Monday morning I woke up to a light dusting of icy snow on my tent, and a ton of dust that had blow inside. There were low clouds, but off in the distance sun was beginning to poke through. So despite a few nights with rain, I would successfully hike through Washington without having to walk in the rain.
The 10 miles to the border was fairly smooth, mostly downhill. For the first several miles the bushes were all still frozen. But as I got lower it warmed up and I got soaked again. I should have left the rain coat at home and carried rain pants instead. Or neither!
Just after 11:00 I reached the Canadian border, 2660 miles of hiking in 144 days. There were 3 other hikers there when I arrived. Each of them had just completed the whole trail as well. One was Calf, a hiker from Germany, named so for his massive hiker calves. I first met him back on day 3 of the hike. I saw him again at Kickoff and most recently at McKenzie Pass and Timberline Lodge. It was nice to see someone there I'd met before. I wish I'd been able to catch up to those I'd hiked in the desert with. I saw a bunch of names I recognized in the trail register.
The trail crosses the border in the middle of the forest. There's a 30' wide path cut through the trees along it. I'm not sure if that's just to mark it or what, but it makes the border pretty visible. There's a "Welcome to Canada" sign with a map of the trails on the Canadian side. The PCT continues on for almost 9 more miles to E C Manning Provincial Park. Part of the trail was down some old gravel roads that made the last few hours of my thru-hike pretty easy. I got a room at the lodge, a long shower, had dinner, then went for a swim in the pool, relaxed in the sauna and soaked in the hot tub. Probably still managed to have some dirt under my toenails, even after all that. It was a perfect sort of place to end the hike.
The next morning I caught a Grayhound bus to Vancouver; never been excited to ride a Grayhound bus before. That evening I rode the train down to Seattle, stayed the night in a hostel and took the train the rest of the way home the next day.
This concludes the story of my PCT thru-hike! I may do another summary post in the next week or two. I also plan on making a photo album with more pictures. Those I included in the blog were all taken with my phone. I have a lot more on my camera.
Just after 11:00 I reached the Canadian border, 2660 miles of hiking in 144 days. There were 3 other hikers there when I arrived. Each of them had just completed the whole trail as well. One was Calf, a hiker from Germany, named so for his massive hiker calves. I first met him back on day 3 of the hike. I saw him again at Kickoff and most recently at McKenzie Pass and Timberline Lodge. It was nice to see someone there I'd met before. I wish I'd been able to catch up to those I'd hiked in the desert with. I saw a bunch of names I recognized in the trail register.
The next morning I caught a Grayhound bus to Vancouver; never been excited to ride a Grayhound bus before. That evening I rode the train down to Seattle, stayed the night in a hostel and took the train the rest of the way home the next day.
This concludes the story of my PCT thru-hike! I may do another summary post in the next week or two. I also plan on making a photo album with more pictures. Those I included in the blog were all taken with my phone. I have a lot more on my camera.
Way to go, Daniel! We're proud of you for undertaking and completing such a challenging endeavor.
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