Category: Pacific Crest Trail

I leave Lions Den at 9. The owner Mary -Lion is giving me a ride up to the Harts pass trail head, she wants to leave at 9 so she can grab a baguette for the ranger.

We grab two baguettes and then get driving, it’s her me and Mark from LA. Marks starting his SOBO journey, I’m finishing my NOBO journey. Wild. He tagged the terminus and came back to Harts pass to take a zero night. His first four days. Mark asks me if he could talk me into yo-yoing and going south with him to get him schooled up and more prepared for what’s ahead. I tell him I’d go south back to Stehekin but doing another 2600 right now just isn’t in my cards. I have other plans. Other hikes to hike.

It’s an hour drive to the trail head through bumpy class 5 roads. We handle the terrain in her Nissan Altima and get to the trailhead at 10:30AM. Definitely a Jeep road.

The ranger says hello and stamps my permit. We talk for a little while and then I get hiking. I almost immediately run into a couple that just came back from the terminus. They say they did it out and back in 4 days and it was beautiful. I’m planning for 3 days 2 nights, but any faster is a bonus.

The trail starts down a beautiful line through forest trees surrounded by gorgeous Mountain View’s. I see a fire tower in the distance. As I continue down into Holman pass I start to see more hikers coming back south. Some thru hikers, some section hikers and some people just out for the day.

We chat for a bit, share stories and talk about where we are camping. Leaving the trail head so late, I plan a short day. I eye a campsite 15 miles in and set up my tent with two ladies from Monroe WA. They’re out for 8 days and think I’m nuts for being out here this long.

As we’re hanging out for dinner another gentleman walks up, he says he saw Geodude 7 miles ahead and asks if I am Mouse. Yessir I tell him. I’m trying to catch Geodude so we can hike out together. It’s his birthday this week and we’re going to party. As the sun sets the bugs come out, I say goodbye and head off to bed while listening to the grouse vibrating in the woods.

I wake early up and pack my stuff up quietly. I brush my teeth and get moving, I pass Geodudes beat up Z Pack tent as he’s sleeping and put distance behind me and my camp site. It’s a bummer he’s sleeping, but I’m not about to wake a man to say hello.

I climb the ridge and enjoy the sunrise, it’s warm, misty and all downhill to Canada. From here at Hopkin lake it’s is like 6-7 miles downhill, I drop my tent, sleeping bag and anything else I don’t need and decide to slack pack the rest of the way to the border. I even tie up my food and only bring snacks. I’ll probably jog the last few miles downhill. My legs after 2600 miles just feel amazing.

As I’m heading down, I see more people heading up. They camped much closer than I did. One said at the junction just before the terminus. Then they decided to tag the terminus really early in the morning and head back out before the sunrise. Honestly, a smart idea. I just got such a late start yesterday. Luckily my legs are in great shape, and ripping out a 30 mile day is just standard at this point. I’ll see them again on the way out, I’ll catch up.

The trail is nice and gradual, mainly groomed with sections of thick overgrowth. At this point in my hike, I put my head down and just power through everything and anything. As I can see Canada getting closer, my emotions start to move from happiness to sadness. Is this really it I say. I can’t believe what I have done and I honestly can’t believe that I’m here alone. All my trail friends are in different places on trail, some have finished already and some have quit entirely. Today it’s just me, just like I started back in March. Solo.

I turn one last corner and I get my first sight of the Canadian border and the PCT Northern terminus monument. Wow. That’s all I could say. Wow. I choked back tears, screamed out happiness and just enjoyed the solitude. I had it all to my self, not a sound, not a single person, no border patrol agents. Just me and the Canadian border.

There’s a log there to set your phone up, a hiker carried that log from Mexico last season like the navy seals do. That guy is nuts. And thanks man because that’s the only way I was getting a picture. 

I take 38 pictures and 3 videos and then took one last look at what I’ve done. What I waited 5 months to see with my own two eyes. I sign the terminus 2025 book and leave a message. “Livin the fuckin dream.” I take a few deep breaths and then leave it behind me. It’s 30 miles uphill back to the highway and it’s almost mid day.

Let’s fuckin go.

A few miles back up the trail I run into more hikers coming down. We chitchat and smile and I truly enjoyed the hike back up. For the first time I don’t have a hiking goal, now it’s just a long walk back to the metaphorical car of life. Headphones in, volume on as high as possible, I charge back uphill 6 miles to the lake and gather my stuff. I stop and chat with an Italian SOBO hiker who tells me it’s harder than he thought. We talk for a few minutes and I reassure him it’s worth it. I tell him no matter what keep going, and then I say goodbye.

With a full heavy bag again, 2 filled water bottles, and 20 miles already done for the day I start eying camp sites. As I climb to windy pass it’s a beautiful spot, eye level looking at a ridge and overlooking a valley. Nice but absolutely windy. I drop down another half mile between the two passes and I set up my tent.

I eat dinner, relax, enjoy 2 movies and embrace my last night on the PCT. After watching sunset I retired to my tent and got a good night sleep.

I wake up at 4:30 and pack up. Under 10 minutes and I’m on the walk, it’s all uphill today to get back to Harts pass and it’s the perfect temperature. As I climb the first ridge it’s covered in clouds, I continue to walk through them and get eye level with them. As they blow around I can feel the moisture being dropped off.

A few more miles pass and I start to see people waking up and getting going. I’m always an early bird and it’s nice to see others up early. As we pass we make small talk, I run into the two ladies from the night before, they only went 10 miles while I doubled it. I’m seeing them again on the way out. Nice. Hope yall ladies had an amazing time!

As I start to see Harts pass in the distance I ramp up my pace. 22 miles in 6.25 hours. I walk into the trailhead, grab a soda out of the hiker box and start working on a hitch back to Mazama. What an amazing end to this trip, I’m still going to spend the next 2 weeks hiking WA. But wow. What an amazing trip.

I sign the logbook and notice I finished right after Punisher. What a beast he is, ripping out the border to border calendar year triple crown. Basically tripling what I am doing. Savage! Keep smashing it punisher! I catch a hitch down to Mazama and head back to Lions Den for the night. We celebrate Geodudes birthday and talk about what our next plans are.

I meet another hiker and we decide to hitch hike to Seattle in the morning. We make signs and stand in the sign of the highway. It took 2.5 hours before we got picked up but we eventually made it to Seattle. One guy gave us a ride to Newhalen and then another guy to Meridian. We then took the train to Seattle, enjoyed the afternoon in Seattle exploring for Seafair fest and then said goodbye to each other.

From here I walked around Seattle for a while, a few police officers asked me why I had a bag etc. After talking with them they said 8PM I should leave the city as it gets “unnecessarily violent.” Okay I tell them.

I walk around for another hour and then jump back on the train to Lynnwood, then I make my way to the 202 bus to Everett where I then connected to the 280 bus towards Smokey point. After about 20 minutes I got off in Lake Stevens about 50 miles away from Seattle and walked 4 blocks to my buddy Dylan’s house. He wasn’t home so I set up an air mattress his wife left out for me in his garage and waited for him to get home. What a travel day.

I leave the Inn at 6:30AM with Early Bird the SOBOer. It’s a mile road walk to the street then 12 miles of street to where the trail head is. We say we’ll grab a hitch together.

A guy pulls over around 6:45AM says he is heading that way anyways. He asks us about what’s going on and where we are from. She was from NC and me from MA, the driver says he was also from MA. He grew up in Salem. Wtf I laugh. He was 37 we probably played each other in sports leagues.

He moved to Seattle a few years ago when he got married and was now road tripping and doing some day hiking. We thanked him for the ride and then jumped out after the 12 miles to the trail head.

We say good bye, swap contact infos and then im moving. Plan is 20 miles even. I walk the first 5 and it’s rather uneventful. Deep thick forest, I laugh to my self that this is definitely big foot country. Another 5 miles go by and I stop for breakfast. As I’m getting back up I meet another NOBO hiking Bear Trap from PA. I hike with him for the next 18 miles.

We walk along beautiful forest, exposed ridge and have beautiful views of Mt Adam’s. As we get close to 30 miles I see a campsite and say hey man I’m pulling up here. He’s shooting for 8 more miles. Savage.

My thought is now I have 39 miles left to town. I can do two 20 mile days from here to Packwood or one 25 and one light day. I plan to find a nice camp site in goat rocks so I’m not sure. But tonight my feet are hurting and the bugs are bad. I pitch my tent, cook my food, go pre dig my AM hole and then retire to my tent. I rewatch the Tetris movie and then head off to bed.

Day 2

I wake up at 5 and my ankle is killing me. What did I possibly do to injure my ankle without knowing it? Maybe I’m just at the point that I have walked too much this year. Luckily for me today is a short day. I am going to meet my buddy Dylan at Whites Pass and we’re going to chill for the day. He’s working this week like most normal people so Friday’s the best day. I think today’s Wednesday.

I leave camp at 5:45AM and get moving quickly, the mosquitos are out with a vengeance and they can’t fly 3MPH allegedly. It’s roughly 4 miles of up to start off and the trail is cruisey. It’s a little steep, definitely not SoCal grade but definitely not NH grade. I pass what FarOut tells me is the last water source for 13 miles. Granted I expect to see snowmelt and some run off but this is reliable water sources.

As I’m filling water I hear voices, a couple was camped 75 feet away and were packing up for the day. They were heading NOBO also but were just out for the week section hiking. We talk about our trips and plans and then say goodbye. I tell them I’ll save them a campsite, honestly though I prob won’t see them again.

I blaze on up the trail and reach the peak of this climb. Wow views of Mt Adam’s and it looks huge from down here. I soak it in for 90 seconds and then continue on for 5 miles of downhill until it turns back to uphill. This is where I make up my time. 3.5 mph on the downhill, what’s the rush? No rush at all just want to be up and over the pass before the mid day sun. I don’t do well in the heat. I sweat, I start to chafe, I then complain and my day go from enjoyment to constant “work of addressing it.”

I get to Ciphus pass and it’s absolutely beautiful. I get some cell service and call my buddy. We coordinate our meeting time and details and then I keep it moving. I come over the top of the pass and see the trail heading down for the next 3 miles. It’s beautiful looking, light grade down, ridge line looking.

I see a spot on FarOut that says it has great views of both Rainier and Adam’s. That’s my jam. It’s 2.5 miles away and I’ll be there in an hour. I fill water at the next stream and see a day hiker complaining about the bugs. I tell him he picked a great campsite though. He said he was thinking about leaving. I actually thought they weren’t bad there. I guess I’m numb to it now.

I pull up to the camp spot after passing a beautiful waterfall just at it hits noon. 17.5 miles done. I stood in that waterfall for a few minutes to soak in the mist. Then it was time to set my tent up in the shade and enjoy the next couple of hours of relaxing. I will say the bugs are bad, it’s mainly flies and bees mixed with some mosquitos.

Day 3

I leave camp again at 5:45AM. I actually had some trouble digging my cat hole, the ground was solid in like 4 different places. But hey, still got it done. I leave camp and start straight up hill. I always set my self up to do climbs in the early AM before the suns beating on you.

I have 4.5ish miles to the top of Goat Rocks and the knifes edge. A big debate on far out is whether or not people should take the PCT route or the alternate up old snowy.

I continue on another 2 1/2 miles and I filter water. This is the last water source for 11 miles today. I grabbed 2 L and start drinking. I know once the sun comes up it will be hot. I continue on up the trail and I finally see my first sites of actual goat rocks.

I continue on halfway up and hit a snow traverse, everybody online said there was no snow. Well apparently they were wrong. The snow is a sheet of ice and I can’t kick in any boot pack. I’m happy I had my sister give me back my micro spikes and I said to myself they’re light enough to carry. I toss on my spikes real quick and cover maybe 1000 feet of traverse.

After the traverse, I see the PCT route, it looks fucking sketchy. I still don’t know how they consider everything on this trail horse grade. I don’t see how a horse would take those switch backs and then over those lava rocks and then down that sketchy ridge that looks to be a foot wide at most.

I take the right up the PCT alternate to old snowy and it’s a vicious climb. As I reach the top I can see forever, what I don’t see is any goats. But beauty as far as the eye can see, I continue on and start down the knife’s edge. Wow. Absolutely awesome to see and experience, especially solo. I’m a little uncomfortable but fully in control if that makes sense.

I scramble down the knife’s edge and continue along a skinny ridge line. I start my second climb and run into a group of camp kids. I’d argue highschool age on a 18 day trip. Today was day 5 they said. I commented it gets easier after day 5. You get your rhythm, find your groove and all that jazz. They take my picture and I head on. Hope that photo ends up famous.

As I continue to the top of my second climb I see some more weekend and section hikers. One couple actually from Somerville MA. I laugh, tell them I’m from Medford and we swap phone numbers. This guy says he’s looking for a fishing partner and someone to hike with back home. He’s originally from Cali, and she was from Texas.

All I can say when I walk away for the next mile is “what a small fucking world.” I’ve been given rides by women from Andover, a guy from Salem, and now these two from Somerville. I could walk to their house for beers in under a half hour and I run into them here of all places.

Anyways, I keep on and say I’m only going to do 5 more miles. Today’s suppose to be a Nero day, my watch says 11AM. I pitch my tent and do lunch and a siesta, I set my timer for an hour and just chill. I listen to the wind blow and the wood peckers hammering away.

I eat up, get up and get moving again, I’m eyeballing a possible campsite from FarOut at mile 2291. I finish up those last few miles of pure uphill to find 4 people’s bags already there. No tents, just bags. Hmm what’s the move here, shock them when they come back and I’m here pitched. Or just continue on? I pitch around the corner on the edge and FaceTime my dad. I have cell service for a moment. Nice. After a half hour my tents covered in bees, time to pack up and split. I can’t stay in this.

I move on, oof, a Nero day turns into an easy 17 miles, I get up and over the pass and get a great view of Shoe Lake. As I hit the top I see a small sliver of ground I can make work overlooking the Lake.

I make my decision, this is home tonight. I position my tent close to the trees knowing the bugs will be worse but the shade will be on me earlier. Pros/cons. I don’t want to sweat all afternoon in the tent. I cook dinner, toss on a 2.5 movies and rest up for the night. Short day tomorrow as it’s only 6 miles of downhill to Whites Pass where I’ll grab some food.

Day 4

I wake up at 5AM naturally and just sit snd enjoy a beautiful sunrise for a half hour. It’s the perfect temperature out, almost no breeze so the mosquitos are out. I pack up camp quickly in my full bug suit and try to forget about them in the moment.

I head off down trail and my task is to complete a 5.6 mile leisure walk into White Pass. I plan to resupply at the Cracker Barrel and get moving again, what a beautiful morning.

I walk down the trail and see some beautiful views, the trail is full of cob webs. I laugh as I see a SOBO day hiker and I tell him “don’t worry but I’ve cleaned em all up for you.” I skip each water source I see as I know I’m getting to town today. A cold Gatorade and Sprite are always purchased in town.

I get to White Pass around 7:30AM, the store opens at 8AM and I grab a breakfast sandwich to start my day actually off. Skittles arnt the best breakfast but they’ve definitely been my favorite this year.

It was a short trip between Cascade Locks and Trout Lake but boy was it fun. Sarcasm. After the bridge of the gods I hung a left and turned onto the PCT.

As soon as I stepped onto trail I see it. Ugh poison oak, and it’s everywhere on trail. Right on the edges too. I start walking through the trail and see blackberry bushes. Wow what a set up, the blackberry bushes are there to lure you through the poison oak. Clever tag team combo they have going on.

I put my head down and put the miles behind me. I took a total of 4 photos and 2 videos in 3 days. This reminded me of NorCal and how badly I wanted it to end. I passed 1 SOBO hiker and that I think is the first SOBO Thru hiker I’ve seen.

I walk into the junction for Trout Lake and see forest road 23. There a gal there waving a hitch and I run over and join her. She was also SOBO and on day 18 of her thru hike. Hell yeah. She did the AT 6 years ago and was now doing the PCT. We get dropped off in town and meet the town folk and angels.

I grab a room at the Inn and burn the night eating a huge pepperoni and pineapple pizza. I NEVER get pineapple on pizza but I remembered Julian and the guy who gave me “the only thing he’d make me” which was pineapple, pepperoni, jalapeños and I remember it being absolutely fire.