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.
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