Mission Accomplished

Good-bye beautiful Stehekin

We took the 8am shuttle out of Stehekin and were on the trail by 9am with a loaf of bread from the bakery in my pack. Just one other hiker started this stretch with us and was the only other north-bound thru hiker we ended up seeing for our last 88 miles.

The first day started out mostly cloudy. By the last couple hours up to Rainy Pass the rain started to come down hard.  We found a good little camp site next to the trailhead parking lot at Rainy Pass with a newly cleaned pit toilet nearby; what a treat!  We met Yeti that day, who was attempting to finish his thru hike from last year. He was an interesting character. As we started chatting he told us how he had to be rescued out of a tree this summer after trying to set the distance record for a lawn chair pilot. He didn't get that record, but he did manage to accidentally set the altitude record in a lawn chair at 21,000ft before landing in that tree. He's going to be on the Today Show on Oct 1st on a clip about following your dream. Look him up if you are interested, his name is Joe Barbara.


Cloudy view at Cutthroat Pass

The next morning the rain subsided but we knew we were in for bad weather all day so we started in our rain gear for warmth and for rain.  By the time we climbed up to our first pass it started to lightly snow.  The clouds were moving fast closing in on the Northern Cascades, but we still had bits and pieces of good views as we went around to the second and third pass for the day.  Once we got back in the trees, we were back in the rain.  We ended up doing a longer day than planned and camped with our new friend Hiker Box up at 6,500ft. 

Me and Hiker Box; Thurs morning view of the N. Cascades

It was a chilly night but we woke up the next morning to a cloudless sky along with frost on our tent.  We had heard Thursday was going to be the best day in the forecast and the forecast was right.  We hiked 6 miles to Harts Pass where we set up the tent to dry out.  The Ranger there invited us into his hut and we excitedly took him up on it. He had a fire going and hot water for tea.  He told us the forecast looked great for Friday too.  This made my day; we could hit the border in good weather!

Midnight Chocolate and I at Harts Pass

Sure enough, Friday was beautiful.  We had a few more passes to get over which normally would be uneventful.  However, after a big rain storm this summer washed out a huge section of trail, there was some negotiating to do.  We had to go in and out of several washouts, the biggest one being about 30ft wide and 15ft deep.  We were happy to have good weather to cross this section as it was still safe but just time consuming.

View from inside one of the big washouts

We then hit our final high point of the trail and began to descend 3,000ft to the valley.  The border was so close!  Then as we hit the last switchbacks down, the 30ft wide mowed down strip of trees designating the US from Canada came into view.  We had done it!  We walked 2,660 continuous miles on the PCT and reached the Canadian border at 1:20pm.  It took us 156 days.  It was just Katie, Hiker Box and me there.  We gave high 5's, took our finish photos and all signed in the register.  The day before there had been 22 people that signed in.  Today, Katie and I were the 3rd and 4th people to sign in.  

Midnight Chocolate and I at the Northern Terminus

I thought a lot over the final few days about the friends I made, the memories we had along the way and how fast this all went. It seemed like the first 100 miles took so long, the 700 miles of desert seemed like forever and now here we were with just days left to go. In the last few miles my mind flashed with a photo slide show of places I saw, funny moments, sunrises, trail towns, trail angels, etc.  I tried to replay the entire hike in fast forward just to make sure I could still remember it all.  I didn't want to forget a thing and yet I know pieces of this would quickly fade. 

We hiked on another 4 miles into Canada for our last night out in the woods.  We got there early, had a fire and hot cocoa.  It was a quiet and calm night.  I was cozy and warm in my sleeping and woke up a few times to light rain hitting the tent.  By the next morning the rain had again subsided and we hiked out our last 5 miles with no precipitation. There was an ultra-marathon going on that morning so we got to cheer on runners coming up the trail as we headed out to the road.  This was a good way to end the trip and kept my mind on something else.  When you really thing about it, this hike ends like any other. You get to a trailhead, get in a vehicle and make your way home.

Katie's parents picked us up in Manning Park. It was so great to see familiar faces.  What took us a month to travel on our feet through Washington we covered in a 65mph drive down I-5 in a half day. So much more noise, moving so fast, closed-in air circulation, road vibration. My legs constantly stiff after each stint in the car. It seemed so wrong heading South after making forward progress North for so long. But when I looked out east over the mountains we had just been in, the weather looked ominous.  Maybe this isn't so wrong after all...

I am not sad about leaving the trail.  If I had another 1,000 miles to go that would have been okay with me.  But knowing this was the end of the trail I was accepting of that and was ready.  I am excited for what lies ahead for me.  What is that you may ask?  I don't know quite yet, but I have a pretty good feeling it will be filled with more adventures and good times.



Midnight Chocolate at the Southern Terminus - Day 1

Cowgirl at the Southern Terminus - Day 1