(Mile 1265 to
Belden, 1289.5 = 24.5 miles, 1289.5 to 1303.5 = 14 miles)
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| Dan and me at Belden Town. Dan's a southbound section hiker who'd read this blog! I was thrilled to meet him. |
Well, we hit
Belden a day early, rolling in right around 5:30 pm. We tackled the long downhill with Siddhartha
and U-Haul -- both if whom we had met at the Red Moose Inn. We all but ran down the big hill. And rewarded ourselves with drinks and dinner
at the Belden Town Resort. Kindergarten
Cop was taking off with Problem Bear just as we left. Enough time for a quick catch-up. And then we called the Braatens, local trail
angels, and they took us all in for the night.
Knees, Threshold, Washout (?), Siddhartha, U-Haul, Gumby, and me.
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| Gumby and U-Haul on a fancy-shmancy bridge. Silver Falls? |
The Braatens run
"Little Haven" and have an entire house for hikers. A house!
Their daughter said that's part of why they got the place. Close to the Trail and a space for
hikers. Yes, really. It was wonderful. A shower, a bed, cold cereal snack before
bed, and pancakes and coffee in the morning.
Oh, and a lift to the PO and back to Belden Town. Huge thanks to Laurie and Brenda Braaten for
such a low-key, relaxing stay! We could
not have asked for a more perfect stop.
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| Botanist friends, what IS this gorgeous bloom?! |
We spent the
first half of the day doing errands -- PO, sorting resupply items, doing
laundry, eating lunch. While I was
sitting at the resort, struggling a bit with a hard morning emotionally, a
hiker arrived and stopped in front of me.
I looked up, and he greeted me.
He asked my name. I replied, and
he grinned. He thought so; he'd been
following the blog! We talked a few
minutes, and then he went in to the restaurant, saying that if I was still
around, perhaps we could get a photo. Of course! What Dan didn't know was that I was secretly
on the verge of tears when he arrived.
(Nothing big; I think I am just emotional this week!) And he was actually a bit of trail magic for
me at that moment. A smiling face full
of warmth and good energy. As soon as my
food was ready, I found Dan and joined him for lunch. He is a southbound section hiker from
Washington, so he had all sorts of good information and advice. It was quite a treat. And brought me to another realization this
afternoon. Which I think I'll try to
write about tomorrow. But it is
LATE! And so I'm off to bed.
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| Holy buckets! Check out this huge cone! |
Today's thanks
go to Dan and the Braatens of Belden.
You angels always pop up at just the right moment.
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| 1300 miles. Almost halfway! |
