Start point
Boundary Trail (PNT) and tentsites, mile 2651.7
End point
Northern Terminus, mile 2655.2
Manning Park, British Columbia, approximately 8.5 miles past the Northern Terminus
Miles hiked
3.5 US
~8.5 Canadian
~12 total
Wilderness area
Okanogan National Forest
Pasayten Wilderness
E.C. Manning Provincial Park
People I met
Screagle
The day on trail
HOLY MOLY!
It’s today. I see the Northern Terminus today. When I first heard of the PCT, I didn’t think I could do it. I didn’t think I wanted to. Whether I could or not didn’t even cross my mind..
When I met PCT hikers in Desolation in 2019, the fire was lit. And now it’s all I want. I can’t believe what I’m able to do. I can’t believe what I’m about to do.
Thru hiking; the TRT, the WT, the PCT have shown me who I am in ways that no person could have pulled it out of me.
But first I have to actually get there. I have to get on my feet and do it. And that requires getting up. So get up I did.
The last pitch of the trail for this year.
I got my food bag down. And it seems I didn’t tie it far enough from the branch. Mice got into it and at my freaking chocolate bar. Tony Chocoloni got wrecked along with the remainder of my infinite cookie bag. Natch.
Oh well. We packed up and headed out.
Almost immediately was this unofficial trail marker.
I’m pretty sure that’s not accurate. Oh well. I still love it.
There was a little spring to fill water from. My last filtering of the trail until I come back.
We kept on and turned a corner and saw this brilliant mushroom in two parts.
It was a toothed coral, extremely rare and a choice edible. I cut a small piece off to cook later, and we headed on.
There was another wilderness area sign. I can’t believe it’s the last one I’ll see for a while.
My goodness.
The Terminus was so small yet so large. There was no buildup or creciendo. Just a small clearing, the monument, and a few logs and rocks to sit on.
We just walked into that clearing and suddenly it was there. A monument to the Northern edge of the most magnificent task I’ve taken. It was just there.
I completely broke down. I can’t believe how hard I cried. It was the culmination of years of effort. I changed my world around to hike the TRT. The WT was a reward for finishing PTA school. And my world changed again to set up for this. I eschewed permanent housing, I was cut off from my community, I ended up shedding so much that I held on to. I did all this not realizing it was a start to the greatest metamorphosis I’d see of myself yet.
I cried so hard it felt like my eyes were turning inside out. The only time I’d cried anything close to this hard was when my childhood dog, Jazzy, died. This was bittersweet, though, instead of tragic like Jazzy’s death was.
Beth gave me some space so I could have the time I needed.
After I’d gotten it out, I opened the trail journal and signed it.
I looked through some of the other entries.
Some people I knew and met back outside of Wrightwood.
One of the Israelis I met.
My pal Rat Strap, who hiked the WT on my recommendation and left a glowing review on FarOut.
Someone wrote a parody to Colors of the Wind from Pocahontas.
El Dorado and Cake, other friends, had signed it just before me, too.
It was so special to have my words pressing up against those of all these people I’d met and gone through these difficulties with.
After spending some time with these sacred words, I took some photos with the Monument.
After that we continued to Canada.
I just walked into a country I’d never been to. Holy smokes. I walked into a country.
The map for FarOut stopped here. Hopefully they change that in the future, but it just…ended. So we had to follow the trail, our instincts, and a rough guide someone posted in FarOut.
With that, we headed off. My phone has no international data, so from here on out, without wifi, I’m blind. It’s a test of what I got.
It was a little dicey at some times, but it was doable. There were some areas close to the border where the trail was narrow, on the side of a steep slope that felt like it was ready to collapse at any moment. But that was nothing like I’d been through already.
There was a super sketchy bridge. I went around it because I just don’t trust mechanical things that are falling apart over logs and other things I can cross over, lower to the ground or water.
We came to a campground, where we set up and had a quick lunch
I cooked up the mushroom I picked. It had the exact texture and flavor of perfectly cooked calamari. It was sublime and a perfect final gift of foraged food from the Trail. The Trail truly provides.
We continued on with the promise of town food and knowing a hitch would be hard to get to Vancouver.
There were some trail markers and a sign.
And the trail got cleaner, clearer, and better marked.
I got a few more mushroom photos.
And another fuzzy caterpillar.
There was another trail crossing sign.
It was so cool to be finding our way without phones. I felt powerful, like in my element.
The trees had markings. Instead of white blazes it was these red…things.
There was a board covering a dried creek bed.
And some more planks.
A sign told us we were less than a kilometer from the lodge, food, drinks, and a possible hitch. And it told us where to go once we got there.
We continued on, sticking close together because we didn’t have an app to guide us and one wrong turn could lead to getting split up and lost. Granted, it’s a well marked trail network, well maintained at this point, and there were a lot of day hikers. But you don’t take those chances.
We came to a road that would lead to the lodge. We held out our thumbs to try and get a ride and talked to some people out there, but no luck. One woman stopped and gave us a weird story about some weird guy. She gave us a short ride, but not all the way.
We finished walking to the lodge around 4 and went in to see if we could find a ride. There’s a van service but it’s shut down for a while.
We grabbed some snacks from the concession, then tried to score some hitches. Asked some people in the parking lot — no luck. We sat down at the picnic table and met Screagle, another thru hiker.
Then magic. Slaphappy caught me on a sliver of WiFi. He was heading to the lodge and had booked a room. And he invited us to stay. And he had a ride tomorrow — his family friend (basically a brother) is a professional driver.
I really wanted to get back so I could spend a little more time in Seattle, so we said if we could get a ride we’d go, but if we didn’t we’d stay. We held our thumbs out for about 45 minutes, then gave up as the sun went down. There were some characters on the road that evening.
Despite the booking, they’d not actually secured his room. They had some sort of convention that booked a block of rooms. He ended up showing them his confirmation, then got them to upgrade him to a suite for the same price.
We went to the restaurant and ordered dinner and some drinks. It was good. Slaphappy and Screagle came in and joined us after. We ate and drank and laughed and had a ball. We (Slaphappy and I) drank a lot of gin cocktails.
We went to the suite and it was lovely. Slaphappy and I went to the hot tub and kind of broke in a little bit, because it was technically closed.
We all went to bed after that. We were all exhausted and tomorrow is just going to be a big travel day.