[pct-l] Detour north of Belden

[Tom Rogers" <tom-rogers@home.com (Tom Rogers)]

I generally refrain from passing out second hand information, but it looks
like there isn't much in the way of first hand stories on this segment.
Perhaps those who tried it never came back (and everyone knows Hawkeye has
an enviable knack for understatement).

I was hiking out of Belden last August considering options.  I concur that
closed doesn't always mean closed and sometimes a trail remains closed just
to relieve the Forest Service of liability damages if someone were to get
injured.

Anyway, I'm outside the Belden Town Saloon just getting ready to hit the
post office and along comes a southbounder.  Funny how that works.  He
related that he had indeed hiked the PCT segment and strongly advised taking
the Indian Spring Trail instead.  He said the trail was washed out in the
vicinity of really steep terrain and opined that it was more diffcult
northbound than southbound; he used phrases like "roping up your pack",
which can be dicey when you're solo.

I took the Indian Spring Trail, leaving Belden in late afternoon, about 5PM.
The trail is steep by PCT standards, but it was well built and in very good
condition.  There is a small spring (Indian Spring?) about 3 miles in at
about 4500 feet elevation.  I camped on a nice flat alongside the trail a
few hundred yards further up.  The trail regains the PCT at the "wide lumber
road" on map N3.  There is water another mile up the trail at a spring,
about 11 miles since Indian Spring.  The bypass seemed to be about the same
distance as the PCT, 13.5 miles.

All things being equal and without new data on the damaged PCT segment, I'd
opt for the Indian Spring Trail.

Hobbit