Wrap-up

This has been an interesting year to attempt a thru-hike on the PCT for sure, and it's certainly been nothing like we imagined. In the beginning, we anticipated snow. On the contrary, with such extremely low snowpack in the Sierra Nevada this year, many Northbound hikers (ourselves included) were able to traverse these, the tallest mountains on the west coast, earlier than hikers historically could. Usually the feat would involve mountaineering equipment and the possibility of some formidable conditions. For us, it was practically a cake walk with little snow to speak of and nowhere to be found were the challenging stream and creek crossings we had heard so much about in past years. Although we did face a series of May storms, there were really very few snow obstacles that we faced on this trip. Instead, our hike was framed by issues of drought and then of fire and, to our surprise, almost all of the fire activity we encountered was at the end of the trail in our home state of Washington. 

If you'll remember, around the halfway point of our trip, we realized we needed to pick up our pace if we were to finish by the time we intended. From there on out, we set a moderately challenging goal of about 30 miles a day which we managed to consistently meet. Our days were long and grueling, but it was also very satisfying to be moving ever closer to the completion of our achievement.

We took a well-deserved near-0 day in Bend, OR (just before the 2000 mile mark) and while there we talked on the phone to our buddy who was behind us near the OR/CA border. We were told about smoky conditions and trail closures that were occurring, including a section through Crater Lake NP that we had just completed a week earlier. We were glad to be moving quickly, ahead of the growing fires in CA and OR and now we had WA in our sights. 

We crossed the Bridge of the Gods and left Oregon behind on Monday 8/10 heading towards Mt. Adams, the second tallest mountain in WA. Within a day we had climbed up again onto the ridge lines of the southern WA Cascades and the smoke from a fire that was burning on the south side of Mt. Adams began to obscure our views. By the time we climbed onto the neighboring mountains, we couldn't even see Adams. Half of the mountain and the wilderness which carries its name (including the summit) was closed with no plans to reopen until next year. The closure boundary followed the PCT and that could change to include the trail at anytime. Thankfully a storm front came through and although hiking all day in pouring rain isn't our favorite, it was definitely better than hiking through smoke. The weather broke as we hiked through Goat Rocks finally giving us some dramatic views  of the volcanos. Two days later the smoke was back. 

This became the pattern as we trekked through WA. As we moved further north we neared more fires and the closures continued.

As you probably know, WA is currently dealing with the largest wildfires in state history with the biggest ones burning in the north. When we arrived at Snoqualmie Pass, 250 miles from the Canadian border, we learned that in addition to a trail closure north of us near the town of Stehekin, the official PCT detour around the whole mess had also now closed because of a new fire in the North Cascades. Things were evolving so quickly the only thing we could do was continue north to Stevens Pass (70 miles ahead) and hope to hear better news when we arrived. Unfortunately, that wasn't really the case. Some hikers had pieced together a work-around the fire closure and now that was closed too due to yet another fire. We were surprised to hear of hikers calling it quits there due to all the uncertainty, confusion, and misinformation about what was actually going on.

The only option for us to reach the border now was to get a ride to the town of Chelan and take a ferry across Lake Chelan to Stehekin and reconnect with the trail there. The downside of this was that there were fires burning along the shores of the lake and we would be hiking between a few of the major fires in the area. 

Determined to not be shut out this year, we took the boat to Stehekin on Wednesday 8/26. The weather was calling for rain in a few days and we knew if we could make it until then we'd get our break. Upon arrival in Stehekin we were immediately met by NPS rangers and a member of a special firefighting team from Alaska who briefed us, answered our questions, and gave us the go ahead to finish our hike.

That day and the next were pretty smoky as we hiked to the west of the massive Okanogan complex fires. Arriving at Rainy Pass it was eerie to see a road and trailhead that would have normally been busy with summer vacationers completely empty because the highway was still closed due to fire. Finally early Friday morning we awoke to the storm that we had been counting on to bring us some relief. We've never been so excited to be hiking in the rain as we were that morning.

Reinvigorated, we hustled to Harts Pass, the last road crossing before the Canadian border and we were gifted with momentary breaks of blue sky and dramatic rolling clouds. 

The rain resumed and off again we went heading north for the last time. 

We reached the monument on Saturday August 29th at around 3:30ish and stood in the rain for at least 2 hours in total excitement and disbelief that we had made it. That day we saw elk, a bear, and tons of grouse but not a single person. It was a perfectly surreal way for us to end our amazing journey.

It was a quick 4 miles into Manning Provincial Park, BC to the PCT camp where we set up for the night. Rain and temps in the mid-30's helped us get out of camp quickly the next morning and before we knew it we were leaving the Manning Lodge on a bus to Vancouver. On the way back we learned that the previous days' storms had actually been worse than we had realized. All across Washington and British Columbia the storms gusted up to 65 mph, knocked down countless trees, took out power lines, and was even responsible for a few deaths. We watched out the window of the bus and saw signs of damage all across BC, and then into WA as we rode. We were standing in downtown Seattle by 10:15pm Sunday night still trying to process what exactly had just happened.

It was an incredible experience and everyday we felt fortunate to be on the trail. We are so thankful for all of our wonderful family and friends who have followed along with us on our hike and supported us even when things became a little crazy at the end. You guys are really the best. In the next few days we'll sort through all of our pictures and continue to share more. Thanks again and keep checking up to see more of our trip and what kind of adventure we might be getting into next!