Beldentown

Day 79

16.7 miles into Belden

Camped in Belden at the “tree house”

When I woke up this morning, there was a deer romping around our tent. It was timidly walking around, sniffing the ground, then looking up at us if we moved at all. It was neat that we almost seemed to be a part of the deers day and it was unbothered by us…until we decided to get up.

Today the air smelled different. It wasn’t smoke or the trees but almost a humid smell. Today seemed like the first day there have been clouds in the sky except for when it rained or the smoke. There were a couple of days in the desert that weren’t full sun but it has been awhile so the clouds were a huge relief.

The first few miles this morning were uphill and in some unscathed forest. The rest of the miles were through a burnt forest from the Dixie fire which I believe is the largest or most destructive fire in California history. We will be hiking through the fire damage for the next few days. It is dusty and ashy so we have been getting filthy.

The end goal of today was getting to Belden and hopefully getting our resupply boxes. When we arrived, the shop was not open and not willing to open their post office to give us our boxes even though they said yesterday they would. So we will be staying near Belden tonight and getting our stuff tomorrow then heading out.

Belden is an interesting establishment. It calls itself a resort probably because they rent out rooms and cabins and it probably had a hay day about 50 years ago. The people who live in that area have been resilient through fires, a flood scare from a dam, and the trials of living in a not easily accessible town. Which is probably precisely why many of them live there.

We haven’t been seeing as many hikers along the trail in the last few days because quite a few people have skipped this section because of the burned area. It hasn’t been as bad as the general hype made it sound. Our goal is to walk every mile we can but we understand if someone was concerned about the ash or chemicals used in firefighting and their health.