Canada!!

I made it to Canada! It has been a while since my last post and it is the post about finishing the trail so I expect this to be a fairly long blog. I got to the monument at noonish on the 17th. This was a bit earlier than I had planned but the weather report for the next few days was not overly impressive. The prediction was for cold temperatures with a mix of rain and snow. This seemed like a good reason to do a few extra miles and get to Manning Park a half day earlier than planned. It worked out perfectly, there were a few rain drops for the last 5 minutes before the resort but besides that I dodged all the weather. Before talking too much about the end of the trail I should talk about the second half of Washington for at least a bit.

I did not have a single decent view between Snoqualmie pass and Stevens pass. There was so much smoke in the air it seemed like I was always in a cloud, except it smelled like a fire and made my eyes itch and burn a little. Besides that slight downside, the trail seemed great. There were a lot of large climbs and quite a few amazing little lakes. It seemed like if you added the normal views to this section it would of been incredible. As it was, the lakes made up for some of the disappointing views.

North of Stevens Pass the smoke cleared, after the one and only day of actual rain on my entire hike, and the views were not bad! The whole area reminded me of the Sierras. Even though there were roads every other day or so, I felt like I was in the middle of nowhere. There was definitely more up and down on the trail but it was well worth it. Even the bigger climbs followed the PCT of having nice gradual trail so those sections weren't too bad.

After Stevens pass the last place I resupplyed was the tiny town of Stehekin. This is a little place at the north end of Lake Challan that doesn't have any road access. There is a ferry that crosses the lake but besides the ferry the only way to get there is on foot. Luckily there is a post office there, and a fantastic bakery. It was odd fitting all my food in my pack knowing that it was the last time on the hike I would be carrying a fully resupply. After Stehekin was also when the weather changed from pleasantly warm to a bit chilly. The nights dropped to right around freezing and the high temperature during the day was in the 50's. Luckily, by doing a couple extra miles a day for the last few days, I was able to get into Manning Park dry.

Hitting the monument was strange. In my mind, the end of the trail is a big occasion and I expected the trail to simulate that - it did not. The last ten miles of trail are down hill or flat and the northern terminus of the trail is down at the bottom of a valley. It was a bit strange to feel so accomplished to make it to the bottom of a hill. It was also interesting to have zero security or anything at the Canadian border. There were so many border patrol people around the southern terminus it seemed like there should be something. There wasn't even much a sign saying anything about the USA side of the border, just a welcome to Canada sign on their side.

Hitting the border with the same five people that I had hiked all of Washington with made it extra special. While making it to the end of a thru hike is a very personal journey one of the things that makes it so special are the people that you meet along the way. I had two trail families along the trail, the group of people I did the Sierras with and the group I did Washington with. In the desert I hiked with Zoom but didn't hike with anyone else in any sort of intentional way. In between the Sierras and Washington I was mostly hiking by myself. I will always remember those two groups.

I have been working on a movie that will do a little summary of the second half of Washington but I haven't finished it yet. I'll post it to my blog in a later post.

The Year of Fire and Ice

I've made it to Snoqualmie Pass, mile 2390.6. Unfortunately, making it here did involve getting around yet another fire closure. The closure was from Chinook Pass to 23 miles north. Even the road, highway 410, was closed east of the pass. Luckily one of the people I've been hiking with, Comma, contacted their cousin and was able to get us a perfect ride around the closure. The added logistics of getting around all of these fires has gotten pretty old, hopefully there are no more. The fire does make for dramatic photos though...

Despite the fire, the trail has been great for this section. There is definitely more elevation change as I get further north but the views that accompany the climbs are worth it. For a few days the views included Rainier, which was incredible. I've always found solitary mountains more impressive than large ranges. Washington has been great at providing those, first with Mt. Adams and then with Mt. Rainier. After having so much fun in the snow of the Sierras both of those mountains look like fun mountains to come back and do at some point.

The last couple days has seen yet another heat wave hit the area I'm hiking through. It is unseasonably hot and dry, making fires that much worse. The wind shifted a day ago and all the lovely views disappeared in a smelly smoke cloud. Once again, I cannot see anything and everything smells like campfire. This morning my tent even had a thin layer of ash covering it. The following photos look cloudy or foggy, it is just smoke in the air.

Here is a little video to show a bit of what the trail looks like around here.

One More To Go!

I am currently at Trout Lake, mile 2226.4. Only 425 miles remain on this fantastic journey. It feels strange to be nearing the end so quickly. The large jump I did to avoid forest fires cut 5 days and despite the fact that 5 days in a 5 month trip isn't much, it just accelerated the end. It will be odd to have to adjust to sleeping inside again. I think I have only slept inside 14 nights in the last 4 months. I think I sleep better in my tent than in a bed.

Anyway, the last few days of Oregon were pretty nice. There were some great views of mountains that were covered in glaciers. The trail was pretty easy, the only downside was the Eagle Creek side trail, which goes through tunnel falls, was closed due to a fire but it seemed appropriate for this years Oregon experience. The last bit of Oregon was a long descent down to Cascade Locks and the Bridge of the Gods. It felt a little odd to drop to an elevation of about 100 ft but the trail did not disappoint. I was back around 4000 ft by the next day. Since that was the end of another section here are the statistics for that section.

Ashland to Cascade Locks
Days - 14 (8/12 - 8/25)
Miles - 295 (rough estimate due to side trails and hitches)
Zeros - 1
Avg mpd w/ 0's - 21.1
Avg mpd w/o 0's - 22.7
Total steps - 700,940
Avg steps - 50,067
Highest steps - 70,381

Once in Washington the trail made sure to test me just make sure I was supposed to be there. The second day was a day with two big climbs and I did about 26 miles. I couldn't figure it out but my feet and legs were killing me and I had by far the worst chafing on the whole trail. It didn't make sense, the trail had been hard but not that bad. Once I laid down at the end of the day it finally made sense - I had a fever. Clearly my body had redirected its energies towards that problem and legs and feet had taken a back seat. My fever broke during the night and I felt great the next day. What the experience taught me is if I can do 26 miles, including two big climbs, with a fever I'm pretty sure I can keep doing 25 miles a day through Washington.

The Non-Burning Section

Editor's Note

The last post was delayed by 4 days because I forgot to hit "publish" when Arlen wrote it. That is why this post is going up so closely to that one. Sorry for any confusion! :)

- Alicia

I'm currently in Bend, where I hitched to from mile 1950. The PCT is closed north of 1950 and the alternate route around the fire is now also closed because it is also on fire. To try and avoid as much hassle as possible I think I'm going to jump 140 miles north to Government Camp and head north from there. It looks like the easiest spot to get back on trail and it leaves a section with easy access at both ends to comeback and do in a couple weeks some other year. It feels a little strange skipping such a big section since I was one of the few people who didn't do any skipping around the Sierras but I don't have much choice.

The section of Oregon that I just hiked was quite nice though. It started with Crater Lake which was phenomenal. I am so glad the Rim trail opened up a few days before I got there. It was a solid 6 miles of great views. There were even some decent informational signs about the lake. One of my favorite parts of hitting a scenic national park is there are signs explaining things about what I'm looking at. Normally, I see a view and recognize how pretty it is but that is about all the information I have. I think the most interesting fact for me was that the lake has the clearest water in the world because there are no water running into the lake to add silt. All of the water is from rain and snowmelt.

North of Crater Lake the trail reminded me a lot of the AT, but more flat. The trail just seemed to meander through the woods passing by a plethora of small lakes and ponds. It was a nice walk and I was able to go swimming at least once most days - it's hard to beat that! From what I've heard the closed section is supposed to continue with the lakes and ponds but increase the frequency of views. Sounds like a perfect two week vacation for next summer, assuming it isn't on fire again.

Because of the large jump I'm doing I only have 55 miles left in Oregon and then I'm in Washington. The end of the trail is fast approaching. There are always a lot of mixed feelings as I approach the end of a thru hike. It will be sad to be finishing but kind of nice to not walk 25-35 miles everyday.

Oregon! It's on fire.

I made it to Oregon! In fact, I am currently at Crater Lake National Park at mile 1818. It feels good to be in my second state even though it is shaping up to be a logistical nightmare. At the moment there are four forest fires that are impacting the PCT in Oregon. Two of them have closed the PCT around Crater Lake. My method to get around this closure was to hike out to a trailhead at mile 1801. From there it looked like I was going to have to do an annoying road walk following a dubiously drawn map but roughly 2 miles into that road walk I found someone who was willing to give me a ride into the park!

Once in the park, I will be walking the West Rim trail instead of the PCT and exiting the park via another road walk. The main thing with all of this is the rim trail opened a few days ago, which is awesome. It is supposed to be the high point of Oregon and I had been really bummed when it looked like it was going to be closed. Hopefully it lives up to my expectations.

The other fires are further north. There is a fire closing miles 1950-1980 on the PCT and another one closing miles 2008-2036. I think my strategy for these is going to do a single jump to avoid both of them. It seems like too much logistical work to hitch back onto trail for a single day just to get the 28 open miles in between the fires. It is a bit of a bummer to be skipping around 100 miles but I'm certainly not doing an enormous road walk so there isn't much I can do about it. The last fire affecting the trail is near Cascade Locks (northern border of Oregon). It has closed a side trail that is supposedly really cool but the PCT itself is still open.

Besides all the fires Oregon has started fairly pleasantly. The trail is pretty easy so doing quite a few miles just sort of happens. The views are a little less impressive than the stunning ones of California but I can appreciate the beauty of being among the trees again. In a little more than a week I will probably be in Washington so I am trying to enjoy Oregon while I am here.

Here are the kind of directions I have to follow when doing some of the fire reroutes...

Almost Done with One State

I've almost made it out of California, I'm at Seiad Valley, mile 1653.4. I should be out of the state tomorrow! My opinion of the Northern California section of trail has changed a few times over the last 10 days. That is probably a good thing because the first few days after leaving Burney were not pleasant hiking. The area was having one of the hottest heatwaves in recorded history which didn't make for fun hiking weather. In addition to that, there was so much wildfire smoke I didn't get good views even when I was doing exposed ridge walks in the 105 degree sun. Due to these factors on the 100 miles between Burney and Mt Shasta, my opinion of Northern California was pretty low by the time I got to Mt Shasta.

After Mt Shasta my opinion really flipped. Leaving the road, the PCT climbs up through the Castle Crag wilderness. This was the first section in a little while that was amazingly gorgeous. The climb was awesome and once that was over the trail provided fantastic views for miles. After that wilderness area, the trail went through the Trinity Alps. The Trinity Alps leads directly into Marble Mountain wilderness. All of these areas were beautfiul. Additionally, the weather improved, the temp dropped below 100, and the entire experience was a good one. These few days were easily the nicest on trail since the Sierras for me. The only downside is I saw almost no one - in total I think I saw 5 thru hikers in 4 days.

My enjoyment of this part of trail has gone down a bit the last few days. The weather changed from dry and hot to humid and kind of hot. I think the humidity is worse. Even when I start hiking for the day everything feels damp. When clouds roll in in the afternoon there is mostly thunder and lightning without much rain. Hopefully the rain increases and helps with all the wildfires or the humidity goes down a bit and hiking becomes a bit more pleasant.

From here it is only two days until this state is finally over. It will be a big psychological boost once that happens. It feels like I have been hiking through California forever (since April 30!). It has been a good state but I am ready to move on. The downside of finishing California is Oregon has a ton of wildfires that are affecting the PCT. Currently two of the coolest parts of the whole trail are closed, the Crater Lake rim trail and Eagle Creek trail (it goes behind a waterfall), because of fires. Hopefully by the time I get there the fires are out and the trail is open. If not, Washington will have to make up for it.