Mile 1257.2 to 1286.5.

Like an ice cube floating in a punch bowl, we floated among the stars. Our campsite on the pinnacle of Lookout Rock gave us a 360 view of our galaxy. Shooting stars, satellites, and the Milky Way twinkled as we struggled to take it all in and gapped in awe.

We woke at 5:00 and waited as the horizon slowly came alive with color and the surrounding landscape revealed itself under the sun’s yellow glow. Another day was beginning and we had watched its birth.

Today’s goal was to get to Belden. It is perhaps the smallest community on the PCT with a population of 20, however, it has quite the reputation. The description of it on the Guthook’s PCT app states, “you never know what you will find in Belden. Maybe there will be a rave, motorcycle gangs or a festival. Or maybe it will be totally quiet.” With that in mind we started out on the trail.

My leg felt good as we covered the first couple of miles. We crossed over several roads and ran into a few weekend backpackers. It was nice to be able to move at normal speed after being hobbled by my knees the last couple of days.

The hiking was largely uneventful until we started to approach Belden. As we got closer you could see a river and a few buildings 5,000 feet below. The remaining miles were over a series of steep switchbacks that slashed back and forward down the mountain into the valley.

My knees did pretty good until we had 2 miles left and then they started to hurt again. Slowing the pace helped and after a bit, we reached Belden or “Belden Town” as all the hand-painted signs proclaimed.
If I had to describe Belden Town in a few words, I would call it a hippie holdout. You know, a free love and drugs type of place. It is a campground and RV park with a restaurant, “store,” and maybe some cabins situated along a large river. When we arrived, they were just cleaning up from their biggest festival of the year, and were in the process of getting ready for another one. One of the locals told us we were lucky we got there when we did because the “poop truck had come earlier, and my God you could smell it across the river.

Bedazzled and I checked out the “store,” which had a random assortment of rave, fishing, and motorcycle gear with some over priced beer and boxed meals for good measure. I bought a beer and Bedazzled got a tea and we walked down to the river. We sat in the sand and contemplated getting on one of the floating islands they had strung out in the river. Bedazzled leans over and a whispers, “Oh God, I don’t think that girl is wearing a shirt.” Sure enough there was a mostly naked chick in an open hippie shawl and two guys, one was probably the boyfriend and another was a third wheel. They seemed to be leftovers from the festival. The next time I looked over, it was my turn to say “oh God” because the third wheel guy was peeing on a tree right next to us in plain sight.

When we returned to the porch of the shop, there were some old guys smoking up and a bouncer talking about how last festival someone sprayed him with a supersoaker filled with acid and he spent the next 14 hours thinking his hands were balloons.

After our interesting break in Belden Town, we crossed the bridge over the river and started walking towards the trail.  When we looked back, the group of three had moved to one of the floating islands. It turns out the girl wasn’t wearing any underwear either. As she was hooking up with her boyfriend, the third wheel looked to be having the most awkward time ever.

We hiked 2.2 miles to a spur trail to Cribb’s Creek and snacked on wild blackberries along the way.

We found these cool rock chairs along the river and setup camp with the sound of the creek murmuring in the background.