutely loved it, will watch it endlessly. The movie, just didn’t deliver. Bummer

Not surprising but today really wiped me out. Time for bed as some deer prance around outside my tent.