Day 86

Mile 1268.6 to mile 1296.6

PCT Miles: 28.0 (44.8km)

Total Miles: 1296.6 (2074.6km)

Once again, beautiful sunrise!

My next chance to find a quick resupply was Belden, twenty miles away. It’s located literally on the PCT and it looks tiny. Hopefully I would be able to buy a few snacks to top up my food for the coming 3 days.

I went on auto-pilot and before 1:30pm I was in Belden Town. It’s a street with 5 wooden houses and a big building containing a general store, a simple restaurant (!) and a hotel. Everybody is super hiker friendly and, most importantly, they had air conditioning!

After eating a burger with fries and five beers* I resupplied with snickers and two gigantic packs of cookies. Hopefully I have just the right amount of food now! I also recharged a bit my power bank and posted here on Polarsteps 🙃.

Two and a half hours after arriving I left Belden. It’s the first time (I think) that I do this on the PCT: arrive, resupply/eat and leave (without spending the night). I’m on a mission!

The next 8 miles were under a scorching sun and very uphill. I drank 6 liters of water within the first hour but steady and slowly I made it to camp.

In Belden I saw Sprouts, a Canadian girl who I met at Scout and Frodo and started the PCT on the same day as me. She has just arrived with Banana Bread (a guy from New Zealand who speaks Portuguese) to share the campground. The three

of us chatted a bit and updated each other on the current stage of the members of our first group!

*: all the beers I’ve been drinking on the PCT are non-alcoholic. I’m not drinking alcohol on this trip!