Day 98 : The 2nd hardest climb of the PCT to date

26th July 2013
Mile 1290 to mile 1309 : Belden to Cold Springs
Mileage 19

By now I am a hiking machine and am not generally phased by anything the trail throws at me. But the climb out of Belden was definitely the 2nd worst climb of the entire PCT to date. 1st place in the horrible climbs awards goes to the climb out of Ziggy and the Bear's into the San Gorgornio mountains over 1100 miles ago, but the Belden climb came close to pipping it. The gain over the 14 mile cllimb was about 5000ft, but Dr Slosh worked out later that the total change, with all the little ups and downs, was more like 7000ft. It was less than pleasant. 14 miles should take less than 5 hiking hours (not including breaks), this took over 8. Thankfully there was shade and water for the majority of the ascent, but even so i was hot and dehydrated when i got to the summit. My original goal was to do about 25 today as i slowly ramp up the miles, and although i could have gone farther, i decided to call it a day after only 19. Once i had recovered a bit, i discovered i wasn't actually that tired, but knew that i would still be dehydrated for some hours to come, and so shouldn't start off dehydrated into the 23 mile dry stretch which lay ahead, especially now that i only carry 3 litres water capacity. Where I stopped at Cold Springs, I discovered i wasn't alone in my plan for the dry stretch, and in the were a large group at the campsite that night : Shay Acres and his two friends, Fireball, Busted, Solstice, Golden Boy and Lady X.The mood was pretty excited that evening, for one big reason, tomorrow we would be halfway to Canada!