Tuesday, September 16 - Mile 2,669

It is good to have an end to the journey;

but it is the journey that matters in the end."

Ursula K. LeGui

Today at approximately 3pm, I completed my thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail from the border of Mexico near Campo California to Manning Park, Canada. Here are some stats: 146 days, 2,669 miles, 977,826 feet of altitude change, approximately 650,000 calories burned, 5 pair of running shoes, 2 pair of running shorts, and one running shirt. (I think it might be time to retire the shirt.)

Eva met me at Manning Park, and we spent the night in the beautiful lodge. We'll spend the next two days in Vancouver and fly home on the 19th. I haven't been home for almost 5 months. I am looking forward to getting home and seeing family and friends. I miss driving my truck, mowing my lawns, working in my garage, corporate worship, and so many other things.

Thank you for your support and prayers as I hiked the PCT. You are a blessing to me and my wife. You were a source of strength and encouragement to both of us. God bless you. I hope to have the opportunity to thank many of you in person when I get home.

Monday, September 15 - Mile 2,652

Today I hiked 28 miles and I am only 8 miles from the border and 17 miles from the end of the trail. I couldn't sleep last night because I was so excited. I was hiking at 5:15am and hiked until 6:30pm.

I am camped on a ridge for my last night on the trail and I enjoyed a beautiful sunset during dinner.

I'll be hiking at 6:30am tomorrow, and should be at the border monument at 10:30am. If I stay till noon, I should finish at 5pm which is when Eva said she would arrive. I'm so excited to see her!

Sunday, September 14 - Mile 2,624

Today I hiked 24 miles with two men, Hand Break and Land Slide. We are camped 45 miles from the end of the trail. We camped together last night and we also camped together once just before the Washington border. We've had fun eating together and chatting while we hike. I need to hike 25+ tomorrow to be on track to meet Eva in Manning Park on the evening of the 16th. Hand Break doesn't plan on finishing until the 17th and Land Slide will be turning around at the border. He won't be entering Canada.

Saturday, September 13 - Mile 2,600

Today I left Stehekin and began hiking the final section of the PCT north to Canada. I hiked 20 miles to Hwy 20/Rainy Pass. No more resupplies. No more town stops. My adventure will end in less than 70 miles which I will complete in 3-4 days. After being on the trail for 144 days, it seems amazing that I'm almost done.

Last Post Until Canada

So...unless my beautiful wife decides to write additional blog posts, this will be the last post until I have cell service in Canada.

There is no cell service or wifi along the trail for the final 200 miles from Steven's Pass in Washington to Manning Park, BC. This is truly a remote and wild section of the trail. The posts I composed on the previous section of the trail have been posted by Eva and it may be a week before you hear from me again on Twitter, Facebook or this blog. Don't let the silence worry you. :) Continue to pray for good weather through the end of my hike. Multiple days of rain or a snow storm would be a miserable way to end the adventure. 

I have picked a date for Eva to meet me in Manning Park, BC. at the end of the trail. I need to average 22 miles a day to be there on time. I have heard from several hikers that the next 98 miles are the hardest on the trail so I'll have to work hard to keep our schedule. I may try to communicate with Eva during this strech of trail by finding hikers or campers who will have cell service before I will and send her a text on their phone, but that's not a sure thing.

After she picks me up in Manning Park, we will spend a day or two in Vancouver, and then fly home! I look forward to resuming a normal life with a roof, indoor plumbing, cars, beds, showers, daily changes of clothes, a job, a much healthier diet, and most of all, being together with Eva!

Friday, September 12 - Mile 2,580

I've hiked 10 miles to the PCT trail head where the Stehekin shuttle bus will pick me up and take me into town. I've decided to spend the night and take the 8am shuttle back to the trail in the morning. It will be good to have a half day of rest and sleep in a bed before the last four days to Canada. The 10 day forecast, according to other hikers, is sunshine and no rain. That would be awesome! It's only 89 miles to Canada and I plan on arriving the evening of the 16th or the afternoon of the 17th!

The Fungus Among Us

One of the interesting things about Washington is the volume and variety of fungus growing everywhere. The ground, trees, and even rocks are covered in different shapes, sizes and colors of fungus. I've met a few people picking mushrooms, although there are far more people picking the wild huckleberries that also grow in abundance in Washington. I can tell that most of the wildlife also eat the huckleberries because the scat from deer, elk, and bear is often the same color as the berries.

Thursday, September 11 - Mile 2,571

Today I hiked an amazing 29 miles! I started hiking before sunrise at 5:45am and camped at 8pm. That's over 14 hours of hiking and I'm very tired. I needed this long day to be in a position to hike to the next trail head, High Bridge Ranger Station, before noon, catch the shuttle bus to Stehekin, WA, and pick up my last resupply box at the post office before they close for the afternoon.

Depending on the weather, I might spend the night in Stehekin or just catch the bus back to the trail head and begin the final 89 miles to Canada.

Can You Help Me?

That's what the man said with a concerned look on his face. "Can you help me? I'm lost." Sure I said and took off my backpack and pulled out my maps. He wanted to know if we were on the Pacific Crest Trail and I assured him we were. I turned on my phone to confirm it and get an exact GPS location. I assumed he was a day hiker, but he was actually a local backpacker camped at a lake and had done a day hike from the lake to explore the area. He got turned around somehow and wasn't sure what direction the lake was or how far away he was. I found the lake on the map and pointed him in the right direction, five miles back to his campsite. He would make it before dark if he hurried, but he had no time to spare. I gave him a candy bar and the rest of my water and sent him on his way. I said a short prayer for his safety and I continued north.

I understand how he got disoriented, because the trail looks like this in that section. Without my maps and GPS apps, I could have easily gotten turned around myself. When you know you are traveling north, you expect the sunrise/set and the moon to be in their proper locations. It is very confusing when the trail takes a long jog south and everything seems backwards.

I hiked 14 miles today starting from Snoqualmie Pass around 12pm. The weather was perfect, the trail was beautiful, and the views were amazing. I did a lot of climbing today and tomorrow promises more of the same. I hope to complete 24 miles tomorrow.

Keep calm and hike on.

Wednesday, September 10 - Mile 2,541

Most thru-hikers follow a simple code: hike your own hike (HYOH). Each hiker decides how far and how fast to hike and when and where to take breaks and camp. For 2,500 miles I have followed this code. But in the north Cascades in Washington, I'm finding the hiking so challenging that the mountains, trail conditions, and weather are now making those decisions for me. I find it impossible to wake up and say to myself: I feel like a 25 mile day. I normally could complete 12 miles before stopping for lunch, but today I was only able to do nine at an agonizingly slow pace. I finished the day with 21 miles, but it took me over 13 hours to do it. It was dark when I finally stopped to camp. There was 8,100 feet of uphill hiking and 6,400 feet of downhill. Tomorrow is an important day and if I can't cover 25+ miles, I'll have a hard time keeping to my schedule. I have to reach Stehekin, WA by Friday at noon to have time to get my resupply at the post office and prepare for the final 4.5 days to Canada.

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. 

Tuesday, September 9 - Mile 2,520

I passed the 2,500 mile mark today in the  morning. I hiked another 20 miles and I am camped alone at a river crossing. I need to cover another 25 miles tomorrow, but there is over 8,100 feet of uphill and just as much downhill in those miles, and that will be very challenging for me. 

The weather looks a bit unsettling, and I've set up my tent with the rain fly expecting it to start raining any time.

Trail Detour

This huge shattered tree is laying across the trail. It's called blow down. While most of the trees laying across the trail are not this big, each presents a problem to be solved: over, under, or around. This section of the trail has lots of blow down. I counted 43 trees today that were laying across the trail. One area that was very difficult to even see the trail was caused by a snow avalanche during the winter. It was like being in a maze. Some trees fell across trail switchbacks which meant I hopped over the same tree 2-3 times. It slowed my progress a bit but so did the extreme amount of uphill hiking: 6,500 feet in one day. I'm 12 miles from Steven's Pass, where I will hitch 23 miles west on Hwy 2 to the town of Baring where I will resupply at a trail angel's house. When l leave Steven's Pass and begin hiking again, I'll only be 205 miles and one resupply away from Canada! 

Monday, September, 8 - Mile 2,494

I'm camped tonight at Pear Lake, 18 miles north from Steven's Pass. I had a late start at 11am because of the long hitch from Baring, 23 miles west of Steven's Pass. Baring is where Jerry and Andra Dinsmore (PCT MOM) live. They are trail angels who host hikers at their home and receive resupply boxes for hikers. They have a large room setup with bunk beds, a washer, dryer, shower and restroom dedicated for hikers. It was a wonderful place to hang out with other thru-hikers and resupply for the next section.

Tomorrow I'm planning on a 6:30am start so I have a full 12 hours to hike. There is a crazy amount of uphill and downhill hiking tomorrow so I know I'll need that much time to cover 24 miles. It's cloudy tonight so I set up my tent with the rain fly. Tomorrow is supposed to be cloudy with a chance of rain. Hopefully it's not raining all day.

With only 8-9 days left, I'm thinking about what it will be like to reach the monument at the Washington/Canadian border. I need some good pictures at the monument and I hope there is at least one other person there so we can help each other with photos. The trail continues for another 8 miles into Canada and ends in Manning Park. This is where I will meet Eva for the final time on the trail. I can't wait to see her and I imagine I will be very excited when I arrive. I have been daydreaming while I hike about finishing: seeing Eva, taking off my backpack and running to her, kissing her and giving her a bear hug, jumping, laughing, singing (climb every mountain, forge every stream, follow every rainbow, till you find your dream), shouting and then getting in the car and riding quietly as I watch the trail head disappear from sight.

Oh, My Toes!

My feet hurt...I know you find that hard to believe but it's true. They are stiff in the morning and ache throughout the day. I don't have any bone or joint pain, so I'm not worried about the pain. What is interesting, I think, is the numbness that has developed in some of my toes and the balls of my feet. When I spent three days in Portland with Eva celebrating our anniversery, the numbness went away and it was briefly replaced with shooting pain. I remember waking up in the middle of the night my second day off the trail and my feet were killing me!

Today my legs are sore from 4,600 feet of uphill and 6,300 feet of downhill hiking yesterday. That was the same day as the scary ridge walk where I was very tense for about 3 hours. This is the first time in months my legs have been sore from hiking. I hope they are better tomorrow, I need to hike a full 25 mile day and there is a lot of uphill. 

Once in a while my shoulders get tired from carrying the backpack, but when that happens, I just tighten the waist belt and redistribute the weight.

The only other thing physically I am experiencing is weakness in my hands when they are extremely cold. And what is interesting about that is that it's not equal in both hands. My left hand has much more weakness than my right hand. At first I wasn't sure why, but now I think it has something to do with the broken wrist I had years ago on my left arm. I have my gloves now, which I wasn't carrying in Oregon, so this shouldn't be a serious problem. 

Besides the above I have no complaints about how my body is performing on the trail. I'm impressed with how strong I am and how quickly I recover. This is good because I hear the toughest part of the trail is still ahead of me.

Trail Brother

This is another thru hiker, Uzel, and other hikers have commented that we look like brothers! He is hiking with his wife, Thistle, and she took this picture at Snoqualmie Pass in the motel parking lot. We hike about the same pace and mileage so we may end about the same time. I have enjoyed camping with them a few times along the trail in Washington. It's fun to have someone to commiserate with about all the RAIN!

Keep calm and hike on. 

New Challenges

In Washington state, apparently they rate hiking trails like we do ski runs in California. This is the marker for the trail I'm currently on! I'll try to take some pictures and video of the difficult sections so you'll have an idea of what it's like. 

You probably can't see it, but on the trailhead information sign behind me, it says that it's bear hunting season! I'm not sure if I'm more scared of the bears or the hunters. I am glad that I have a bright yellow backpack. That should keep me safe from the hunters.

The trail in Oregon, except for the Crater Lake rim walk, was pretty plain. I had no idea how much more exciting the trail in Washington would be! 

I have two more resupplies before I reach Washington which makes me pretty excited at how close I am. Thanks again to everyone who has been praying, reading, commenting, posting and sharing in my adventure. You have made this trip more special than you'll ever know.

Keep calm and hike on!

So Much Rain

Have I mentioned it rains in Washington? Since leaving White Pass it has rained four of the last five days. The day began with heavy fog and mist. It sprinkled on and off most of the day. Basically it rained whenever I stopped to filter water or eat. Around 3pm it started raining hard and by the time I reached my destination, Mirror Lake, it was pouring. It rained hard all night and I reminded God a few times that He promised not to destroy the earth again with a flood.

I set up my tent in the rain and I still haven't figured out how to keep the inside dry because the tent is setup in two stages: first the tent body, which is NOT waterproof, and then the rain fly that goes over the body. It takes a minute or two to set up the body and stake it out before the rain fly goes on. In just that short time the body gets very wet when it's pouring. There has to be a better way.

So...me, my clothes, and my gear are wet. Some more than others, but nothing is dry and while I'll survive the night, I'm glad tomorrow I'll be at Snoqualmie Pass, where I can dry everything out. I also look forward to eating at the restaurant, taking a shower and getting my resupply box that Eva mailed to me. 

Washington Weather

Since leaving White Pass a day and a half  ago, it has been cold, rainy, windy, foggy, and generally miserable. In spite of that I have covered 40 miles and I am still on track to reach Snoqualmie Pass September 3rd in the early afternoon. I plan to spend the night there and do a full resupply.

With all the rain and moisture in general, my shoes, socks and feet have been soaking wet. This morning was very cold and it was especially painful to hike with cold wet feet. I thought about stopping but I wasn't sure if anything short of setting up my tent and getting inside would allow me to dry and warm my feet. By noon it was slightly warmer, I was feeling better and I completed 24 miles by 6:30pm. Trail running shoes might not be the greatest footwear for Washington, but I've come this far in them so I'll tough it out. When there is no sun, I dry my wet socks and gloves by putting them in my sleeping bag with me. They are cold as ice packs at first, but they warm up and my body heat dries them out for the next day. The weather is supposed to improve tomorrow.

I'm camped just past a small spring where I filled up my water bottles for dinner and tomorrow's breakfast. Right now, at 8pm, I am inside my sleeping bag, inside my tent, and the wind is blowing hard outside. I've eaten dinner, sorted my food for breakfast and lunch tomorrow, brushed my teeth and I'm ready for bed. 326 miles to Canada! 

The Last Box by Eva

Life is short and we have never to much time

for gladdening the hearts of those who are traveling

the dark journey with us. 

Oh be swift to love, make haste to be kind.

Henri Frederic Amiel

Today I packed the last resupply box I will be sending Loren. It is going to Stehekin, Washington and will contain what he needs for the last 5 days of his journey. Along with 5 days worth of breakfasts, lunches and dinners, it also includes maps of the section he will be hiking, batteries to use in his iphone recharger, a butane/propane canister to make hot water, vitamins, IBU, 1/2 a roll of toilet paper, a new toothbrush and travel sized toothpaste, some cash and 5 Q-tips. 

I've really enjoyed my role as Base Camp Manager. It's allowed me to experience the trail in a unique way. I asked Loren recently how hikers without support get everything they need. Some trail stops have small grocery or travel stop type of stores where they can resupply. But many have only small post offices with no options for purchasing food or other items. In these cases, non-supported backpackers must constantly plan ahead by purchasing the food they need immediately, as well as buying food to prepare a package to mail ahead to themselves at destinations with no other options. This really gets tricky, especially when one of your needs is 5 Q-tips. I hear you asking, "What does a backpacker do when you have to buy 25 Q-tips even though you only need 5?" I'm not sure if Loren has mentioned this in prior blogs, but most major resupply stops also have a "Hiker Box." This is another way that hikers help each other on the trail while wasting nothing. When you have next to nothing, wastefulness is not an option. 
Now, as I schedule out a day to run this last resupply box to the only post office that doesn't give me grief over the butane/propane canister inside the box, I also get to plan my last job as Base Camp Manager- bringing Loren home. My plan at this point is to meet him at Manning Park, British Colombia on September 17. You can bet there will be lots of hugs and kisses included at that stop. And yes, I'll add one from each of you.  XOXO for all of you who have joined us on this incredible journey.