Mile 1294.4 to1303.9 – 9.5 miles total hiked on PCT

Most of the morning was spent climbing through a dead burnt out forest. Not very exciting or picturisc.

And then I came along a raging river with a bridge across.

If it was later in the day when it was hot, I would’ve jumped right in. Still being early morning I resisted the urge. Kind of regret that now cause that would’ve been my only chance to get get wet in this area.

But it was nice to be able to see a nice living green forest for once that day.

And then it was back into a burn zone. 😕😞

Around noon, I reached the divide between the Sierra Nevada mountain range and the cascade mountain range. As many people are prone to do I took pictures with my feet on both sides of the divide.

All goofiness aside, it was a nice moment when I could say I had finished hiking through the entire Sierra Nevada section of the PCT.

You’d think that would be the high point of the climb for the day and I would be going down one way or the other. But no, I still had to climb about 1100 feet in the next 2 1/2 miles to get over the next ridge line.

I believe the divide between the two mountain ranges is mostly because of where the water goes, but also the composition of the rocks on each side. So that probably why it’s not the high point for the day.

But not long after that milestone, a bigger one awaited.

What is the real high moment for the day? At least emotionally it is reaching 1300 miles from Mexico!!

Two big milestones in one day!

Then it was more walking through dead trees.

Then I finally reached the end of the big climb up from Belden. A glorious accomplishment! It even seems to rival some of the big climbs in the Sierra Nevada Passes.

Unfortunately, the grand view from top of the ridge was mated by the burn scars of the fires in the last 6-7 years. 😢

The large expanse of forest that lay before me was almost completely made of gray and black burn zones. Only a few pocked of green forests were visible from that viewpoint, that must have been a spectacular view once upon a time. 😢😞

What made it worse was that I knew I would have to hike through all that bleak burned forest.

I could have pushed on about 3 more miles to another water spring with camping options, but decided to give my aching body a break and setup camp in an area with enough live trees to feel safe (burned trees could drop large branches or even topple over unexpectedly even after years, so it was best not to camp under dead trees).

And it had a little bit of a view for sunset and sunrise.

Only 1 southbound backpacker seen on trail all day.