8/20 - Day 111 Miles 2148 - 2158 10 Hiked

The city park was a collection of hungover hikers the next morning. I packed down camp and learned how to get access to the showers that were available. Most hikers were staying in Cascade Locks for at least another day or two to enjoy “Trail Days”, the festival that takes place every year to celebrate the PCT. Tidbits and I had done enough partying and wanted to get a head start on the swarm of hikers that would all be heading north out of town when the festival ended.

Allie, Tidbits’ sister, was coming back out to say hey with her boyfriend so we had a nice breakfast with them before getting on to our resupply and other errands.

We walked over the Bridge of the Gods and stepped into the final state on our journey. Tidbits and I had mapped out our plan to Canada and we were ready to finish this thing.

Once over the bridge, we had some weird miles alongside a highway before turning sharply and hitting a steep climb up and out of the river valley. The going was slow with our massive food carry but we eventually made it to a spot near the top of the climb. On the way up, we met two new hikers, Hand me Down and Lobster. Lobster was someone I had been following on Instagram for a while and it was nice to meet her in person.

It was foggy, cold, and a little miserable. We were close to finishing but still had a whole state and more than 500 miles to go. Cascade Locks is definitely a false summit. Tidbits and I were joined by a hiker named Doug at our little campsite and we settled in for the night

8/21 - Day 112 Miles 2158 - 2183 25 Hiked

We woke up to a very cold and foggy morning. All of our gear was at least a little damp and it was a challenge to get motivated. Tidbits and I played leapfrog most of the morning through some old growth forests. We noticed new vegetation and massive slugs that we hadn’t seen anywhere else on the hike to this point.

Lunch was a cold, miserable event just off the side of the trail where I would end up somehow leaving both my pillow and water bladder behind. We added some layers before we got moving again. Things cleared up a bit through the afternoon but the strange weather and quiet trails made for an unsettling second day in Washington.

We made it to a front country site after 25 miles only to find no campsites available. We got talking to a super nice young family who offered to let us crash on the tent pad at their site since they were staying in their VW RV with their two children. Jules and Pia made us dinner and cocktails while we talked about all sorts of things around their picnic table. Jules was big into collecting rocks and so I gave him the small piece of Quartz that Detour had given me and Traps more than 2000 miles previously when he gave us back to the trail from Idyllwild. This felt like the right end of the journey for him.

Jules and his son were very grateful. Tidbits and I went to bed in better spirits but still not as stoked as we should have been for having made it this far.

8/22 - Day 113 Miles 2183 -2216 33 Hiked

Tidbits and I got rolling early and said our farewells to Jules and Pia. We decided to take the Panther Creek road walk alternate so that we could see Panther falls. Road walks always felt like they took forever but I think this one was worth it for the change of pace as well as seeing the very impressive falls.

We rejoined the trail after about 10 miles as it started to rain harder. Tidbits broke out his ridiculous bright blue poncho that he had gotten from Crater lake and we pushed on for a bit with Hand me Down. The sun broke through every now and again but, for the most part, the Washington weather was doing just what we had feared.

We made it down to some dirt roads to settle in for the night. Tidbits let me know that he was starting to have thoughts about getting off the trail. This was tough to hear but he was starting a job in a few weeks and was thinking that he had done enough hiking and wanted to spend some time with friends and family as well as join his buddies for a bachelor party. This was all incredibly fair given the weather that we had experienced the past two days as well as what he had accomplished already.

He was still thinking about his options but I knew that once someone get that seed of getting off trail in their head it was very tough to weed it out.

8/23 - Day 114 Miles 2216 - 2245 29 Hiked

It was an incredibly cold night. We woke to find thick layers of frost on our tents and our water bottles nearly completely frozen. I knew that we would have to wait for the sun to hit our tents before it would be worth packing down and heading out. I made some coffee and Tidbits let me know that he was going to call it a hike here. He made the phone call to Allie who would come and get him from there. I packed my gear and after some reminiscing and shared words of gratitude between us, I said farewell and headed north alone.

Tidbits getting off trail was tough. I’m not sure that I make it through Oregon without having such a solid buddy to tackle it with. I understood that for him, tagging the northern border wasn’t as important as what he had going on back at home. He in return understood that I would have to be dragged off the trail to stop me from making it to Cana at this point.

The morning was quiet but the sun breaking through the clouds was enough to keep me motivated. Most hikers would be going into trout lake but Tidbits and I had opted in our plan to push straight through to White Pass. This was made a bit easier for me thanks to Tidbits giving me some of his extra food. I started to catch views of Mt Adams and made it through a lonely day to have lunch on the banks of a small creek.

The afternoon was spent weaving through a recent burn zone and up on to the trail that wound around the western face of the mountain. I made it to camp near an incredible stream with great views of the mountain. I set up camp and indulged in some bourbon before settling in for the cold night.

8/24 - Day 115 Miles 2245 - 2274 29 Hiked

I woke up to just as much frost on my tent this morning. My campsite selection was comically bad and I paid the price in frozen water bottles and numb fingers. The sun hit my tent eventually and that was all the motivation that I needed to get cooking. The first few miles of the day were very cruisy. I made it quickly down to a dirt road where Lobster was dishing out pancakes from her van. I had been following another pair of size 13 Hoka Speedgoat tracks all morning and discovered that they belonged to PizzaBrikk. I had met Brikk on the 4th of July in Kennedy north but he was just going by Sam at that point.

Brikk and I hiked together for a stretch but he pushed ahead while i stopped for a quick lunch. Brikk moved fast and light and I had some fun rolling with him. After lunch I pushed on solo through some tunnelly miles of forest and eventually started the climb up towards Cispus Pass.

The views were incredible and hitting the peak of Cispus was just as rewarding as the big passes that we had conquered in the Sierra’s. I was joined there by Brikk for a short while before he pushed on and I took advantage of some rare reception to call my family.

I rolled around a massive valley on the other side of the pass and camped with a bottleneck of other hikers that were crashing here to set up for the “Knife’s edge” the next day. I made some new friends and fell asleep quickly after back to back 29 mile days.

8/25 - Day 116 Miles 2274 - 2296 22 Hiked

I was the first one out of camp and made good time for the first 5 miles leading up to the entrance to Goat Rocks wilderness. This section of trail is famous for the Knifes edge. Steep drop offs flank the trail for a short stretch and is widely regarded as a highlight of the trip. I was stoked to have good clear weather today and passed over some snowy ridges before getting on to the edge itself. The views were incredible and I had the whole place to myself. The steep drop offs gave way to a moderate descent which brought me back to the valley floor where I settled into a rhythm for most of the day. I had nearly run out of food and stopped to pick some wild blueberries before emptying the clip on my food bag at a brief lunch.

The afternoon had one more climb in store before following another ridgeline and then dropping in to White pass. Smoke to the north appeared and I sent messages to other hikers and my parents to see if it would be an issue. I called some friends on my way down towards the road and had a half mile road walk to the “Kracker Barrell” which is just a gas station that accepts hiker packages and has a decent food supply. I ran into some other hikers there, including Brikk, before grabbing a room at the ski lodge just next door.

I let Brikk grab a shower in my room while I waited for a pizza and caught up with some other hikers. Hand me Down charged some of his stuff before leaving me to my little sanctuary. I had trouble sleeping and stayed up watching tv until well after midnight.

8/26 - Day 117 Miles 2296 - 2320 24 Hiked

I was slow to get moving the next morning. I was grateful to find lots of other hikers taking a similar approach and enjoying some gas station coffee in the parking lot outside the Kracker Barrell. Hand me down introduced me to a new hiker named Section. The three of us bought some tall boy Mike’s Hards for the road and headed back to the trail. Hand me Down was suffering from some intense shin splints so he slowed way down while Section and I pushed on ahead. We hiked together for a bit until i stopped for a lunch break and she pushed on into Mt Rainier national park.

Not a single person passed by me while I was stopped for lunch and I didn’t see anyone until I caught back up to section near the end of the day. We pushed down a ridge as heavy fog started to roll in and we met a super nice section hiker named Allison. The three of us set up shop near a small lake and enjoyed our drinks that we had carried all the way up from the pass.

8/27 - Day 118 Miles 2320 - 2348 28 Hiked

Section beat me out of camp but I caught up after a short while and hiked just ahead of her the few miles to Chinook pass. A major road crosses the PCT at the point and I was surprised to find Lobster waiting on the other side. She was getting back on the trail here and was waiting for Section to catch up. I followed the trail around to the other side of the road and pushed back up into the mountains.

I had a solo, freezing cold lunch in a burn area and then some miserable foggy miles after that. I climbed out of the fog and into the final stretch of the day and met a hiker named Haiku who was hiking with Tide and Cleo. I didn’t know it at the time but these are the people that I would ultimately finish the trail with.

That group pushed on a few more miles for the day while I opted to crash at the Mike Urich cabin and wait for Lobster and Section. The cabin was maintained by a snowmobile group and was a popular place for hikers to crash inside four solid walls for the night. Unfortunately, some asshole had set up his hammock across the entire first floor of it preventing any of us from huddling around the wood burning stove inside. He claimed to be a PCT hiker but he had been hanging at the cabin for 3 days and was scabbing food and weed off of anybody that passed by. He complained about getting kicked out of PCT campgrounds for not having a permit because “he didn’t need a permit to walk in the woods” He was my least favorite person I met on the trail and a rare exception to the standard vibe of thru hikers.

There were some other new hikers there that i enjoyed hanging out with until Section and Lobster showed up a while later. We climbed up to the top floor of the cabin and sprawled out on the wood floor for the night.

8/28 - Day 119 Miles 2348 - 2374 26 Hiked

Lobster and Section beat me out of camp but I caught up to them quickly. Lobster thought she could match my pace for a while and tried her very best to keep up. We were in high spirits since we were going into town the next day. I broke away to do a stretch by myself and was listening to a Harry Potter audiobook when something hit me hard in the throat. A very thicc insect flew away from me as I grabbed at where it had struck me on the neck. I jogged up and out of the wooded section into the sunlight to take a picture and saw a pretty big welt forming on my neck. I called my sister to do some research on Murder Hornets and Lobster applied some Neosporin which helped. The stinging pain went away within an hour and we all went on with our day. I ran into a hiker named Detour that I had been following on Instagram and finally got to say hey in person.

A little after lunch, we were surprised to find an ultramarathon support tent set up on the side of the trail. We had hit a turnaround point for a 100 mile ultra that was taking place on the trail. They offered us all manner of snacks and drinks and i pushed on into a section of the trail that was just full of runners taking part. They would jog the downhills and speed walk the ups and were about 30 miles into their 100 mile endeavor. I met a runner named Deb and I asked if she would mind if i matched her pace for a while. My pack was light so I was able to keep up for about 7 miles down to camp and spent the time chatting with her about how crazy it was to run 100 miles in a row. she expressed a similar sentiment about walking form Mexico to Canada.

I got some signal on the final descent into camp and heard that my friends Jack and Sophia had gotten engaged so I got to give them a call and say congrats. Lobster and Section joined me at camp shortly after. Lobster had taken a full 2 liter of mountain dew from a support tent so we had that going for us.

8/29 - Day 120 Miles 2374 - 2394 20 Hiked

We all got moving out of camp around the same time. We had just 20 miles into Snoqualmie today to resupply and were looking forward to some rest. I got ahead of the others and caught up to Littlefoot! Littlefoot was an Instagram celebrity and the youngest member of the PCT class of 21 and was hiking with her parents. I stopped to say hello and grab a picture before speeding ahead.

I ran into some trail magic just short of town where previous thru hikers were doing trail maintenance and had brought out a cooler of beers. They were incredibly kind and we all expressed our gratitude for keeping the trail in such great shape. This was where I formally met Tide and Cleo who had been hiking with Haiku. I left the trail magic and headed down into Snoqualmie passing under ski lifts on the way.

I had a small road walk to the gas station that my mom had shipped a resupply box to. I grabbed that and ran into Brikk and balloons who were loitering outside of the hotel next door. I grabbed a room and deposited my gear before running back to the gas station for some provisions (ice cream, candy, and beer) I said hello to some other hikers but I was pulled away by the hiker urge to take a 40 minute shower and then lay in a bed. I fell asleep very early.

8/30 - Day 121 Miles 2394 - 2420 26 Hiked

I was up early to grab a coffee from the gas station in order to attack the pack up process with some degree of motivation. I ran into Cleo in the hotel lobby who was already headed out into the fog to start the day. I checked out of the hotel after one last shower and hit the gas station to chug a Gatorade. A local was filling up his truck and upon seeing my backpack asked where I was headed. He about lost his shit when I told him I was hoping for Canada, “You’re going to walk to Canada? from here!?”. I explained that I had actually started at the Mexico border and he just stared at me shaking his head. We wished each other well and went on our ways.

The climb from Snoqualmie back up into the mountains was incredibly foggy and I could feel the temperature dropping as I gained altitude. I came around the corner onto the catwalk and had incredible views of the valleys below. The clouds crashed against the west side of the bowl leaving only small waves of fog to spill over into the valley. It was incredible. I continued around the peaks and ran into some mountain goats.

I stopped for a quick lunch at a gorgeous little lake and hustled out of there in an attempt to catch up to Cleo. I ran into her on the last descent of the day and aligned on a target spot to camp after one more big climb. The weather was moving in but I was feeling strong and moving fast. I crossed a stream and came inches from crushing a little frog who was standing in the trail. At the next stream i spotted another and avoided it by a few feet. I said aloud, to myself, in the middle of nowhere, “at least you’re making frogress”. Yikes

It started to rain the last two miles of the climb but I eventually made it up onto a little shelf by a pond and got setup without too much water getting on my gear. I settled in for the night and heard Tide and Brikk role in just after dark to set up right by me as well. I was glad to have the company.

8/31 - Day 122 Miles 2420 - 2451 31 Hiked

I was the first out of camp the next morning but ran into issues immediately. The cut on my tailbone had gotten infected and was incredibly painful to the touch. My pack resting against it while I was walking was unbearably painful. I stuffed my sit pad into the small of my back which gave some relief and I pushed on. Tide, Haiku, Cleo, and Brikk all caught me by the first water and our group played leapfrog all morning. Brikk was nice enough to help apply some Neosporin to the infection and Dr Haiku (Phd in Poetry) informed me that it might be Staph.

We made it to lunch as a small amount of rain fell. We had a few more climbs for the day and knew that it would make it a tough stretch. We ended up doing 31 miles with about 8k feet of elevation gain.

I did most of the afternoon solo and caught up to Brikk after going over a high, cold, foggy pass. I convinced him to make camp at a small lake that Haiku and I had targeted and we made our way down the muddy side trail. The camp was full of weekend hikers and sectioners but we found one small section of damp ground with a 2 foot wide flowing moat of water to protect us.

Haiku and Tide joined us some time later and we emptied the clip on the bourbon supply since we would be going into town the next day.

9/1 - Day 123 Miles 2451 - 2465 14 Hiked

We woke up in a cold fog the next morning and packed down our damp gear. We were lucky that today was a town day since all of our gear was absolutely soaked. We bundled up and got hiking through some incredible blueberry patches broken up by steep climbs. I hiked with Brikk for the last little stretch up to the top of the Stevens pass ski area. All that we had left from there were some cruisy downhill miles across what would become ski slopes once winter set in. We grabbed packages from the ski lodge and walked over to the Highway to grab a hitch.

Haiku did his best to improve our chances by putting on his SpongeBob printed Hawaiian shirt (His dress shirt) and showering off with some filtered water. We were lucky that a vanlifer was driving out of the lot and he took us the 20+ miles down the road into the town of Leavenworth. We grabbed a quick lunch together before I went off to do my own thing and grab a room. The rest of the crew were headed to a local hostel. We made plans to meet up for dinner but once I got showered and settled into my room there was no leaving for me.

I ordered a pizza and watched Harry Potter while my gear dried off on the floor. I treated the infection on my back as best as I could but it had swelled even more and looked just awful. Less than 200 miles to go

9/2 - Day 124 Miles 2465 - 2488 23 Hiked

I heard that the other guys had a late night and would be moving slow so I decided to hit the trail solo. I got a lucky hitch right off of the main road from a guy named Zach passing through. We had a nice 30 minute drive backup to the pass where he sent me on my way. I used the first few miles with signal to check in one more time with my family since I wasn’t sure if I would get any signal at all between here and Canada.

Once out of signal I went back to some music and had it up loud in my earbuds. I came around a corner while looking down at the ground and caught some motion ahead of me. About 30 yards up the trail, a mama bear and cub were walking towards me. She saw me shortly after I noticed her and stood up. She wasn’t the biggest bear I had seen but was still well taller than me. I stayed perfectly still and talked to her a bit before she realized I was not threat and got back down on the ground and walked off the trail to my right. The cub climbed a few feet up a tree and I grabbed a quick picture before heading on my own way. The heart rate was up a little higher.

I got a decent video of both of them which is on my instagram (@ryanpetit)

The miles came slow after this encounter and I hardly saw any other hikers. I made it up and around a final ridge to a great campsite with views of the sun setting to the west and an ice cold stream running through. There were also wild blueberries in abundance now that we were out of the range of day hikers. Two new hikers, Patches and Beep Beep joined me and I fell asleep quickly after a long day.

9/3- Day 125 Miles 2488 - 2512 24 Hiked

I took my time out of camp the next morning. I knew that the rest of the group would be close behind and I was hoping they would catch me in the morning. I got a tiny bit of signal coming around a ridge and stopped for a bit there. Haiku, Tide, and Brikk joined me shortly after and we snacked on berries before pressing on.

The views today really became incredible. The fog had gone and we had sunny, clear views of the surrounding mountains. Marmots were everywhere calling out in panic as we walked past. The last pass of the day gave us an unbelievable vantage point of the trail winding back down to the valley floor where we had planned to make camp by a river.

I hiked most of the afternoon with Haiku and Brikk who were both avid birdwatchers. Haiku even had a monocular that he broke out every now and then to confirm a sighting of a certain species before making a note of it in his app. I knew nothing about the subject but was happy to have a new appreciation for the sport.

We made it to a small river for camp and setup amongst the downed trees with a solid group. We would save the tough climb for tomorrow. Brikk was eager to push on so he hit the climb and we said our goodbyes confident that we would see him in the next town.

9/4 - Day 126 Miles 2512 - 2542 20 Hiked

We had some very overgrown climbing to start the day. Haiku and I stuck together for a bit as we made our way through the bramble. We eventually broke through the worst of it and finished out the climb to find incredible views of the best peaks in the cascades off in the distance to the North. I stopped for a quick break and watched Haiku grow smaller and smaller below me.

I caught him at some point on the descent and we navigated some downed trees and washed out switchbacks. On one attempt to slide down a few feet to the trail below, I slipped hard and broke both of my trekking poles. I had some scrapes on my legs but was otherwise uninjured. I repaired one pole as best i could using medical tape but it was fairly flimsy. We made it down to the base of the valley where we crossed over a small stream and had a steep climb right back up and out.

I hit the climb hard by myself and was happy with how strong I felt even after completing it. I stopped to soak my feet in a glacial runoff stream and Haiku caught up. We really were in the best part of the mountains at his point and every view was incredible. We stopped to grab some pictures and I got a little emotional as I headed down into the last descent of the day.

I fell, again, cutting my leg a little worse. I cruised back down into the treeline and into an incredible old growth forest. It was an eerie place and I was glad to know that there were hikers ahead of and behind me. We made it to camp on the shore of the Suiattle river which acted as a very loud white noise machine through the night

9/5 - Day 127 Miles 2542 - 2573 31 Hiked

We would make it into the final town stop of the trail today. Stehekin is a tiny town on the shores of lake Chelan. It was accessible only by boat or trail so we had shipped packages to the small post office there. We had a very gradual climb to start the day. Following the line of the river, we made our way up onto the ridge and into more big views. We crossed the 100 miles to go mark and started the 15 miles of cruisy downhill that we had for the rest of the day after a brief lunch by a stream flowing across the trail. We knew that we would miss the last shuttle from the trail in the town but we would be happy to wake up the next morning and get the first one in.

The group all played leapfrog through the day as we settled into a groove. The hiking was great. Easy trails with nice views of the river to our left as we followed the valley floor all the way to the “Welcome to North Cascades National Park” sign in the last mile. We made it to a small cabin that acted as a welcome outpost to the park via dirt road and made some dinner on the picnic table there.

A side by side vehicle came across the bridge and Patches and Beep Beep half jokingly stuck out their thumbs. The couple made room for all of us and told us they could take us into town. Stoked. We huddled together in the backseat and as the light of the day faded, we cruised down the dirt road and around the lake to the tiny town of Stehekin. The general store was closed as was the restaurant so we just ate everything that we had remaining in our food bags and walked up to the campsite in the dark. We ran into Brikk who told us that all of the tent sites were completely full. we decided to just cowboy camp on the concrete pad outside of the bathrooms. It wasn’t the most glamorous site but we were happy to have it.

9/6 - Day 128 Stehekin Zero

We were up before the sun and packed up our little campsite off of the concrete pad. We scoped out some hikers that were leaving and grabbed their recently vacated spots up in the real campground. We had decided to take one last zero here for the trip. My parents were flying out to help grab us after we finished and we were running ahead of schedule. The crew got a ride straight over to the famous bakery which was just a few miles back up the dirt road. I grabbed a shower and did some laundry before using a landline to call home and confirm plans for our pickup in a few days. I got a nice hitch in the back of a pickup truck to the bakery to find the whole group plus some other hikers that had just rolled in.

The bakery was something out of a Disney movie. a log building in the middle of the woods with a dozen or more women hustling about in their aprons in the back. It was terrific. We caught the shuttle back to “town” where we took little time to grab some beers and settle into our vacation on the shores of lake Chelan. Ferries dropped off visiting tourists who we referred to as “mainlander’s” now that we considered ourselves locals. We swam in the lake and wasted the day away.

We stumbled up to camp and fell asleep easily for the last time in a town.

9/7 - Day 129 Miles 2573 - 2586 13 Hiked

Cleo was still waiting for her package to show up which was as much excuse as we needed to spend a lazy morning in town. We made our way over to the bakery once she had gotten it for a final town meal and stock up on snacks before grabbing the shuttle back to the trail.

Despite mailing home some final gear in an effort to save weight, my pack was as heavy as it ever had been. Mostly due to the mini glass bottle of champagne and 4 pack of wine that all of us had grabbed from the general store. I hiked for a bit with Cleo as we wove our way along some valleys, over a bridge, and up onto a ridge overlooking a massive valley below us. Some smoke had rolled in so we had an incredible sunset as we made it the final few miles to camp.

There was already a group of section hikers in the spot but they were more than happy to let us grab whatever space we could find around them. We made dinner with them as a group and they had tons of questions about our hike. It was nice to talk about it now that we were within 80 miles of finishing. Some light rain chased us into our tents as we settled in for the night.

9/8 - Day 130 Miles 2586 - 2613 27 Hiked

All our gear was at least a little damp as we packed down the next morning. We had just a few miles of trail until we hit Rainy Pass, the last paved road that we would cross. Haiku stopped me to show a rare woodpecker he had spotted up on a tree and we made it to the road to once again find Sam’s grandparents giving out trail magic. We stopped for some sandwiches and coffee as Haiku ripped off some John Prine covers on guitar before we wished Suzie and Eric the best and kept on our way. We had some very nice miles up to the top of Cutthroat pass where we stopped for a quick lunch and to take in the views.

The rest of the afternoon featured long sweeping trail around the edges of massive valleys. marmots and water were plentiful which made for enjoyable hiking. We descended down into one more valley for the day where we filled up on water and then pushed the final 2 miles up to glacier pass. It was getting colder as the night went on but we were dry enough in our tents.

A rockslide occurred downhill form us at some point in the night waking us all up. We were in no danger but the loud sounds made us rethink how vulnerable we really were out here.

9/9 - Day 131 Miles 2613 - 2639 26 Hiked

We took our time packing down camp. This would be our second last day on the trail and all we had to do was get the 26 miles to camp at our targeted location just 15 miles from the border. We had some long sweeping switchbacks to climb our way back up out of the valley. the 4 of us could see each other at any point since the slope was exposed and the switchbacks stayed right on top of each other all the way to the top..

we circled down to harts pass, the last dirt road that we would pass on our way to tag the border and the planned location for my parents to pick us up in two days time. There were a few cars milling about and we strategically opted to have lunch here in the hopes of snagging some trail magic. No such luck but a scraggly looking Tigger did emerge from the trail coming back towards us. I hadn’t seen Tig since mile 700 and he had just finished a few days ahead of us. We caught up for a bit before Tide, Cleo, Haiku, and myself headed on our way.

The trail for the rest of the day was cruisy at times but did end with a steep climb up onto a forested patch of a field where we made camp for the last time before becoming thru hikers. We grabbed a little shelf up above the main campground and had it to ourselves. The plan for the next day was to leave our stuff set up here and hike the 15 miles to the border and 15 back to camp at the same spot.

I slept well. I knew we were so close to finishing this thing

9/10 - Day 132 Miles 2639 - 2653 15 Hiked

The last day. We were in high spirits on this foggy morning and took our time making coffee and joking around. We got moving as a group and all hiked single file as we made our way up to the top of Woody Pass. We saw a massive black bear on the way and stopped to take some pictures. He was gorgeous. We passed lots of hikers who had already hit the border and were now backtracking including Brikk, Beep Beep, Patches, Long Haul, and lots of others. It was great to see people one last time and congratulate each other.

As we got closer to the border, I got ahead of the others and spent some time thinking about the past miles, how lucky I had been to find such great people to share the experience with. How much involvement my parents had in getting me this far. I cried a little. The adventure was coming to an end and I was thrilled to be finishing. Just an emotional time, man.

I broke through one last clearing and there it was. The wooden monument I had seen a thousand times before in books and in youtube videos. I dropped my pack and put my hand on it. I had made it to Canada.

Cleo, Haiku, and Tide all rolled in shortly after to a raucous applause from anyone who had already beaten them there. We took a bunch of group pictures and had lunch here after popping our celebratory champagne. The weather started to move in and we headed out as a group back towards camp. The backtrack offered us our own chance to say congrats to other hikers who were making their way in. we ran into a hiker named Walmart two socks who had taken a nasty fall around woody pass and had shredded his thigh and butt. We stopped to offer what first aid we could but he was determined to make it to the border the next morning. We left him with the offer that if he could make it to our camp tomorrow morning we would take his gear for him. We would later find out he didn’t make it to the border and was helped out by some other hikers.

9/11 - Day 133 Miles 2639 - 2653 14 Hiked

Waking up today felt like Christmas morning. My parents were on their way to Harts pass and I had just 14 miles left of hiking to get there. I made some coffee and ate just about everything that was left in my food bag before setting out with the group. I made it to the top of a ridge about 9 miles in and got to call my grandpa to tell him personally I had done it. He had been a massive supporter of the whole thing and told me before I even started that he had no doubt I would finish.

My dad had told me he would hike in a ways from Harts pass to try and meet me on the trial so the last few cruisy miles were spent anxiously peering over ridges trying to see him walking towards me. I eventually made it to the last mile of trail in a field and saw his yellow Marquette hat bobbing above the plants. He had a big smile and was videoing me on his phone yelling out “How’s it feel?!?”. “Got’er Walked” I yelled back as I closed the last few paces and gave him a big hug. This was when it really felt like the trail had finished. I knew I didn’t have to worry about anything now that I had my parents there.

We hiked the last bit into Hart’s pass together where my Mom was waiting. She had a broken foot but had organized a nice little trail magic setup that was just a treat to walk into. I gave my mom a big hug as well. She had been central to the planning, resupplying, and general organization of the trip from the very beginning.

We enjoyed some beers and pizza with our group plus lots of others before we said our goodbyes to Cleo. Tide, Haiku, and I got in the back of the rental car for the ride back to Seattle. We would all stay in a hotel that night before I would fly back to Chicago with my parents and they would make their own ways home.

I was so grateful to this group for letting me roll with them to the finish. I wouldn’t have wanted to complete the trail any other way.

From Campo, By land. Thanks for following along, folks.