[pct-l] detour north of Belden

[spiritbear2k@hotmail.com (Ginny & Jim Owen)]

We tried to hike the PCT north of Belden after being told that the trail =
was "difficult but doable".  Should have considered the source better; Ed=
 was a much stronger mountaineer than I am ;-)  We had gone to the Post O=
ffice to pick up our package and read a postcard from one of the hikers a=
head of us saying that he had done the old trail, so we decided to go for=
 it since we didn't want to backtrack - dumb move! Anyhow, we hit the was=
hed out gully several miles out of town.  We looked down and saw very ste=
ep sandy open terrain dropping 100 yards to the bottom of the ravine.  St=
raight across there was no sign of the trail, so we knew we'd have to go =
down then bushwhack back up. I thought about trying to slide down that lo=
ose scree and decided to follow some footsteps that headed uphill instead=
.  We had looked at the map, and thought we were farther west that we act=
ually were.  According to where we thought we were, it would have been a =
short steep 1/2 mile climb back up to the trail.  Reality was that it was=
 2000' straight up, over rocky cliffs that broke under our hands and feet=
, loose scree scrambling, and wading through chest deep manzanita (that w=
as actually an improvement.)   It took us 3 1/2 hours, with a couple of e=
pisodes of getting rimrocked and having to backtrack, before we reached t=
he detour jeep road on top of the ridge.  We were scratched and utterly e=
xhausted by the time we finally reached the next spring, only 14  miles o=
ut of town. =20
Bottom line - until the trail is fixed, if it ever is, take the detour.  =
Or if you're really stubborn about following the official trail -- go dow=
n, not up.


Ginny and Jim

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