Day 97: ⛺@ mile 1'281.0 - 1'298.00

Date: 13.07.2018 Miles hiked today: 17.0 miles / 27.36 km Total Mileage: mile 1'998.0 Change in Elevation; +1270 m / -1300m I slept in today till 6:45am. It's a 6 miles downhill hike to Belden. It's Friday and I've heard that on most of the weekends there is a musical festival in Belden. I hope we are lucky. Around 8:30am I arrive in Belden. It's called a town but I only see a couple of houses! One of them is a small hotel, with a bar/restaurant and a little supply store. Doesn't look really appealing to me. All is very quiet and sadly there is no music festival on this weekend:( I'm disappointed but can't change it. A little more than 2 miles down the road there is a better place to eat I heard. And they have milkshakes. Me and some other hikers try to get a hitch but give up after a while and walk there. I get my milkshake but wait for lunch rather than eating breakfast. More and more hikers arrive and the little place is crowded by us hikers! It's a hot day again but a little cloudy. The hike out of Belden is a 15 miles uphill hike. I don't plan to hike that uphill at the hottest time of the day. After my burger I hitch back to Belden. It's already about 2pm. I plan to hike out around 3 or 4pm and hike for 10 miles or so. Then I only have to hike a couple of miles up the hill the next morning. Flash's group is planning the same. So we order some beers and enjoy the non hiking time. At one point I can feel some raindrops but it stopps as fast as it started. We manage to be back on trail shortly after 4pm. I'm not really looking forward to this 14.7 miles and about 1'800m uphill climb, but I'm gonna be happy tomorrow I hiked as far as possible today! The first 2 miles are really gentle, more flat actually. But then suddendly the uphill starts. It's a hard and steep climb, with some downhill in between. I don't like downhills in the uphill climb as I have to hike it all back up again! We all feel this is harder than the passes in the Sierras but then they are already a while ago since we hiked them! For sure I can feel that my legs are getting stronger. When we arrive at the Tentsite it turns out that there is no real tent site. For sure there is no space for 4 tents here. But as this is the last water source we fill our bottles and have to hike a little further. Again I can feel some rain drops falling on me. And there is a beautiful rainbow above us. The camp site we planned to stay at is already busy but luckily it's a flat strech here so we can pitch our tents anywhere. I don't really care anymore, I just want to pitch my tent, eat and fall asleep!