There was a great breakfast at the Braatens. Susan cleaned the hiker kitchen and Brenda Braaten shuttled us to the post office. We had a great food resupply from Mr & Mrs T. A supprise package of goodies from Cindy and Dan Tufford and Susan got a new hiking skirt from her always resourceful sister Cathie. What was lost in the mail was the maps for northern Calif. from my brother Tim. He sent it on 6/28 but the package is AWOL.
The Belden Postmaster was nice enough to come to the PO on her day off, Saturday, to double check! The PO was a tiny little red stain washed wooden building, with the charm of an old timey general store. I don't think the Post Master would mind if I described her as a northern California hippy. She even had an accostic guitar behind the counter - I guess things could get pretty slow there. The maps were not located, I filled out a forwarding request. This was the smallest of towns (pop. 14); the people were wonderful.
The trail followed a fast running stream called Chips Creek for miles. At one point Susan was sure we were lost and worried about it for the next two hours. We walked for about 7 miles before seeing a trail marker and that drove her nuts. Meanwhile the creek was feed with many streams and springs. We enjoyed them all, dipping our bandanas in the cold water, then securing them around our necks to keep cool. We took an early lunch by one stream. The trail is now extremely dusty and we wash our legs whenever possible. Although the afternoon was warm, we stayed relatively cool as the trail wound though spruce, ponderosa and lodge pole pines. In the morning there were some black oaks but they faded away as we gained elevation. We crossed Milkhouse flats - an upland meadow, and filled our water bottles in the fridged Frog Springs. Around 5:30 we stopped at Cold Springs for dinner. This area had a brand new corral, hitching posts and water trough for the equestrians.
We hiked an additional 3 miles before making camp short of Humbolt Peak around 7:45 pm. We hiked 22 miles today.
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