Day 142 - Thursday, September 16

Tenting at the PCT and Pacific Northwest Trail junction (Finished the PCT at mile 2653.6; southbound mile 3.7). Walked 25.0 miles today.

Last night's low was supposed to be 28, but I'm certain it was colder than that. The condensation on the tent this morning was all frozen and it took us a long time to get up and get going. Frank finally left camp about 7:45 with me 15 minutes behind. I ran into Frank after a few minutes and she had come across Jedi. He had tagged the monument yesterday. We chatted briefly before heading up the trail. About 20 minutes later, we ran into AB. She had also reached the border the day before and after a quick chat, we were off again.

We had been seeing a bunch of thru hikers hiking south after completing their thru hikes and they all congratulated us on our hike and reaching the border.

We had great views as we crossed Rock Pass and Woody Pass and hiked up to a viewpoint where we rested for a few minutes.

We then hiked above and then down past Hopkins Lake.

From here, it was all downhill the rest of the way. I spent the next 6 or so miles thinking about this hike and what I had accomplished. After what seemed no time at all, we hit a series of switchbacks, came around a corner, and there it was: the Northern Terminus of the PCT.

We had reached the Canadian border. The monument is in a 20-foot wide clear cut that signifies the border between the two countries. Frank and I tagged the monument, then took pictures, signed the log book, and admired the monument and what we had accomplished.  It feels like a lifetime since I left Mexico but it's only been 4.5 months of an incredible journey.

At this point, I should tell you that I've been lying about how much weight I've been carrying. You see, I have 23 grams of weight that's not included in my gear list. I've actually been carrying a small amount of my dad's ashes. I've only told two people about this: Lost and Found (on the anniversary of my dad's death), and Frank (shortly after we started hiking together). Years ago, when I first talked of doing a thru hike, he thought it sounded great. He didn't really want to thru hike (I think he thought it would be too difficult), but he thought it would be cool to say he thru hiked. We'll, now I can say that about him. I scattered his ashes around the monument in tribute.

Frank's friend Theresa is a whiskey connoisseur and she had sent us some to commemorate reaching the end of the trail. We each took a sip. It was smooth and we wanted more, but we have more miles to cover.

In a normal year, we'd be able to apply for an entry permit to walk into Canada. This is the preferable option as there is a resort just 8 miles across the border. As Canadian customs isn't processing applications this year (due to COVID), that means that we can't enter and have to turn around and walk back to the nearest road in order to get back to civilization. The nearest road is at Hart's Pass - 30 miles to the south.

We packed up and headed back up the trail, this time heading in an unfamiliar direction. We hiked nearly 4 miles to a campsite where a bunch of tents were already set up. We wanted to get farther tonight, but it's too late to do too much more. We ate dinner (including a celebratory backpacker cheesecake dessert) and went to bed. We'll hike the rest of the way out tomorrow.