The Unpolished Princess

Start: 1361.4

Stop: 1367.3

Today’s miles: 5.9

Total PCT miles: 1218.8

I expected to wake up in a full torrential downpour.. I guess if it rained like that out here there wouldn’t be so many forest fires, huh? It had rained, off and on during the night, but nothing terrible. I and all my stuff was dry inside, my tent only a little wet outside.

We packed and got moving, the rain soaking us after we got out from the cover the trees unknowingly provided us. Then, before I knew it, I was swatting gnats out of my eyes. HOW are you here in the RAIN?! Isn’t that the good part of hiking in the rain?! The BUGS GO AWAY?! Ugh. California.

And, if that wasn’t enough, not 20 minutes into my morning, I came across a rattlesnake.. IN THE FREAKING RAIN?! WHAAAAT?! That’s illegal! I screamed as it flicked its rattle at me, then ever so slowly (as I’m obviously still screaming) slid between some rocks. It moved so slow, I had time to get my camera out and snap a picture. I swear these reptiles and insects have their own laws here in California, and I am NOT A FAN.

I waited for Margot to catch up to me, just in case ol snakey boy decided to pop up at her, but he didn’t. We carried on, in the rain, along the mountainsides and down switchbacks and eventually to the road taking us to Belden. What an odd little “town” if I ever saw one. It really felt more like a single closed property.

We sat on the porch of the general store and waited. When we saw other hikers emerge, they gave us the wifi password and we were able to get in contact with Denise, from yesterday! She came to get us by 11am. She had to drive through the rain into the canyon between Quincy and Belden. It’s 45 minutes on a good day. She got to us surprisingly quick!

Denise drove us back the way she came, giving us all the information about Quincy. Best food, best resupply, laundromat, all the things. We didn’t have a room for tonight, so she was going to try to find us another angel willing to let us crash with them while we ate a late breakfast at Morning Thunder Cafe. As we got close, a motel had a vacancy sign on. We all three assumed it was futile, since I had called that same motel yesterday from a mountain top when I had service and they said they were booked.. but she stopped anyway-just in case they had a cancellation.

Margot walked inside and came out SO HAPPY! That’s exactly what happened! We were able to book the last room available, a king bed, because someone canceled! Heck yes! Quickly we went inside and got all the details worked out, the lady handed us our room keys and we put our packs inside before Denise took us to the restaurant. Now she didn’t have to find us someone to host us! Wahoo!

We got to the restaurant and both of us ordered all of the things. I got my usual favorite: biscuits and gravy over potatoes/hash browns, topped with two fried eggs-over medium, with a side of bacon. YUM. It wasn’t biscuits from home, but they still did the trick. Funny how hiking and eating processed crap all day makes you really appreciate a good cooked meal. Delicious.

We paid our tab, walked to the gas station for drinks, then back to our room for showers. The motel is in a great location. Once we were clean, we laid on the king sized bed, let Denise know we were ready whenever she was to go to the laundromat, and we napped while waiting. It was a glorious hour of nothingness, then back to chores.

She drove us to the other side of town to the laundromat and even gave us detergent, too! My God, I love this woman! She headed off to run her errands while we washed clothes and walked to the grocery store and dollar general next door. We got our resupply and our clothes washed within an hour-it all felt way too fast for me. Then Denise was back picking us up and taking us to our motel.

Margot and I decided we wanted to go see ‘Barbie’ tonight at the town theater. They only show one movie on their one screen, Thursday through Monday-and today being Monday was PERFECT! It was the last time they would be showing it! We asked Denise if she’d want to go with us, and she said she’d let us know closer to time. While we sat in our room, resting and looking stuff up and watching Friends, Denise texted to say she did want to go to the movie, and if we wanted her to take us to the pizza place with the salad bar, she could pick us up at 6 for dinner! Even better!

We had unlimited salad bar and pizza which was both phenomenal. A salad was just what I have been craving, but paying the same price in a restaurant for lettuce as I would a burger or a chicken dish just seems so ridiculous, I can’t do it. I devoured my salad and had pizza left over. Win-win. We chatted the whole time, Denise is such a kind and funny person, we really enjoyed our time spent with her.

We got to the movie right at 7, but it was so crowded, there was a line out of the door-so they didn’t start the movie until everyone was inside. Small towns. Gotta love them! I found the movie to be great, both giving me flashbacks from when I was a kid-total Barbie lover over here-and also very relevant to life now, as an adult woman. I laughed, I’m embarrassed to admit I teared up, and I laughed some more. It was great, and also so nice to feel like a normal human again-out doing normal people things. Even if I was in wool leggings and a jacket that hasn’t been washed this year. Haha.

Denise dropped us back off here at the motel afterwards, and she’s going to pick us up at 9am to take us back to Belden. We keep joking that we’re going to get her to take us to the other road closer to Quincy, and skip that 25 miles, but we know we won’t. This bed is huge and it’s very comfortable. I think it’s bedtime. Goodnight!

Start: 1336.1

Stop: 1361.4

Today’s miles: 25.3

Total PCT miles: 1212.9

Another long day done. It was sprinkling when I woke up, and I have to tell you, getting up and out in the rain, when you’re warm and dry in your tent is HARD. I did not want to! Thankfully, the sprinkling was short lived. So, I did pack up and so did Margot. We had to walk 0.7 miles down a side trail and back for water to start our day, which sucked and put us back time wise-we didn’t actually start hiking the trail until 8am. Lord.

The temperature was perfection today. Cool and overcast, but no more rain. The threat was always there, some of the clouds looking more and more angry as the day went on. Apparently Hurricane Hillary’s reach is far. The wind was increasing all day, getting so windy in the afternoon that I was nervous about it. The rain is supposed to come in hard overnight and rain all day tomorrow.. which sucks, yes-but normally, oh well, such is life on a trail. BUT, we’re hiking in burn zones, surrounded by dead trees that snap and fall to the ground over a cough-let alone remnant hurricane winds.. and the burned ground is ashy and so fragile, mudslides and landslides off these mountain tops in heavy rain is a real concern.

Anyway. The views were still pretty, even surrounded by these dead trees. We had a few ridge lines to see out into the abyss, but the majority was just in the blackened trees. I even stopped to eat lunch on the top of a mountain, still surrounded by them all. Thankfully none looked like they were currently leaning my way. Margot joined me and we stayed a while, neither wanting to actually start walking again. I’m just so tired.

Somewhere at the top of a mountain after our lunch mountain, we got service! So, I reached out to the Quincy trail angels to see if anyone would be available to pick us up in Belden and take us back to Quincy either very late tonight or tomorrow morning in the rain. Belden is called a town, but really it’s a tiny campground with a general store, restaurant and cabins to rent that’s only open from 4-8pm everyday. We wanted to get out of the danger of the rain and high winds, but the closer road to Quincy would be over 25 miles tomorrow-in which case, we would have been hiking all day in the bad weather. Not ideal to say the least.

I got some action: Denise would be willing to pick us up if it wasn’t “that late.” I said it would probably be after 10pm if we made it tonight, but more than likely we wouldn’t be able to make it until tomorrow morning.. making it to Belden tonight would be over 30 miles and we decided this way too late.

I never heard anything else, because I lost service and never got it back! Oh no! We kept moving. The trail had prettier views as the day went on, more growth around the dead trees, im assuming these are older burn zones then. We had to put our headlamps on 30ish minutes before getting to where we originally wanted to camp, and we pretty much knew without saying it out loud that neither of us wanted to hike another 5 miles in the dark to town.

The sunset was incredible, and the deer were everywhere, green eyes glinting in the beams of our headlamps. We had a difficult in the dark water crossing right before camp that soaked my shoes. I was so annoyed but had to remind myself that it’s going to be raining when I get up, so they’ll get soaked tomorrow regardless. We found our campsite after walking around the woods with the deer for a few minutes, making sure we got the flattest most “non-flood-able” spots available.

We set up, unpacked, ate dinner. I can hear the river rushing nearby, but I think we’re pretty high up above it. It’s so dark I couldn’t tell how far down the cliff beside us is. I guess I’ll see it in the morning. When we wake up to rain and hike the 5ish miles to Belden. I’m hoping we get there early enough to figure out a ride into Quincy or realize it’s not going to happen and start hiking up the big climb out of there. Yikes. So many unknowns. I wish I had service.
Time for bed, goodnight.

Start: 1308.4

Stop: 1336.1

Today’s miles: 27.7

Total PCT miles: 1186.9

I seemed to roll around a lot last night, but every time I checked my watch (I love my new watch!) a few hours had passed, so I think I slept ok. Once again, we were up, packed, and on trail by 7am.

Pretty much all of today was walking from one burn zone to the next. Most of the morning was spent on a downhill with pretty views. Even through the burnt trees, it was enjoyable. I didn’t have any of the same overwhelming sadness like I did yesterday. I was grateful, because these burn zones will continuing being an every day thing for quite a while. They can be so exhausting on my brain.. and I never know when they’re going to trigger nightmares for several days in a row. Hopefully these don’t.

We collected water at a pretty river and then headed uphill for a good chunk of the late morning. It sprinkled on us, just enough to prove the water really can come out of those big scary clouds.. and then it stopped. It had been hot and then unbearable, then back to just hot, and even a little cool. The weather was all over the place today.

We ate lunch sitting beside a pond on a slab of wood. It was nice and sunny, but no bugs at all. From there we climbed up and down and walked through some active logging areas. When we met the road to Chester, California.. we couldn’t decide what to do. We have plenty of food, so we didn’t need to go, and we had only gone 19 miles so we needed to push farther-but the rain clouds looked Ominous and honestly sometimes town just calls to ya out here.

I decided to stick my thumb out for 5 vehicles. If one stopped, it was a sign: we deserve town food! And if not-well, we didn’t I guess. No one stopped. I pouted, but we kept hiking. We continued through more logging areas until we came upon a wide river-slow if moving at all.. with cows on the other side and no bridge. It had fallen through. Awesome.

I took off my socks and shoes and put on my crocs for the wide trek. It got up to mid thigh in the middle of the river, and the river bed was thick mud, causing me to have to yank my crocs up with each step, but I made it across just fine. Margot went across barefoot (this water really looked nasty) and went a slightly different way, but made it to the other end safely, too. The herd of cows all left, mooing and glancing back at us every so often.. I guess no cow tipping for us today!

While we were sitting on the shore, letting our feet dry and getting ready to put our socks and shoes on, Switch, from awhile ago (the one that said he knew I was a nurse because I give off nurse vibes), appeared! He had already went north to the Canadian border and had just flipped back down to Chester to finish his hike in the Sierras. Small world! He powered through the water with his shoes on and then kept on trucking past us. He’s fast, and he’s still pretty dang hot, too. Forgive me, but I’m not blind over here.

After we started moving again, the majority of the the afternoon was spent climbing uphill. There were switchbacks of course, and the heat had cooled off tremendously, but it still had my heart pumping. Around 6:30 we made it to the midway point marker! Although, since I had to jump that 148 miles due to the fires, im technically not half way yet.. but close enough.. and as far as getting to Mexico this year, I am! I won’t be going back to do that 148 miles until next year more than likely, since I won’t have time before my trip to Egypt this year.

We took pictures and I ate my dinner sitting at the marker. Margot sat with me, but wasn’t hungry yet. When I packed up, we had our headlamps out and were ready to hike the next 7 miles regardless of the time. We got to watch the sunset while walking up to a ridge line and then down through the trees. It was stunning. We got swarmed by a bunch of hummingbirds.. which was incredible and had me laughing and talking to Paula. Even Margot indulges me and says it’s Paula when she sees them, too!

It got all the way dark just after 8:30, and headlamps were on for the next hour or so. We passed some green eyes, multiple times, which would cause me to stop in my tracks and hold my breath.. and every time it was a deer. Sneaky boogers. Which, thank god-I’d probably pass out if it was a mountain lion! We made it to camp around 9:35, and my feet were and still are throbbing.

We set up our tents as far as we could from the dead trees.. but the whole time I’ve been laying here with my feet propped up, typing this out, I’ve heard tons of cracks and pops from these dead trees. I’m praying none of them end up falling on or near us. It’s a little unnerving for sure-but when the whole area you’re hiking through for an entire week is a burn zone, it’s hard to find places without sketchy surroundings. It’s either *some* dead trees, a ton of them, or exposed ridgelines in the wind and potential thunderstorms that keep threatening us daily.

Fun times, huh? I really should be on a beach somewhere.. lol. Type 2 fun, living up to the hype! Ok, it’s 10:30 now and I’m absolutely wiped out. Goodnight, fingers crossed the trees stay put 🙂