[pct-l] Section N info

[Susan Virnig]

A week ago a friend and I headed north out of Belden.  Below is part of a thank you note I sent to Lady Pegasus who helped us shuttle our car.  By now, the trail might have gotten quite a bit easier, but wanted to pass on this information.
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"Erring on the side of caution, Marge and I turned back at Frog Mountain, only 13.5 miles in.  Deep and swift fords were ok.  A dozen or more tricky stream crossings on logs and stones were ok.  The 95 degree heat was ok.  Lots of snow, with navigation challenges, and eventually finding the trail again numerous times was ok.    What finally turned us back was the steep snowy north slope of 7100 foot Frog Mountain, with a run out that contained large trees and rocks, with more snowy downhill below that… The thru-hikers that had micro-spikes did it all with no difficulty.  (We had none.)  Some thru hikers did it without micro-spikes.  We met one who turned back like us — “I don’t need a broken leg,” he told us as he caught up with us heading back down to Belden.”

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We skipped up to Drakesbad and hiked north to our car at Old Station.  Still snow up above 6300 feet in Lassen, and one impossible stream crossing — but luckily there was a great log crossing a couple minutes hike upstream — though this was nothing compared to the snow up out of Belden.

--Sunshine (Susan from Spokane)