[pct-l] trail conditions reported from hikers in Belden

[Jackie McDonnell]

Check out this information I received from Laurie Braaten (trail angel in
Belden):

"Brenda spoke with someone who reports that the trail is closed near
Yosemite (Tuolumne?) due to treacherous river crossings.

I just spoke with Cisco and Roadrunner, two section hikers who started at
Sierra City over a week ago. They encountered lots of snow, a lot of
technical slow walking, and the markers are sometimes only visible three
hours apart; a GPS is a must. There are also lots of blowdowns, sometimes
close together. They were only able to make 10 miles max a day until the
last day. Fortunately there was not a lot of postholing, but their shoes got
drenched.  It took a week for them to get to Belden, it would have taken 8
days but they were out of food and the last 22 miles were relatively easy,
so they pushed through and got to Belden at 8:35 pm Friday evening. They
said they are in daily contact via cell phone with someone who is posting
updates on trail conditions for them, it might be worth a google.

Cisco and Roadrunner's comment was that they didn't see how anyone could do
a thru hike this year.   Soooo.... once again, it sounds like there may be
some serious injuries (or worse) if hikers are not willing to be flexible
and work in some flip flops.

Brenda just shuttled two more PCT hikers. One was a seasoned PCT veteran
whose comment was "I fear for the life of the PCT hikers, we have been on
the edge nearly the whole way." They just shuttled from Tuolumne to here,
and are going to skip ahead a do this section in Sept."

yogi
www.pcthandbook.com