Trail And Errors

Carrying on with the endless climb out of Belden, Ethan & Molly are targeting a stop in the town of Chester tomorrow. A slightly problematic river crossing is first up, and it continues to be a rough morning with fallen trees making the going slow and a painful bee sting adding to Ethan's woes. However as they move out of the woods the gradient eases and they can see more; birds courting, squirrels fighting, and we get a lesson about parasitic wasps. Snow appears again; what a massive winter California and the west have had this year. A lovely lunch at Cold Spring, where they bump into Sandy and Durrell and their dog Ruby; a really lovely couple who share their watermelon with our team and take their rubbish away for them; thanks guys! Ethan clarifies the differences between the various types of trees as they move verify out on to a welcomed ridgeline with a somewhat rare view ahead for a change. Their feet hurt a lot today, possibly from the long climb out of Belden but maybe from the harder volcanic roc