We said our goodbye to Shade this afternoon and pushed on over the last ridgeline between us and Belden, our next re-supply stop. He needs to slow down to meet a mail drop and would rather kill time at a campsite in the woods than in town camped down behind a building or shelling out big bucks for a hotel room. We've been having a really nice time walking and talking with him. It's too bad that our paths have to part.
Coming down from the crest this evening, we slipped and skidded uncomfortably, feeling battered at the end of a very long day -- the loose, eroded tread sending up a cloud of dust in our wake. We must have been at just about 30 miles for the day when we came upon a small, engraved metal sign posted along the trail, welcoming us to the Sierra Nevada.
So, here we are at last. These great mountains which have caused so much distress and pandemonium for this year's through-hiking community. We left them behind over two months and have since hiked a full half of the trail's length. Eliza had said, earlier today, that it doesn't really feel like we've been up on a mountain range for some time -- this end of the Cascade range is very low and scattered. So, here it starts, the penultimate stage of this journey.
The first long day of this stretch went very well. We camped along a babbling creek -- these streams really do seem to speak at times. I catch myself holding my breath and waiting for the words to clarify themselves as I am falling to sleep -- and had ample time remaining in the day to wash our dusty selves off and eat a nice meal.
Tomorrow, we swing deep down into Belden, all reports indicating that it barely qualifies to its being called a town at all. This should be our last big descent into and back out of the low valleys, of which we've dropped into quite a few in Northern California.
We passed 2100 miles today!
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