Washington

The people in Washington are extremely nice. All the local hikers I meet on the trail ask me where I'm from, and when I say California, their response is: welcome to Washington! They also congratulate me, somewhat prematurely, on a successful thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail.

The mountains in Washington don't seem so friendly. This is definitely some of the hardest hiking on the PCT. The trail goes up one side of a mountain ridge and down the other side only to attack another mountain ridge and repeat the process. It's the constant up and down on some very challenging tread that wears me out physically and emotionally. Couple that with lots of blow down (trees fallen across the trail), river crossings, rain, cold, and fewer daylight hours and the 25 mile a day pace that seemed easy in Oregon is now very difficult. My feet are tired and sore and I'm looking forward to finishing soon. I've got 10 more days and 205 miles of hiking and I'll be in Canada where Eva will meet me in a CAR and we'll FLY home.