Legs and Borders

The walk is over, today I finally reached the terminus at the US/Canada border. I was waiting for this moment for the last four months, chipping away at it mile after mile until there was no more miles left. But now when it's over I can definitely agree that it was all about the way not the destination. It's still too early to come to some kind of conclusions about this whole experience so I'll just keep it simple and describe what happened today. I woke up early as usual, ate some excellent cinnamon oats with chocolate I cold soaked over night (it's definitely one of my regrets that I didn't start to cold soak breakfasts earlier). I walked three miles down the trail and managed to catch up with Camp Host packing up his tent. We agreed last evening that we would set up camp 15 miles from the border, and then slack pack down to the monument and back, which would give us only another 15 miles to walk down to Harts Pass the following day. We did just that, I've arr...

"Washington is up and down like this from the beginning, I'm sick and tired of it" Chimney [Sobo hiker] The end is nigh and you can sense the anticipation in everybody going north at the moment. Lots of Sobo hikers congratulates us as we pass them, I was initially not happy about it, but they are right it is a reasonable assumption that whoever made it that far will end up at the Canadian border. Fire season has started, the section on the California/Oregon border is on fire, 60 PCT hikers had to be evacuated from the area. Parts of Sierra Nevada (not on the trail itself) is also on fire. Fomo's friend George who hosted us in Snoqualmie Pass has hiked PCT three times, he has never done it without skipping a section because of the fire closure, we did (well technically not just yet) we managed to hike the entire Pacific Crest Trail without dropping anything and that ladies and gentleman is insane! It has been a very special year on the west coast, lots of snow and rain...

"There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in" Leonard Cohen "I absolutely hate mosquitoes, fuck! Sorry I think I have a mosquito breakdown. Fuck, fUCK, FUCK, AAAaa!" Sonic It was quite an angry day, but it ended in a quite interesting resolution. While walking to White Pass I met Sonic who camped just few miles ahead of me on top of the ridge hoping that she will escape the mosquitoes there but sadly she didn't. She was quite cranky already when I met her but then we ended up walking through yet another mosquito hell, she was walking without a head net (which she lost a while ago in Oregon) and deet spray protection, so after couple of minutes she completely lost her temper and started to walk really fast trying to get to White Pass as quickly as possible swearing and shouting like a pirate. I could still hear her banshee like screams in front of me half an hour later, if I didn't know what it was I would have thought someone was getting...

Night was quite loud due to a close proximity of the stream and a bunch of crickets serenading us to sleep until midnight. It finally got quieter later on though. We woke up at 6:30am few hours before the first Sunday mass, no one from the church staff was around to meet and greet us. I packed my things up and went to the general store which was opening soon and where the shuttle was picking us up at 8am. I bought a sausage and cheese muffin which I microwaved in store, most of people went to the coffee shop for breakfast but I decided to skip it, I pulled out some tortilla chips and two chocolate coconut bars from hiker box instead, it was more than enough for me. Our shuttle aka a pick up van arrived at 7:45, there was eight of us willing to come back to the trail and somehow we all fit in, five of us sitting at the back, it was a fun but a bit cold ride. We headed back on trail with Sonic and Stretch two girls who joined us on the campsite yesterday evening, people had various ideas...

"So never mind the darkness we still can find a way. Nothing lasts forever even cold November rain." Guns N' Roses. Nice and easy day, we hiked 20 miles to Road 23, Lucky called a trail angel beforehand and he gave us a ride to Trout Lake a small, hiker friendly town. Once here we sat outside the shop for few hours eating ice cream and drinking beer, we went to a nearby campsite and had a shower, ate a delicious wet burrito in a food truck, resupplied at the general shop and went to a church up the road which had a campsite with toilets and charging points. Everyone were expecting lots of other hikers to roll in but it looks like most people decided to skip Trout Lake as it is only 80 miles from Cascade Locks and push another 40 miles to White Pass. It's a bit of a shame as it is one of the last little hiker friendly towns along the PCT, few last remaining resupply points being Passes with very few facilities and/or social hubs but it is what it is. Tomorrow we are ta...

"I can't thru hike the PCT because I have too many kids" Will. Today was a bit of a rollercoaster, it all started according to plan I hiked seven miles to Timberline Lodge right in time for breakfast buffet. Then I sat down with Quicksilver, Sonic and Watts and we had rightfully praised metric tonne of food consisting of fresh fruit, smoked salmon, ham hock, scrambled eggs, waffles with whipped cream and maple syrup, sausages, bagels, crossaints.. (the list goes on, don't know why I decided to list all of the above, but it was all delicious). We sat there for two hours or the entire length of buffet having many plates of it. It was honestly heaven on earth. The building itself was stunning as well, built in 1936 all wooden and full of history - it is definitely one of the main manmade highlights of the trail for me. Soon after more familiar faces started to arrive, Fomo and Lucky, Ravi and Sunrise which I haven't seen since Lake Tahoe finally caught up! Tik Tok an...