It had gone on all night with no breaks, and I was amazed to still see people dancing and milling around the resort. How do they do it? One guy was even going nuts on the trampoline, flipping all over the place and throwing in some break dancing moves for variety.
We walked to the rest stop nearby where we camped and sorted through our food and packed up. Other people who stopped at the rest stop to use the bathroom seemed amazed at the music and the scene across the river as well. One guy even muttered, "So much for getting out into nature!"
About 9:30am we headed up the trail and began the 4600 ft climb that would be our last big climb of the trail. Once we got up high here, we would stay high. Luckily this climb was spread out over 15 miles or so, and it made the climb more bearable.
We had read in our notes that the trail had been rerouted around some slides, but it was a brief mention with no indication of where or how many reroutes there were. We were mid-climb, and hit a spot where the trail split. Our maps indicated that we should go up (while the other split went down), but someone had put some logs across the up portion of the trail, which usually indicates that i's not the PCT. We wondered if this was a reroute area, but there were no markings, so instead of heading downhill, we took the high trail. Our first indication that this was not our trail anymore should have been the massive overgrowth that made it near impossible to navigate. But we kept at it until it just ended at a major washout, causing us to turn around and take the reroute downhill and across a stream. It was good because we knew for sure we were on the right track, but it cost us 30 min or so. Luckily it was the only reroute; since we didn't have a map for this, it took us awhile!
before we knew exactly where we were on the map again. I am thankful, once again, that the PCT is well traveled and maintained. In those moments of uncertainty, it is almost always easy to follow...unless you hit a meadow where the trail is lost in the tall grasses, which is what happened soon after. Here I was thankful to those who went before us andput rock cairns in the meadow to mark the way.
We camped near a gravel road at Cold Springs, a wonderfully gushing piped spring. It was easy to fall asleep after a long day of climbing. Earlier, before we left Belden we had finally thrown away our makeshift, garbage bag pack covers because the skies had been blue this whole section. Mark even said the famous last words, "It won't rain today." So of course the skies let a few droplets fall in retaliation to that comment. It was only a few, andit lasted for maybe 10 minutes. The tarp was dry in the morning.
Only one full day left of hiking from here!
Total Miles:1308.6
Miles Today:19.3
Camp145:Glad the Climb is Over
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