Post trail

We had a relaxed morning before we packed up for the final time and walked over to the bakery in town. Our packs were easy to carry now and the weather was perfect, so it was a good final walk with my tramily. We were warned that the line was going to be long and it was. But the breakfast was worth it! They had chocolate croissants and bear claws. The coffee was amazing too! Someone brought out a baguette with jams, which turned out to be fantastic also. The bread was light and fluffy. Then it was time for them to leave in their hitch to Seattle. I hugged them all goodbye knowing that at least most of them weren’t too far away from home. My mom came and got me not too much later after that. We headed to the next town over where our room for the night was. We explored Winthrop which had old western vibes. We brought home drinks and snacks to watch the new House of the Dragon before bed. We also took a walk across the pedestrian bridge behind the hotel. Such a nice change from the trail. We will drive through some National Parks on the way home and try to be there before my sisters birthday in a week. Maybe I will write more about my post trail experiences, but for now farewell and thank you for following along!

Day 157

Trail miles: 24.2

The smoke got so bad that it woke me up around 3:00am and I pretty much couldn’t sleep after that. I was glad that we were leaving early so we could just get out of there since I wasn’t sleeping anyway. I was out in front of the line because we planned to stick together for a bit until we were clear of the fire danger. And we were going uphill and I was the slowest. I felt so bad for holding everyone up. It was a mile and a half steep hill that made me go so slow. It’s the last day and I haven’t gotten even slightly better at hills. I felt better once we made it to the top and the trail evened out. By this time, the sun had rose, but the smoke from the fire kept it somewhat dim. We were enjoying ourselves a lot on our last time on trail; laughing and joking. Then we got to a point where the trail was actually physically roped off to stop hikers from getting any closer to Canada or the wildfires. Someone constructed a pile of rocks and labeled it “PCT terminus 2022.” It felt very sad to see people getting stopped so close to the end. There was another smaller fire that you could see from the barrier, which made it pretty ominous. We took photos near the hiker made terminus and kept going. This wouldn’t be the last hiker made terminus we would see. The trail kept closing further and further back so there are terminuses at Harts Pass and Mazama.

We took a break at the top of the very steep one mile hill with the water source on the first switchback. I skipped it and everyone still beat me to the top. That’s ok because we were stopping anyway. It was just then that I realized how incredibly quiet the trail felt. The trail was shut down now which means no more north bouncers to cross paths with and give a little “woohoo!” as they made there was to the border. It was bittersweet. I hate to enjoy what meant for people to lose out on the terminus, but it was the most peaceful the trail ever felt. There was no one. It had never felt so silent out there. We ran across a couple guys still trying to get past the ranger to force their way to the terminus. That doesn’t seem right to me and I’m still not sure how it turned out for them. I lost everyone on the next up hill and still on the flatter parts, but I came across them at a water source taking lunch. We still took our time there even though we knew we only had a few miles left for the whole trek. My goal was to keep up with everyone no matter what. My irrational fear was kicking in that I was going to get left behind if they made it to the pass without me and caught a shuttle before me. I did end up keeping up, walking pretty fast even though my feet were killing me by the end. Raechel had to stop for a little bit to take a break with Krista, but we saw them shortly after. We scooped up some water near the pass, just incase we were waiting on a hitch for a while, and finished all together! 

It was around 3:00 pm when we got there. We were greeted with a massive group of people I was not expecting. I realized most of the these people were coming from the other direction and were not able to keep going. One hiker who was organizing a hitch list put our names on the list. We were so far down I was worried we would have to wait another day. But the others had a shuttle scheduled to Seattle the next morning so they, mostly Brad, we’re restless. There was trail magic there, but most of it was gone. I ate bean on tortilla chips, which at the time tasted so good. Now I look back on it and wonder what I was thinking. But I was hungry as always. We chose to sit away from everyone because we felt pretty quilt about being about to touch the terminus. Brad kept saying it’s what we get for being faster! He also tried to use that as an excuse for getting ahead of the hitching line. We all kept trying to stop him from going around to people asking for rides. But it worked out when the volunteer ranger gave a bunch of us a ride down in her own truck. Lifeguard and I were in the bed of her truck, while the others got into another truck that was passing by. We were so relieved to not have to stay the night or worse, walk the 10-15 miles to the city. The trip down was apparently scary because the lane was small and next to a cliff, but I couldn’t see a thing over the walls of the truck bed so I guess I was better off. We passed the group on the way down that stopped to pick up their muffler! The whole thing came off when they bottomed out on the way up. The strapped the thing inside their car. When we got dropped off at the bottom of the hill (because the park ranger couldn’t get caught with people in her truck bed in the main road) that car tried to pick us up to drive us the rest of the way! It was so nice of them but all four of us were definitely not fitting in there with the muffler or all the food from the trail magic. We then got picked up by a couple with their fancy bikes in the truck bed. The three of us managed to get our packs in the truck bed and ourselves too in-between the bikes. The fourth girl fit in the truck. We were dropped off at the general store were we met the rest of the gang. It was time for a celebratory meal to finish the trip! I got fish tacos from the food truck which were so good. Then some ice cream from the general store. We stayed there until it was almost dark out. It felt so nice to relax though and not have to worry about any town chores because we weren’t rushing to get back on trail.

Our last trail magic was a hitch from General to The Lions Den about a mile away from town. It was nice to not have to walk back in the dark. We showed up and immediately got a tour from one of the owners there. The place was so crowded with tents that we were worried we would have to squeeze in between people. But the owner brought us to an area that no one has set up yet so we got it all to ourselves! The place was so cute with the string lights outside. It was the perfect setup for hikers and completely donation run. We waited in the kitchen area for a shower because even though we were putting on dirty PJs, we still needed to reduce our stink as much as possible before going out in public tomorrow. The place was packed with hikers all excited to have made it to the end! It was such a cozy place, but I was excited to sleep in my tent for the last time for a while.

Day 156

Trail miles: 29.8

Total: terminus and back to 2647.2

I felt unbelievably tired yesterday and woke up with a sinus infection. So today was even worse. We were headed downhill for a while, but as soon as the long uphill started, I fell behind. The hill up and down from Rock Pass were steep. We passed Harts pass yesterday so all I could think of once we passed it was that we had to do these hills all over again tomorrow. I felt sluggish toward as we were getting close to Hopkins Lake. I made it a little after lunchtime. I had to sit down and just rest for a little before doing anything. I blame it entirely on the sinus infection to fatigue me more than usual. Raechel was also feeling similarly, but we weren’t sure if it was what I had or the wildfire smoke affecting her. She wore a bandana over face when it got really bad as we got closer to Canada. Lifeguard ended up doing the same thing once she dug her buff out of the bottom of her bag. We ate lunch, set up our tents, and hung our food. Then filled out bags with only the necessities for the terminus! It was so wonderful how light they were. We were able to hike very fast down the hill. I turned my GroPro on when we got to the last switchback and we all finished together! We were greeted with cheers from hikers who were reveling in their accomplishments. We got plenty of individual pictures, group shots, and fireball shots. Then we made the TikTok I forced everyone to act out. 

You could see a huge smoke plume over the mountain on the opposite side of the terminus. That’s when someone announced a message they received on their inreach: the end of the trail had been closed and we needed to leave. There was a lot of panic and confusion going on. We heard there was a ranger at the lake we had our tents set up so we hoped we could ask him if we needed to hike to Harts Pass tonight. That would have been a 54 mile day! A large group made the decision to walk into Canada where there was an exit within 8 miles. Little did they know that they were headed toward the largest wildfire in the area. The problem was that the wildfire maps ended at the border, so they were going into Canada blind.

On our way back to the lake, Krista led us up the hill at a pace where everyone, except maybe Brad, was uncomfortable hiking. Halfway up the hill, we slowed down to a reasonable pace. I think people were just anxious about the uncertainty. But Ranger Angus was waiting on the trail as soon as we got to the lake to answer our questions. He seemed so calm that our worries were put at ease. He said we weren’t in any immediate danger and we would be safe camping at the lake for the night. He would also be camping here so we felt even more at ease, having someone with direct information near us. So instead of hiking out immediately, we would try to sleep some and head out at 4:30am tomorrow. I made dinner (which rehydrated poorly) and tried to sleep.

Day 155

Trail miles: 26.2

Total: 2630.1

It hasn’t happened too often on trail, but last night I couldn’t fall asleep. So I woke up pretty tired. At least the first 6 miles were downhill. Then I ate too much on our break and got nauseous on the 5 mile uphill. Hopefully that is the worst one until after Canada. We pushed pretty quickly without many breaks to get to an area where we heard had service. When we got there, we sat there for lunch. I felt very sluggish after lunch. So tired. And we barely take breaks anymore so I had to keep pushing. At least nothing was in pain today. Although I did have to take care of a big blister on the back of my heal a couple times. Now that we passed Harts Pass, we are passing all the hikers that already finished and are walking back. They are in very high spirits and always wish you congratulations, even though Brad says that’s jinxing us. It does get annoying to respond to all of them when they pass so often. We can see plumes of smoke from the wildfires pretty close by. Makes me worried they would close the trail down and make us turn around before we reach the terminus.

Day 154

Trail miles: 26.1

Total: 2603.9

Today was almost completely uphill. At least the first 20 miles and then one more at the end. I was pretty slow in the morning so I kept my breaks at a minimum. I had my sticky bun from the bakery to eat throughout the morning. It was alright. The blackberry pie a La mode was still the best from the bakery. I’m glad to have eaten it though since it probably weighed a pound. We crossed a highway at Rainy Pass and found trail magic at the trailhead! I got a deli sandwich and a juice. Which is good because now I wasn’t looking forward to my oatmeal. I headed out to take in the rest of the hill. It wasn’t too bad, but I’m always faster in the afternoons I think. The top had gorgeous views as always! I kept leap frogging people who were also taking photos or I would stop and then catch up to them. I’m sure it’s annoying but also they’re probably used to it. We passed 2600! Which is our final level up before the terminus. I said “here it is” as I pointed out the numbers. Lifeguard yelled, “shade!” and kept going down trail. Found out later she didn’t know I was stopping to take a photo near the numbers, she thought we were taking a break in the sun! She said she would be there for the terminus photo. We got good campsites above one of the streams around 5:00pm. Nice to get there early so maybe I’ll watch House of Dragon on my phone. I worked on some mileage to figure out where we can slack pack from to the terminus. Very exciting stuff to finally be able to get an idea of where we will be since we are within 50 miles now.

I met someone who had the exact same shoe rip as me! Must be a Hoka manufacturer problem. Another girl say mine and told me she’s seen more just like it. So I guess it is common.