Day 151: Canada! It is Done!

September 17, Day 151: 2638.9-2653.6 aka Canada!

Miles Hiked: 14.7 to Canada, 14.7 extra credit miles. Total of 29.4 miles hiked

Gratitude of the Day: I’m thankful for making it to Canada. 

Last night Clancy, Cool Cat and I decided that we’d try to get up at 4am and start hiking to the border at 4:30 to try to get most of the miles to the border without rain, according to our Garmin weather report. The only reason we’d not get up early is if it was already raining, might as well sleep in if that was the case. But 4am came and it was still dry so we all got ready and left camp at 4:40am headed north. We hiked with our headlamps to guide the way until around 6:30 when dawn broke and we had some amazing views of the peaks around us. The clouds were high enough that we could just make out the bottom of Mt Baker.

It was two climbs and then an 8 mile downhill to the Northern Terminus of the PCT.

At 9:35 I walked around the corner and there it was!  Such an emotional feeling to have hiked toward a goal for 5 months and then see it come to fruition. I’ve thought about this moment the entire trail and I’ve dreamed of it for years, today it came true. It’s hard to put into words the emotions that one feels, tears of joy/pride, gratitude, exhaustion, relief perhaps are my best words.

The border clear cut

I sat at the terminus for about an hour, even though it was raining soaking it all in. In a non-pandemic year I’d walk into Canada and 8 miles into Manning Park where I’d have a warm bed, hot meal and a cold beverage to then take a bus to Vancouver, BC and then fly home.

This year, we get some extra credit miles. We’re not allowed to enter Canada, so we turn around and hike the 30 miles back to Harts Pass. So after my hour at the terminus, I hiked the soaking wet 14.7 miles back to last nights camp.  And now I sit 16 miles from civilization and the reality of what I’ve just completed.  I’m sure it will hit in waves, but for now I’m nestled in my tent listening to the rain fall on my tent drinking a hot coffee. Tomorrow it’ll be a wet hike back to reality. 

Day 150: Penultimate Day to Canada

September 16, Day 150: 2613.1-2638.9

Miles Hiked: 25.8

Gratitude of the Day: I’m thankful for the sun’s warmth. 

Last night was a very cold night, my Garmin said it was 28 degrees when I woke up around 5:30 and I believe it as the condensation that usually forms on the rain fly of my tent was frozen. It took me awhile to get motivated to get out of camp this morning, but I did make hot coffee and got packed up. I hiked out of camp and started one of the big climbs for the day at 6:40am. The ridge I was climbing up was on the east side so it remained in the shade and it was still cold even for climbing out of the valley. Finally around 8:30 I created the ridge and the sun shone on me and it was glorious.

The rest of the miles to Harts Pass (the last road I’ll cross as I head to the Canadian border) the sun guided my way and I was so thankful for it. It was clear blue skies with amazing views all morning. I arrived at Harts Pass and stopped to dry out my tent and let my sleeping quilt air out in the sunshine. As I waited for Cool Cat and Clancy I got a beer from a local and a trail angel showed up with fresh cookies and soda. Finally around 11:30 I picked my dry gear up and had 15 more miles to go to get to camp and still some major elevation to gain.

It was slow going but the views were amazing. I was trying to soak it all in because after today the weather forecast calls for rain for the foreseeable future. Tonight I’m camped 14.7 miles from the Canadian border. The plan is to slack pack to the border tomorrow, leaving at camp here tonight our tents and non essential gear. It’ll be a big day, 29.5 miles tomorrow but hopefully the lighter pack with make it go quicker. If/when it rains that’ll be a motivator as well.  

Day 149: 2600 miles and “Wow” views

September 15, Day 149: 2584.1-2613.1

Miles Hiked: 29

Gratitude of the Day: I’m thankful for all the extra layers of clothing I’ve been carrying. Tonight I’m going to need them. 

Today was a planned big day with a total elevation gain and loss of 10,000 feet. The reason for the push is to set up for the border on Friday. So I set my alarm for 5am but didn’t start getting things ready until 5:30 and began hiking out of camp at 6:25am. It was 15 miles of uphill to start the day, still climbing out of the Stehekin Valley but the weather was beautiful, slightly chilly but the movement, hat and gloves kept me warm. When I reached Rainy Pass at 9:30 there was trail magic, Germinator (2018) and his mother Maggie had a variety of delicious fares, hot chocolate to warm the bones and plenty of chairs to go around. Even with a planned big day I stayed there for an hour. At 10:30 though it was back to the climb, still 7 miles to go. As I reached Cutthroat Pass the views to the north were just incredible. Every corner and view was a “wow” moment and I passed the 2600 mile marker.

Cool Cat, Clancy and I stopped around 1:30 to eat lunch and dry out our tents. At 2:15 I packed up and pushed up the last little bit of Methow Pass before descending into the valley below. I still had 10 miles to go for the day so I pushed to the last water source 2.7 miles from camp and stopped to take a break to filter water and eat a snack. The last bit to camp was another climb but it cuts off half of the climb for tomorrow. It’s hard to believe in a day and a half I’ll be at the Canadian border. Tonight it’s supposed to get below freezing, but I also sit 40.5 miles from the border. 

Day 148: Game Plan Devised

September 14, Day 148: 2572.9-2584.1

Miles Hiked: 11.2

Gratitude of the Day: I’m thankful for small towns like Stehekin, it’s a place I want to visit again and could even live in some day. 

I woke up around 6:30, gathered my dirty laundry and headed to the public shower/laundry facility. I was first there and took a glorious 7 and a half minute hot shower and then threw my stinky clothes in the washer. All my electronics are charged and it was just last minute chores to complete, and waiting on the Stehekin post office to open at 10am so I could get the resupply box I had mailed myself from Portland. Going through my box I was happy “Past Brandon” had bought things that I had forgotten I had sent.  As usual I had sent too much food, but that’s ok I’d rather have too much than not enough. I packed up my bag and headed to wait for the shuttle out of town, the rest of the group had made it in and were working on their chores as well. Having gotten in early was such a relief and reduced the stress of the day for me.

At 2pm I got on the shuttle that takes you back to trail, it stopped at the Stehekin Bakery Company this amazing pastry store. I got a huge cinnamon roll, spring rolls with peanut sauce and a chicken bacon ranch pizza croissant thing that was amazing. The shuttle dropped a huge herd of us hikers back to trail and at 3:30 I started the 23 mile climb out of the Stehekin Valley. I wanted to get a good portion of the climb done so the plan is to get to a campsite in about 12 miles. About 5 miles in Cool Cat and Clancy were stopped along the trail and were talking about a game plan to get to the border. The weather forecast looks good for the next two days, but on Friday on it’s rain and in the upper elevation it’s supposed to have some snow. That sounds miserable to hike in so us three devised a plan. We’d do the 11 today, tomorrow we’ll push 29 miles, Thursday a 26 and then set ourselves up 14.7 miles from the Canadian border. We’ll set up camp there, slack pack to the border leaving our camp set up. Hike 14.7 miles to the border and then back making it nearly a 30 mile day on Friday, finishing the PCT. Then we have to hike back to Harts Pass on Saturday but we’d only leave 16 miles that day. So we’ll see how this plan comes to fruition. Hopefully the weather holds and we’ll have some views and beautiful days. 

Day 147: Stehekin

September 13, Day 147: 2544.2-2572.9

Miles Hiked: 28.7

Gratitude of the Day: I’m thankful for being nearly done, hoping and praying all goes well in this last section of the trail. 

I set my alarm for 5am to try to get a good jump on the day and give myself time to get the planned 24 miles done and allow my self breaks throughout the day. But, I hit snooze because I was still tired from the day before. I still made it out of camp first and at 6:20 to start the 8 mile uphill out of the Siuattle River valley. The climb was typical Washington, side hilling through bushes and still having to climb over downed trees across the trail. It was slow going but by 10:30 I had made it to the top and the clouds had burned off so I got spectacular views of Glacier Peak before descending into the Stehekin Valley. Cool Cat caught up to me and told me he was going to try to push all the way into Stehekin today and catch the 6:15 shuttle that takes you into town from the ranger station.

After calculating the math, I had a shot at making that shuttle too, it would mean I’d have to take little breaks to get the nearly 29 miles done by 6. After thinking about it, I figured I’d push the miles so I could get chores done tonight in town and make tomorrow less hectic and stressful when I had originally planned to get into town and get my resupply box. Fortunately, the rest of the day was a massive downhill and I could keep a pace of 3 mph for the rest of the day with no problem. I stopped only twice today and that was to filter water. Over all I hiked 28.7 miles with only taking 30 minutes to stop, it’s amazing what the body can do.  I walked by the 100 miles to go marker, took a picture and kept going. I reached the shuttle stop at 5pm on the dot giving myself and hour and 15 minutes to sit at the ranger station and relax. Cool cat showed up shortly after and the rumor was that more the the Salty Butts were going to push to get in too. The shuttle showed up and only Cool Cat and I made it into town. Once there the general store opened for us to buy some cold beverages and snacks and we immediately started to charge our battery banks for the next section to the Canadian border.  We sat on the deck of the Stehekin Lodge listening to the boats in their slips, enjoy the stars and getting WiFi for the first time in a week. We camped at the Lakeview Campground and had plans to get up early to finish our chores of laundry and showers. 

Day 146: Thank You Lauren and Siuattle River

September 12, Day 146: 2518.8-2544.2

Miles Hiked: 25.4

Gratitude of the Day: I’m thankful for Lauren “Catch” Braithwaite. I’ve gotten the chance to hike with Catch a huge portion of the trail, she is kind and inspiring, reuniting just yesterday was amazing and I’m so happy that we’re going to get to finish the trail together. 

I woke up this morning to Navi’s alarm going off at 6am. It rained off and on during night so everything is wet again, so another day starting off with wet gear.  I packed up but it still took me until 7:20 to start hiking down the trail. The plan is to hike 25 miles today. The elevation for that mileage is 3500 feet up and 7000 feet down… geez!  I feel like a 25 mile day in Washington feels just like a 35 mile day in Oregon. The elevation is just so severe. It may sound nice to have a ton of downhill but it’s brutal and hard on the knees. But first to start the day was a nice warm up with some uphill elevation. One of the other annoying things with the trail here in northern Washington is the trail is more of a “side hilling” where the tread of the trail is probably a foot wide that’s slanted down the hill with roots and rocks hidden in the brushes that grow over the trail. That’s before you add in all the tree blow downs across the trail that you have to crawl over, under or around. It didn’t help that the clouds had socked the entire area in and it was drizzling and there wasn’t views to be had all morning.

By lunch time though, I stopped and there was a break in the clouds and rain. I laid everything out in the cold wind to dry while I layer my clothes and ate lunch. Next up was a brutal down hill to the Siuattle River in a deep valley. It was basically 10 miles downhill with my guess 300 blow downs, some were ancient cider trees that even laying down were taller than me.

I crossed the Siuattle River on the pedestrian bridge and made the 2.7 miles climb up to camp. I met a guy named Mad Moody, he hiked the trail in 1977!  I asked him how many people hiked it his year, 24!  He’s basically a legend, he knows Eric Ryback (one of the first people to write a book about the PCT) and the guy who started the Kelty backpack company. He was kind enough to share some stories with me as I set up camp next to him.  This is the amazing thing about the trail, you never who you may meet.

 

Day 145: Thank You Madison and 2500 Miles

September 11, Day 145: 2494.6-2518.8

Miles Hiked: 24.2

Gratitude of the Day: I’m thankful for Madison “Hiccups” Hess. She’s always a bright spot on trail, a hug and a laugh. Us gingers gotta stick together!

Last night it rained continuously through the night and into the morning. I woke at 6:30 but the rain was still coming down so I just stayed in my tent. Finally around 7:15 it let up enough to crawl out and start packing up all the wet gear. The fog was still present but at least it wasn’t raining. I left super late for me at 8:20am. I wore my rain pants out of camp because I didn’t want my legs and shorts to get soaked from all the bushes that hang over onto the trail. It was an ass kicker of a day from the start with a huge climb but as I descended the other side I got peekaboo glances of Glacier Peak and the fall colors on the hills and valleys below were beautiful. But I also passed the 2500 miles marker!

It would be the last view I’d see the rest of the day. At lunch though I caught up to Catch who has been just behind me since Nor Cal and she jumped ahead just the last day. I caught her airing out her gear so I stopped and joined her and ate lunch.

Today the group is trying to make it 24+ miles but the elevation gain and loss is pretty significant. Add in that I started the day with wet shoes, socks and shirt it was a rough day. After lunch Catch and I hiked together down into the valley below, but rest assured if the PCT drops into a valley here in Washington, it’s going to climb right back out of it and it sure did. We crossed a glacier creek across a log and then immediately began to climb for 3+ miles, and it was a Washington roots, side hill, downed trees type of climb. By 6:30 I reached camp at Fire Creek. I think from the exhaustion from the day I was super light headed and I slowly set up camp. Tonight there are 20 tents crammed into this tiny camp spot.  Washington is making me earn the border and kicking my butt just 135 more miles until Canada!