We kept a safe distance on the other side of the river from the party. We were happy to simply be done, to have had the opportunity to come back and finish safely, and just felt like being in the moment with each other.
(Below): My last "ramen-bomb" of the trail, delicious as always.
After spending time celebrating and taking a load of pictures with First Man, the three of us camped one last night just past the monument by a beautiful clear river. We had moved on from the monument shortly after everyone else there decided to ingest every single drug they had left. (?) We heard later that things got kinda crazy that night.
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It was time for us to make our way back to the States. We slept in and had breakfast (where I got my own slice of pumpkin pie!). Then we opted to forgo paying for a bus ride to Vancouver, B.C., and try hitchhiking instead. I mean, we were pretty much pros by now, right? Well it took us a while, even with Penny the Penguin's good looks, but eventually a very kind woman named Darcy pulled over and fit all three of us into her compact car. It was a 2 1/2 hour drive to the city. Darcy wouldn't accept the cash we tried to give her for gas money and in fact gave us money so we could take the tram around town. (nice lady!) Above is a shot of us awkwardly making our way around downtown Vancouver with snowshoes (don't forget the ice axe!) and all of our gear. Needless to say, it was a bit overwhelming to be in a major metropolis suddenly. We definitely got some funny looks on the subway. Penny enjoying the view from the train. She was cool as a cucumber when Customs Agents stormed the train to inspect our passports. We stopped in Edmunds, Wa. for the night, then it was one more train ride back to Portland's Union Station and my lady's loving arms...home at last! Songbird fashioned this box herself...guess what's inside? ;) Thanks again Winthrop Mt. Sports for the loaner!
...The End! Hiking the last 8 miles or so from the border to the lodge (can you believe they make us walk more?), I completely surprised a large family of day hikers coming around a corner. Thinking I had the place to myself, I had been singing at the top of my lungs when they came into sight. In that awkward moment (they were probably annoyed as hell) the father asked me, "So, been out for a multi-day trip then?" Normally I hate getting questions from passersby, but this one put a big smile on my face. "Yeah, you could say that...from Mexico." I said cheerfully, barely breaking stride. I watched some of their mouths fall open. I decided to let Banana Ripper and Songbird field questions on this one and swaggered on down the road, launching once again into song. A nice local couple escorted us to the lodge from the trailhead. They had just finished a weekend hike up to Mt. Frosty nearby. (Below): They were kind enough to snap our picture for us. This will forever be one of my favorites. We were treated to a beautiful room at the lodge and breakfast the next morning by Banana Ripper's folks, Anne and Jack. Mmmm...poutine! The restaurant at the lodge was cozy and served decent food...our waitress even bought us a round of congratulatory drinks. After lunch we took a moment to call everyone back home and let them know we were alive and well. Then we spent the afternoon soaking in the hot tub and relaxing back in our room. We did one last load of laundry. We ate cheddar popcorn and drank- as Banana Ripper put it, "the two things we had been craving most"- Canada Dry. We posted pictures of our success on line and basked in our moment of glory. Then we went back for more food! It happened to be Canadian Thanksgiving and the restaurant was serving turkey dinners. We ate with First Man and enjoyed the tranquil festiveness of our surroundings. The only low point of the evening: Banana Ripper wouldn't share her pie with me. You'll notice she had no problem letting Penny the Penguin shove her dirty little beak in there however...(oh, the injustice!). B-Rip feeling the affects of Canadian tryptophan...heavy stuff!
A totally unnecessary self portrait... but just one of those moments. As soon as we dropped below the snow level a total sense of calm took over me and I felt like l was walking on air. We had done it. I put on my headphones and stopped at a creek to mix up one last bottle of grape "jugo de energía" (caffeinated Crystal Light). Then I fell behind and strolled along, listening to my favorite songs and letting the feeling of accomplishment wash over me in waves of happiness. Banana Ripper and Songbird were the perfect companions for the last stretch of hiking. There was no need to rush. We just took our time and savored the last few miles. Every once in a while I would glance at the GPS on my phone and we would all get completely giddy at what it showed us. Less than one mile to go...! Suddenly we rounded a bend and I let out a holler..."There it is!" I yelled. "There what is?" asked Banana Ripper. "The border!" I exclaimed, "That huge clear cut through the trees right in front of us...that's the border!" She looked at me and then again at the hillside. "Oh." she said.
The night before was a funny one. I had misinterpreted the mileage and was under the false assumption that the group behind us would opt to camp lower down, around Holman Pass. I thought we had pushed far enough ahead that we'd have a little solitude. Ha-ha-ha! Where did I think I was? This was the PCT...there's no such thing! So after an early, pleasant dinner with Songbird and Banana Ripper, I sat grumpily and watched as all 1,000 hikers that were behind us filed into camp, noisily being noisy and obnoxiously loud. Ugh. I'll just admit that at this point I was completely over the social aspect of the hike. I wanted everyone to just shut up and go away. Oh well... Numb with cold I crawled into my tent, put on every layer of clothing I had, and made sure to bring in my shoes so they wouldn't freeze. I drifted off to sleep with the ticklish thought that tomorrow we would reach the monument at long last... The last day was pretty epic. It really was. We woke early and climbed though snow warming up our stiff bodies. Before too long we reached a place where the trail took a sharp turn down some switchbacks, but it was so buried in snow that it was impossible to see where it led. We spent a good amount of time carefully studying our maps and GPS to accurately locate the turn. It was frustrating because I just wanted to get going...but a wrong step could've meant falling over a cliff. To top it off, visibility was lousy...so it really felt like we were on a precipice, staring into the abyss. Once more I was glad for my experience with snow from snowboarding- otherwise I would've been a lot more freaked out. We eventually found the "trail" and slowly made our way down, creating our own miniature switchbacks as the snow shifted heavily beneath our footsteps. Following that were the washouts, of which I have zero photos. They were deep and slow going, but completely doable. I've heard other hikers describe them as 15 feet deep (!)...I would say that's an exaggeration; the largest were maybe 10 feet deep. They really weren't that bad if you were careful. I pulled out the ice axe just for fun. I used it to break up some ice for better footing, but other than that it was just a matter of comfort. (that and they make you look like a badass...;) These are the only pictures I have of me breaking trail. The entire last few days I took it upon myself to lead through the snow. It was what I preferred. It also made the last days deeply satisfying to not follow anyone's footsteps. The view from above Hopkins Lake. An incredible feeling...this was a huge sigh of relief. The elevation dropped from here to the monument; nothing but smooth sailing from here on out...
A beautiful day, but still crazy cold at over 6000 feet. The night before our gear and water and even our shoes and shoelaces froze, so there was a lot of moisture on everything once we got moving, even though it started out as frost. This was the forecast we had been waiting for however and the sunshine really lifted our spirits as we walked. As soon as we got to a good spot that morning we sat and aired out everything and had breakfast in the sun. It was the longest break we took over those four days, and the only time we lingered for any amount of time without losing feeling in our toes. Banana Ripper and Songbird on a fun descent...we definitely did not feel guilty about cutting a couple of switchbacks.
When we set off from Winthrop for the last time we agreed to stick together, the three of us, no matter what. It wasn't so much for the sake of safety, although that was a consideration, so much as it was an implicit pact to finish together. I really liked that this became our bond over the last days. Factoring in the conditions- the snow, the cold and the unforeseeable- we agreed to do a well paced 15 miles a day for four days. Also, these were the obvious stopping points as they were usually at the lowest elevation or at a good campsite. Night one we ended up camping on the north bank of the Methow River. Legend camped across the river from us. We found a nice spot and enjoyed enough light to cook dinner and set up dry. After all our worrying, it was a huge relief to have such a nice night of camping. It was even considerably less freezing down low around 4000 ft. The next morning we hiked along that same elevation, enjoying a fast, snow-free 4 miles or so before we started to climb up to Glacier Pass. I don't have any pictures of the deep snow on the switchbacks up to Glacier Pass. It was icy in spots and pretty draining breaking trail through such deep snow. The views were really nice that day. We even broke out the snowshoes a little while later where the terrain flattened out along the crest. The trail is more or less directly in front of me here, buried under a few feet of corniced snow. You can see it pop out on the far east side of the mountain ahead. Seeing where the trail ended up was helpful, but didn't make trudging through the snow to get there any easier...it was pretty slow going. Also, I failed to camel up down low, so I was suddenly thoroughly dehydrated and out of water. I began chewing on icicles and eating snow, which isn't really worth the energy it takes to melt it. Suddenly I remembered how fun it was making snow cones around Sonora Pass with Unicscat and paused to mix myself up a bottle of Gatorade-fruit-punch-slushy...and ohhhmaahhgod, it was so good! That night as a very special treat, a local hiker named Walking Home, who had already finished his thru-hike, served us up some incredible magic at Harts Pass. Not only that, he hiked south from Harts for a mile and a half to check on us and just help by breaking trail. I wanted to hug him just for that (have I mentioned that breaking trail is exhausting??). When we got to the trailhead, he dropped a match onto a pre-built bonfire soaked in gasoline and it roared to life. In that extreme cold, it was about the the most inviting thing ever... He had brought up a pallet of firewood to last us the night and a heap of delicious goodies including cookies, a huge thermos of hot water and hot chocolate mix, marshmallows, and the piéce de resistánce- an enormous pot of hearty stew full of sausage and garden-fresh vegetables (made by a woman named Karen with the help of Ravensong). We were so glad for this extravagant evening and spent hours huddled together, laughing and roasting ourselves by the fire. It really helped to have a night of mirth and good food and warmth... Thank you, Karen, Ravensong, Legend's mom, Walking Home and anyone else that treated us!
Armed with snow gaiters, warmer layers, an ice axe and snowshoes, we headed back up to the pass for one final attempt at the last 60 miles of trail. A big thank you to Rita (and all the great employees) at Winthrop Mountain Sports for lending us a brand new ice axe basically for free! We greatly appreciated your generosity and genuine concern for our safety. That morning was ice cold, but crystal clear and sunny. We were glad we waited out the last day of rain for such perfect weather. Unfortunately, getting a ride proved to be rather difficult. After an hour and a half of freezing our butts off, we finally got a ride from Legend's mom, who drove by and took pity on us. Also there that day for a final go of things were Just In Time (JIT), Crossover and Soulshine. Just past Cutthroat we passed Otter, Frenchie and Slingshot heading back south with Ravensong. They had decided that the snow was too deep for them to continue safely and were headed back to try a lower route. I was really surprised and a bit confused considering others had made it through and the conditions had improved dramatically since then, but at this point I honestly didn't care what other people were doing, so we said goodbye and pressed on. Pausing for a moment at our infamous stopping point. So much snow had melted since our first attempt a week ago. It felt like a different world. This is when I knew I had made the right decision to come back. Better gear. Better weather. More food. All of my previous anxiety and fears about returning seemed to just wash away. Being on the trail again felt awesome. After postholing down some steep, super sketchy switchbacks we caught up to Explagrance, Golden Boy, Solstice, Legend, etc., taking a break from cutting trail with First Man. Amazingly, from there, for the first time since we left Rainy, we could see the trail beneath a light layer of snow. It was a relief to know that the snow let up at lower elevations.
After having lunch with Chris, we returned once again to North Cascades Mountain Hostel. After looking one more time (sigh) at the weather report, we decided it would be worth waiting just one more day for optimal conditions. It was really hard to sit still at this point: we were really eager to get going. Anyway, NCMH was the best place to relax and spend some down time. I can't thank them enough for everything they did for us. It's a very nice place at a reasonable price and we were really happy to call it home base. Thanks again, Audrey and Paul! Below: Songbird reading Harry Potter to Banana Ripper (adorable!). NCMH: our home away from home! In total I ended up staying here at least 3 separate times. I signed their register at least twice, just for fun. The second time I remember writing something like: 'I'll quit hiking when hell freezes over...not the PCT.' A tray of special cookies made up by The Cookie Monster. Below: a picture of a fun bunch of kids we met at NCMH who were also waiting out the weather. I managed to find a group photo of them (on line) from their stay at Ravensong's Roost. Ravensong was the first lady to solo-hike the PCT back in the 70's. This year she bought a property in Mazama near Winthrop and was Trail Angeling for hikers. Frenchie, Walking Home (trail angel) Slingshot, Otter, Ravensong (trail angel), Steamer, Golden Boy, Solstice, Legend and Explagrance at Ravensong’s Roost.
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