Pacific Crest Trail: Stehekin- Wait for it.....CANADA!!!

Day 88
Stehekin-2589 (19.5)

We slept in as much as we could before hopping on the 8:15 bus to the trail (and the bakery of course). The walk was nothing spectacular but still beautiful. The changing autumn leaves are making me feel a bit like I need to get my butt in gear. We are both hurting all over and have decided that ibuprofen might just have to be the name of the game for the next few days. We walked into camp at the trailhead around 7 and received some trail magic from a man who has been meeting his wife every four days with food. After she left this morning he began driving for Canada but turned around and came back with a bunch of food instead to trail angel for another few days. He cooked up some burgers and then we set up camp with a group of guys (Chips, Ruckus, and Misty) we have been hiking with and a German girl (apples).

Day 89
2589-2614 (24.9)

Next to the highway there was quite a bit of activity through the night so I had another night of very little sleep which has made my sleep walking begin earlier and earlier each day. Did I already write about that? Feeling like mom asleep while hiking and getting snapped out of it when spoken to and then trying to go back to my daydream as if I am trying to get a real dream to continue...its been a pretty strange feeling and it's been going on the last few weeks. Anyways, the north cascades opened up in front of us once we made our way up the pass and we got to enjoy the view almost the whole day. Its been anxiety provoking to think that there is only 2 days left but at the same time I'm ready to be done. I'll miss the beautiful views, the peace, the simplicity, the camp, the fascinating people but I look forward to a bed, a shower, and some time off my feet.

Day 90
2614-2635 (21.4)

The night was pretty entertaining as I listened to Chips in the tent next to me, fighting off mice the whole night. I had mice footprints covering the ground around my tent but none of them chewed their way through my tent. Marissa had a bit of trouble in the morning and was not sure why walking had become so upsetting. She cried as she walked and a lady stopped her to try to take her off trail and give her a hotel but made Marissa feel even worse. We decided to keep walking but walk close together to keep each other company the whole way. As the rain persisted and we got more and more wet, we began to see horse poop covering the river of the trail. I had said that it felt like I was walking through muddy horse shit not through horse shitty mud because it was so excessive. I was walking commando in rain pants that were already filled with mud because I had let my shorts get too wet and had some nice chafe going by the time we reached a camp that was protected by trees. Some hunters were set up in a structured tent with a woodfired stove and came over to give us some candy and hand warmers. We all hid in our tents dripping wet and yelled to each other to make conversation. The fact that I had to put on clothes the next day that I was wringing out before bed was a bit daunting but distracted me from the fact that this really was our last camp on trail.

Day 91
2635-Manning Park (23.5)

We woke up this morning with our clothes sopping wet and ice crystals falling on our shelters. Today was the big day and I think that that was the only reason we were able to put on our wet clothes and walk on. As we made our way up the mountain side it began to snow and we began to slow old man jog to try to get warm and relieve our joints. Once warmed up a bit we tried to take things reasonably slow to enjoy the last miles before the monument. We counted 30 blowdown sin the last 2 miles before the monument and just thought about how much the trail has thrown our way. It couldn't help but give us one more little hiccup. We passed through them and heard the cheers of people making it to the northern terminus below us. We sped up and took one last switch back to see the monument there at the end, waiting for us. Those posts we walked so far to see were not grand in themselves but what they symbolized was pretty unreal. As we sat around, it never really hit us that we were done...as it was, we still had 8 more miles to a road. We ate and talked and signed the register before walking on feeling a great sense of relief. We were no longer hiking to the end we were just walking a trail we were done we could feel the weight off our shoulders and the miles flew by. We approached the highway around 4 o'clock and got a bit of mist. We turned right and there it was, blue sky with a rainbow leading exactly to where the lodge was. We finished, we did it...holy crap.