A thru-hike attempt... successful! (D-117: 2642.6 - 2653.6, D-117S (SOBO): 0 - 17.1, D-118S (SOBO): 17.1-30.6)

It is done! Finally, on August 10th, 2022, 117 days after I started at the US-Mexico border on April 16th, 2022, I reached the US-Canada border.  Walked 2653.6 miles (4270.6 km) south-to-north through the states of California, Oregon and Washington. No bittersweet moments...just sweet relief to be done 😀.

We were few of the lucky thru-hikers this year who were able to go south-to-north continuously without any interruptions.  People who started even a couple of weeks earlier and maintained this pace hit a lot more snow in Seirras and a hell lot more in Washington, the latter being almost hike-stopping.  By the time we got to Seirras, the snow was much more manageable, and almost all the snow had melted in Washington.  People who started later or were slower have had to skip parts of Northern California due to forest fires. Even Oregon and Southern California have some fires starting already.

Anyway, reached the northern terminus of the PCT yesterday morning around 8:40 am after a quick 11-mile (probably the quickest 11 miles on the whole trail) hike from the campsite.  Except for a short burst of light rain, the weather stayed pleasant throughout the day. Typically, once NOBOs (PCT North Bounders like me) reach the terminus, they could walk over into Manning Park in Canada which is 7 miles away.  One could get picked up there as that's the closest car-accessible point. However, thanks to Covid, Canada has stopped permitting people to enter the country via unmanned remote areas like PCT. So, even this year, NOBO had to walk back ~30+ miles to Hart's Pass which is the nearest car-accessible point in USA. And that's what we did - 17 miles yesterday and 13+ miles today.  And yes, it is kinda painful 😏. Oh well!  What's 30 more after 2653 😀

Here is the northern terminus.  As you can see, there is no border wall or fence, just a clearing marking it.

    Video link of Northern Terminus

On the way to the border, met a few old friends who were coming back from the border including Cinnamon (he finished 2 days earlier)

as well as Sparkles & Free Refill who had flip-flopped and were now doing SOBO to Ashland.  The last time I had seen then was in Agua Dulce, CA almost 3 months ago.

And this morning, Autobahn, who carried whiskey with him and shared it with us back at Old Station in NorCal

Back at Hart's Pass and done with the hike!

Our final trail angels - Shalini & Kim. Kim drove us back from Hart's Pass to Mazama - a narrow, mountain-side potholed dirt road that was better navigated in a 4WD truck that Kim has and by an experienced mountain road driver.  After reaching Mazama, got into Shalini's rental car & drove back to Seattle.

So, that was the hike! I don't know if anything has changed in me or not (I think not),but will wait to find out.  I will post 1 or 2 more notes in the coming week - one with all the data and maybe one on post-hike life.

I end this post with a saying that has long resonated with me:

"The world reveals itself to those who travel on foot" - Werner Herzog

Data:

D-117: 

D-117S: 

D-118S: