Miles 2571.9 to 2576.8. Fire closure reroute part 2: Holden Village to Stehekin via ferry, then back on PCT to Bridge Creek campground.

We sleep in. No need to ask why, I’m sure. And incredibly, the weather is absolutely perfect. The sun’s out and the sky is a deep blue. And the mountains? Well, they are white. Oh, surprise!

The shuttle to the ferry doesn’t leave until 10.30am which means we have plenty of time. We stroll over to the dining hall where we see Sriracha and Puddles again. The poor guys slept outside last night. They were freezing and hardly slept. I am angry with this place being all religious and then not help people in need. There were enough hikers sleeping outside last night because they weren’t gonna pay 99 USD for a room. They were miserable. And this place has plenty of very basic rooms where they should have been welcome to sleep in! I am not saying for free. How about 20 USD a night? Even in our room there was another bed. But they would have charged another 99 USD for a person sleeping in it. Meaning that our room would have sold for 3x99 USD. While one person gets to sleep in a private room with 4 beds for 99 USD as well. How is this fair? We should have smuggled Puddles, Sriracha and Poodlebee into our room last night. Never mind those rules.

Our stuff is dry, we are clean and warm and ready for the last leg of our very long journey. Gone are the thoughts about quitting. We are not quitting now, so close to the end! Less than 100 miles to Canada. Craaaazy!

The shuttle arrives and we all jump in. Suddenly there’s again around 15 of us! I never know how that happens. Which holes do all these hikers suddenly crawl out of? Haha. There is also a hiker hiking with a dog and the dog of course gets all the attention from the hikers. Therefore the bus ride down to Lake Chelan and the landing at Lucerne passes by really quickly. Anticipation and excitement is in the air. Chances are very high we are going to make it to Canada now.

The ferry arrives after about 20 minutes and we quickly jump in to get good seats by the window. I am really hungry because breakfast in Holden was kind of meaky and get a cheese sandwich. We are sitting next to some older people just out on a ferry ride today. They look at us curiously and start asking questions. When they hear what we’ve been up to they are completely amazed. And so the 45min ferry ride goes by fast because we are chatting with them the whole way.

We reach Stehekin at 2pm. Originally we had planned to spend the night here and leave in the morning. But since we slept in Holden last night we decided to not pay for another hotel here in Stehekin. But when we hear that the last shuttle going to the trailhead for today leaves at 3pm we rethink that we won’t be able to get everything (resupply boxes, permit to stay overnight within the next 20 miles, lunch, some grocery shopping, getting the wifi code to call my host mum Kim about our arrival date) done in one hour. But as we can’t afford another night in a hotel it’s gonna have to work out. While Dario hurries over to the post office to get our resupply boxes I go inside the restaurant to order our food and into the grocery store to buy bread, some chocolate bars and the code to the wifi. Then I go back to the restaurant and reserve a booth. Dario comes back with the boxes, drops them off at our table and leaves to get our permits. I open the boxes and start organizing our resupply into breakfast, lunch and dinner piles as usual. Then I try to call Kim but realize that I first need to update my messenger app. And this takes ages. There is no way we’ll have enough time. When Dario comes back we quickly eat, pack up everything and hurry down to the shuttle. Finally the messenger app has loaded and I still have wifi. I call her from the bus and tell her our arrival date, the 7th of October. I tell her we’ll spend the night in Manning Park and we agree that she’ll pick us up on the 8th of October. I’ll see her again in 5 days. After 12 years. Wow.

The shuttle waits until I finish my phone call and then leaves towards the trailhead. The shuttle always makes a stopover at the Stehekin Bakery which is very famous among PCT hikers. They make delicious pastries, breads and cinnamon rolls. We buy food for 50 USD (pizza slices, cakes and cinnamons rolls) and get back on the bus. They sure make good business with us hikers. They probably time the shuttle so that hikers don’t have time to eat in Stehekin and then come to the bakery all hungry!! Well, it works (even with some lunch in our bellies). Unfortunately this is also where we realize that once again we forgot to buy fuel. We still have some left but it won't last the whole way. But Trooper and Poodlebee might be able to share it with us. We decide not to freak out about it.

When we reach the trailhead everyone quickly straps on their packs and starts hiking. All of us? No, a minority consisting of Dario and I, Trooper and Sriracha stays behind and lets everyone pass. We’ll take it easy today. Reaching Canada in 4.5 days is plenty of time to do the 89 miles to the border. We’re not in a rush. It’s cloudy by now but it doesn’t look as though it’s about to rain anytime soon.

We reach our campsite after 5 miles. We camp with Trooper, Sriracha, Poodles and Poodlebee. We make a lovely campfire and all eat our goodies from the bakery. A perfect evening.

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Miles 2540.6 to 2551.8 + 11 Miles Fire closure reroute part 1: to Holden Village. Suiattle River camp to Holden.

We get up later than planned. It‘s still raining. Poodlebee who was camped next to us has already left. The weather is an absolute catastrophe. It hasn’t stopped raining all night, the tent is soaked and there are rain drops on the inside of the rainfly just waiting to drop down on us. BigAgnes, we love you. Thank you for staying waterproof long enough. There is no point in waiting it out in the tent. It’s not going to stop anytime soon, we know that. Everything we own is wet or at least damp and we haven’t really been able to warm up either. Let’s just go.

After a quick breakfast we put on our wet clothes and take our tent down inside out. That’s the second time on the PCT we’ve had to do it like this. Take down the inner part of the tent first, pack everything under the rainfly and then take down the rainfly at last.

First we are going uphill. In such desolate and strenuous conditions you always feel like there is no way any other human is going through the same thing as you right now. But we are usually wrong. The next turn we take we see Sriracha sitting there. An Aussie we met in Kennedy Meados in mid-June and then again shortly at Snoqualmie Pass. Puddles, the girl he is hiking with and him passed us this morning while we were still asleep. And he’s not having so much fun himself. The poor fella is also suffering from Plantar Fasciitis which doesn’t make this hike any easier. They are also planning to hike into Holden tonight and camp just outside of the village in order to have breakfast there the next day and take the ferry. It’s very likely that people we meet now and who take the same ferry as us will end up at the terminus with us. This is how close we are to Canada. We can almost touch it, but there are still a few obstacles in our way. We pass Sriracha and soon run into Puddles. We keep hiking with her for a fair bit, at least the remaining 8 miles up to where we PCT is closed and the detour over Cloudy Pass down to Holden starts.

We reach the top in the snow. Yes, it is snowing now. And the flakes remain lying on the ground. Better snow than rain, we think, and push on. At least we don’t feel cold because we’ve just climbed 11 miles in 3.5 hours. The remaining 13 miles down to Holden should be easy now. It’s another 2 mile climb to the top of Cloudy Pass and this just kills us. It’s basically very exposed rock climbing for a mile until we reach some sparse forest and then finally reach the top, Cloudy Pass. We have been told that this detour is one of the best parts of the PCT. We have been told that we would see waterfalls, turquoise lakes and beautiful mountains and meadows. We know this beauty is out here. But we can’t see it. It’s just snowing and we can hardly see anything at all.  

The second part of the day is mainly downhill. Easy, we think. We will be there in no time, we think. Boy, are we wrong. The remaining 11 miles down to Holden will go down in history as the longest and toughest hike we ever had to do on the PCT.

About a mile down it’s been decided. We are going to take a room in Holden. We are not sleeping in our tent in this situation if we don’t have to. We are so cold, so wet, so miserable, we need something to look forward to tonight. We know a night in Holden costs 99 USD per person and we wonder how this can be fair. We only need a room as an emergency, we don’t want to spend 200 USD there! The rate comes with three meals, the shuttle to the ferry, laundry and showers, but how is it justified? We will try to get a discount. It should work somehow, we are sure the people there are reasonable.

Another 2 hours later we don’t even care about the money anymore. We would have spent 500 USD for a room by now. We are wearing our wet hiking clothes and our soaked rain gear. We are not wearing our down hoodies because we can’t afford to get them wet. Technically, we would afford to get them wet now that we are staying in the hotel. But a. we don’t now FOR SURE that they will have room and b. a change in clothes would require us to stop, take off the pack, then the rain cover, then get the hoodie. Then take off our rain jackets, put on the hoodies and put everything back on. By that time everything would get more wet and we can’t afford to take breaks because it will cool us down immensely. So here we go. Keep hiking on until hypothermia catches us.

Sleeping outside in this weather if you don’t absolutely have to - reckless and dangerous in our opinion. By now our feet (who have been walking in a constant swimming pool of icy water) are frozen. And so are our hands. I can’t feel my fingertips anymore. This situation we are in. I don’t know exactly how we managed to end up here. And we are doing this out of sheer pleasure, for fun! Voluntarily! Have we gone mad? How is this anything I would ever want to do in my life? What life choices are we making here? Have we gone completely mad??? We are in the middle of a snowstorm and all I know is that I have to keep walking. I am crying constantly, the tears are in fact the only thing I can feel right now, because they are hot and streaming down my face.

That’s when we decide to quit. We are going to quit when we reach Holden. I don’t know how we can reach civilization from there exactly, but I know we’ve had enough. That’s it. Can’t go on. At least we are on the same page. We know when enough is enough. We fought hard in the last couple of days and weeks. We can be proud of what we’ve achieved. But there is no way, absolutely to way, we are gonna go on now. Everyone kept telling us how unpredictable and dangerous the Cascades can get in the fall. And it’s October now. It’s time to be done. We are done.

And then we reach some forested area, some shelter at last. I am shaking and crying uncontrollably by now, and Dario is crying because he can’t handle that I can’t handle it anymore. And suddenly, out of nowhere, there are three beautiful deer grazing right next to the trail. We slow down, look at them. They don’t move. They stare at us. One of them is one meter away from us. It doesn’t move an inch. It stays there and keeps looking at us. What an incredible and stunning moment. It quiets me down. I can actually relax. I can breathe. I know we will be okay.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, we reach the campground. Poodlebee is actually setting up camp here! That’s crazy! But we don’t have the energy to go over and convince him to stay in the village. He knows what he’s doing. He will be fine. ¾ miles later we reach Holden. It’s really no more than a couple of houses. It’s a christian community, as it turns out. We reach the hotel and ask for a room. 99 USD per person. We ask if we can get a discount considering that we will be sharing a room, even a bed. Surely that must have an impact on the rate? The receptionist is compassionate but says he can’t change the price. He will ask someone and get back to us in the morning. Meanwhile we are free to get some dinner, the buffet will be open another ten minutes. We don’t need telling twice. We rush over to the dining hall and fill 7 (seven!) plates with food. And that’s where we see Trooper again! We hiked with him through a lot of Oregon and saw him quickly at Stevens Pass before he headed out. Good to see you again Trooper! While we eat he makes us some hot tea and keeps us company while we eat. We haven’t had anything to eat since breakfast just because there was no way we could possibly stop for lunch. Dinner is chickpea curry with couscous. Basically what we’ve been eating on trail for the past three months. But better, of course. Much better! There are a lot of hikers and we feel great having our crowd around us. But we still haven’t changed out of our wet clothes and are shaking with cold. It’s time for a hot and long shower. We get the key to the room which is very basic and reminds me of the rooms we would share on school camp trips in Switzerland. But it’s very cozy. Perfect. We turn the heater on full speed, put our shoes in front of it and hang our packs and sleeping bags up to dry. Then we shower. For 30 minutes. It’s without a doubt the best hot shower of my life. I only leave it when I am no longer feeling any cold on or in my body.

While Dario is in charge of getting the laundry done and hanging up the tent to dry in the laundry room I clean up the mess in our room, get rid of trash and hang up some more things. Fun fact, I am doing this naked in my towel because all of my clothes are being washed.

We are feeling so so much better now. Today was traumatizing but we are already healing. We watch some Netflix and go to bed very exhausted.

What a day. The last day on trail? Never quit on a bad day, they say. We’ll sleep on it.

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Miles 2515.7 to 2540.6. Pumice Creek camp to Suiattle River camp.

The night was rough, it was cold and was raining hard for a couple of hours. When we get up the rain has almost stopped but we refuse to get out of our dry spot. So we decide to have breakfast in the tent and stay until 8.30am when we feel that we really have to move if we want to make our goal and camp at Suiattle River, which is about 25 miles from where we start today.

The day is absolutely miserable. It is raining nonstop. And the trail here in this section is in a very bad condition. There are tons of big logs all over the trail, practically none are cut in half to pass, some times the trail is more like a creek or completely overgrown. At noon we pass a collapsed bridge over milky water. And yes, it is still raining. So we decide to not have any breaks and not do lunch today to make it into our tent as early as possible.

After a big decent we cross another milky river (glacier water) and meet Poodlebee again. He tells us he wants to sleep at the large Suattle River as well and then hikes on ahead of us. From here it is again all the way up up for another 3 hours only to descend on the other side once more.


At about 6 pm it starts to get darker but we still have to do about 4 miles. We pass a campsite where we see a group of hikers having a campfire and spot Andrea, whom we have last seen in Kennedy Meadows at the end of the desert. We quickly say hi and then continue our hike. After about 40 more minutes we find ourselves in a very thick rainforest. And in only a couple of minutes later it is completely dark and we have to use our headlamps. Unfortunately my batteries are empty and Maya‘s lamp has full batteries but is not working properly anymore. So we have to change the batteries in the dark from her lamp to mine. After some attempts it works and we now have one working lamp. It is now only one mile further according to Guthooks. And soon we make it to this very broad bridge across the thundering Suiattle River and desperately try to find the campsite. There, on the other side we see a light. We quickly pass the bridge and see that only one tent fits there. So we have to go a little bit further up parallel to the river and spot another light. This must be Poodlebee down there, we both think and find our way down to him. And yes, it is him. He is already in his tent, successfully avoiding the now really heavy rain.

There is only one more spot, but that‘s all we need. We pitch the tent in the opposite order than usual. We start with the rain fly first and then with the inner tent, so the inner side of the tent doesn't get as wet. What a miserable day this was.

On days like this you really start to question yourself what you're still doing out here. We could already be hanging out at a hot and tropical Colombian beach soaking up the sun rather than hiking in this. But it's all part of the game. And it's now only 110 miles more!


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Miles 2493.5 to 2515.7. Lake Sally Ann camp to Pumice Creek camp.
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Rain. Not the whole day and not strong rain. But a constant drizzle. Nonstop.

When we wake up it is only raining a little. The tent even stayed completely dry. And when we stick our heads out of the tent we see Jandals, Merman and Montana. They caught up! Good for then. They have to be in Canada on the 5th of October. They hiked 30 miles yesterday and must have caught a cold because they are repeatedly coughing and sneezing. Poor fellas! We know we wouldn’t be able to hike to Canada in 5 days, but we know their style and they seem determined to make it. They leave before us. And we never see them again.

The landscape looks very magical in these conditions. The sun is rising and coloring the clouds around it in all shades of pink. We take our breakfast after only a couple of minutes when we find some good trees to crawl under. But oh man, it’s cold. This is not enjoyable. Let’s keep going.

We are hiking up up up and are completely surrounded by mountain peaks. We hike up to a ridge for a while and when we reach it we can see in the next valley below. The scenery has again changed completely. We are looking down onto this mystical glacier valley. It’s beautiful. But the cold is penetrating, we can feel it in our bones. The rain gear can only take so much rain… We decide to take a break when we reach the creek at the bottom of the valley. By now we are back in dense forest. But in order to stay relatively dry during our lunch we set up the footprint of our tent and place ourselves underneath. It’s not exactly cosy and definitely not warm, but it will have to do. And some hot food definitely can’t hurt right about now. Because Dario is the chef in our two-person team, I have the pleasure of doing the dishes. Which means filling our pots etc. with the icy water of the creek and trying to clean it as good as possible. My hands are positively frozen after that.

The only thing which helps is hiking. So we pack our stuff and start hiking again. It’s a steep uphill climb now and we are glad because climbing up is the only thing really producing some body heat.

It’s getting dark early now. The dark clouds don’t help. This is definitely not one of the moments I will miss once I am in a heated house, feeling warm. We really really really just want to reach Canada now. One more week till we reach the border. We can do this!

We reach our designated campsite, a creek, around dusk. There are campsites but they are very exposed and we’d much rather find some shelter from pine trees. There’s trees in abundance here, how hard can it be to find a flat spot among them?? But we’re also on a mountainside now and the terrain isn’t exactly flat.

Finally we find a small spot and decide to squeeze our tent in there. We quickly put on some warm clothes and hang up our wet clothes to dry. They won’t dry, but where else are we going to put them? Once we are bundled up in our sleeping bags, eating pasta and watching Netflix life looks already a little better again. Yep, the Great British Bake-Off is the most soothing and homey series ever!

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Miles 2434.8 to 2459.8. Alpine meadow camp to Lake Susan Jane camp.

05.30am. Time to get up. We are oh so tired. But it’s time to get back to civilization. It might still be possible to reach Stevens Pass/Skykomish tonight but then we would only have to pay for a night in a hotel, which we don’t want.

After we are done packing up I go get water at the nearby lake. The sky is full of stars, the moon is shining bright, I can see the outlines of the mountains surroundings us. Clouds of steam are emerging from the lake. The meadow is frozen. What a WOW moment.

We have to climb first. And the scenery around us is just so mindblowingly beautiful. Washington in nice weather - the most beautiful thing you’ll ever see. We eat our breakfast while our tent is drying. 10 more days of living this life. This simple life. This mentally and physically very challenging life. This very rewarding life. What are we going to miss the most?, we think. The tranquillity, Dario says.

After hiking up and down all morning we reach the Deception Lakes around noon and decide to have lunch there. This is one of the most beautiful lakes I have ever seen. I would love to go swimming, but the water is icy cold and we couldn’t really warm up again after. It’s here that we find out about an easy alternate you can take, cutting a mile off the PCT, but equally beautiful. We decide to do just that and don’t regret our decision. The alternate route first leads us uphill through dense forest and then emerges to this saddle with a stunning view. The way back down is a bit of a stumble. We have to climb over big rocks and are concentrating hard not to fall.

Dario comes up with a game. Let’s list all the nights where we stayed on the PCT since the beginning. It keeps us busy! Sometimes we have to think really hard about where we slept, but after piecing memories together we usually find out. We are in the midst of me explaining to Dario where we stayed that one night in the Sierra, when suddenly I hear movement. And vibration. There is something there behind that tree!!! It’s probably just a deer, Dario says, but I am not convinced. It feels larger, denser. We have meanwhile retreated a couples meters, but now I slowly go ahead again to peer through the undergrowth. A set of eyes. A face. IT IS A BEAR!!! And a rather big one! I yell to Dario to take some more steps back and walk over to him. The bear is right next to the trail and it’s not moving. What should we do? We start making some noise with our trekking poles, but he’s not really impressed by that. We start yelling and go closer again, when suddenly he breaks through the bushes and lands on the trail. Instead of running away, what a black bear is expected to do, he comes charging in our direction!!! But then quickly realizes his error. He probably thinks “oopsie, there’s people there”, and jumps on the other side of the trail. There is another tree there which he now jumps on to. And falls off of. It’s almost as if he’s a little embarrassed by his failed attempt to climb the tree. With his head bowed down he slowly starts to trot away on all fours. Picking berries on the way.

What a rush of adrenaline! What an amazing experience! Scary, but amazing! Now we are practically running down the trail. We are so pumped! And bump into Benjamin Button. We tell him all about our encounter and while he’s happy for us, he’s also a little envious and starts keeping his eyes out for another bear. Thanks to the adrenalin I am still hiking the fastest I’ve ever hiked. And even going uphill I don’t even seem to need much energy!

We reach our campsite at Lake Susan Jane by 8pm. We are now only 5 miles away from Stevens Pass from where we plan to hitch into Skykomish. Benjamin Button who is in a bit of a hurry and needs to reach the Canadian border around the 4th of October decides to skip the next 100-mile section from Stevens Pass to Skykomish. He will leave the trail in Stevens Pass tomorrow and try to reach Stehekin, the last resupply stop as soon as possible. We regret his decision but can of course totally understand where he’s coming from. Also we are all at the end of our physical powers by now. Mentally we are strong. We KNOW we can do it now that it’s less than two weeks away. But physically… our bodies are hurting. We are ready to be done.

Miles 2393.1 to 2413.8. Snoqualmie Pass to Creek camp.

We slept excellently in this cozy bed. But by 7am we get up, pack our stuff and have breakfast at the nearby restaurant. Omelets for me, eggs over easy for Maya.
 
The weather is absolutely perfect today. Not a single cloud to be seen in the sky. At 10am we start hiking with BigBro. A steep climb awaits us. Up up up for about 2.5 hours. But then we reach the top of the mountain range and have a stunning view of one of the most beautiful mountain sceneries we have ever seen on the whole trail! Almost all the peaks are covered in snow, which makes it even more spectacular.

After a short break and some more snicker bars in our bellies we hike on for another 45 minutes until we hit the 2400 mile marker! Wow!!! And the views are again bombastic! It is no nice that the three of us have lunch here. Since we entered Washington I've had Ramen noodles for lunch every single day - and today is no exception. I probably will never eat Ramen after the trail again in my whole life... But they're good calories, quickly prepared and very light weight. 

After lunch BigBro starts hiking on while we still sit here and enjoy the views for a while. In the afternoon we pass a huge white mountain goat. It looks like a polar bear from far away, it is massive!
 
Shortly before it gets dark, Maya and I are debating whether we should camp here on the ridge or go on and hike all the way down for another 5 miles. Finally I can convince her to go further to catch up with BigBro. But it is almost 7pm by now, which means that we will not be in camp before 9pm. 

It turns out these 5 miles take much longer than expected since we are already pretty tired by now. Shortly before reaching camp we end up missing a junction, keep hiking straight ahead for about 15 minutes instead of turning left. Finally we make it to camp at 9.30pm next to a big river and see BigBro on the other side. He yells across the river, that his campsite is full and that we should stay on our side. The river is raging and we don't see an immediate way of how to cross it. Since the campsite is apparently full anyway, we set up camp on the south side of the river.

Luckily there is a good spot here as well. We quickly set up our tent in the dark and cold night and then prepare some Indian curry with Couscous for dinner. We eat it while watching another episode of the Great British Bake-off and then go to bed very exhausted.

Miles 2347.0 to 2372.9. Mike Ulrich cabin to forest camp.
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The night in the cabin was not the greatest we have ever had on the trail. There was a lot of commotion, snoring and people going outside to go to the toilet aka the woods. Of course Maya also had to go, which means climbing down a metal ladder, trying to avoid stepping on sleeping people and somehow find the way with almost no light.

But at least we get up pretty early at 6ish in the morning. The weather is still not very good. There’s some big clouds but the sun is slightly shining through occasionally. We decide to have breakfast in front of the cabin under a roof together with Montana, a hiker we have last seen in the Sierras, which means about 2.5 months ago.

We start hiking at about 8am. Today is way harder than yesterday. We have to climb a lot. But the weather is getting slightly better and at lunchtime the sun finally breaks through the clouds.

We have lunch on a deserted dirt road to get as much sunlight as possible. Big Bro and Benjamin Button are already ahead of us. Our plan is to hike 26 miles today and set up camp in a forest area where there should be cell reception! Benjamin Button will try to hike 36! Miles today to get as close as possible to Snoqualmie Pass, since he has to finish the PCT on the 3th or 4th of October.

BigBro also wants to hike a bit further in the beginning but then agrees to camp with us. We will arrive at Snoqualmie tomorrow as well but will still have to hike about 20 miles. But we will start very early in the morning to get there shortly after lunch time.

The afternoon hike is similar to the one in the morning. Up and down and up and down. The story of the PCT in Washington. We pass a lot of colorful, autumnal bushes and collect more berries.

When we arrive at camp, it is pitch dark and the ground is very muddy. BigBro has already pitched his tent and we have a little chat with him. And indeed, there is cell reception! When we check our phones, we find out that Kim Frost, Maya’s host mum from Canada (Maya did an exchange year during high school in Prince George, British Columbia) wrote to us to tell us she will pick us up in Manning Park, our arrival town in Canada! Kim and her husband Gary live in Campbell River on Vancouver Island now and we can stay with them for as long as we want! Wow, thank you so much Kim and Gary!

With a very grateful feeling and excitement of arriving at Snoqualmie Pass - another milestone for us and the third last stop on the PCT - tomorrow, we go to bed.

Miles 2273.1 to 2294.9. Mountain Panorama camp to Packwood.

We get up first, of course. First because we always get up first. Second because we are really excited to see Wizard.

We check every campsite for her tent. Her tent is the same as ours, but for two instead of three persons. It’s also one of the bestselling tents for long distance hiking. It so happens that in every campsite we pass there is an orange Big Agnes tent set up. Which doesn’t make our search for her any easier and less creepy as we crawl close to every tent to find out if she’s sleeping in it.

We see her tent on the last tentsite before Old Snowy. We already assumed that this is the one she would be camping at. Other hikers further down informed us that there are 3 hikers, 2 female and 1 male, camped up there. Wizard, TwoBeers and Nemo! We know all three of them and couldn’t be more excited to finally see them.

But they’re all asleep. We spot Benjamin Button who must have slept here too. We crawl up to Wizard’s tent whispering how we should surprise her. We slowly unzip her tent and there she is! Looking at us in surprise and with so much joy! And also a little tired… It doesn’t feel like it’s been three months since we last saw her. More like three days. But it feels so good! We missed her so much!

How strange is it to run into each other on this mountain in Washington in the end of September when the last time we saw each other was in Bishop, California, in June! We have so much catching up to do!

While she is getting up, we prepare coffee and enjoy the spectacular 360° views unfolding around us. There’s Mt Adams, Mt Saint Helens, Old Snowy. Is there Mt Rainier too? It’s hard to tell which mountain is which. But they sure are very impressive. We sit down and have a looong breakfast together. Talking about everything. She even carried a huge cookie and a bottle of CabSav with her all the way from White Pass to give to Dario as a belated birthday present. Nemo, TwoBeers and Benjamin Button soon join, followed by BigBro and Flat Earth when they eventually hike by.

We sit there from 8am to 12pm. 4 hours of talking, laughing, playing cards, taking pictures. Such good people. Wizard tells us that she will leave the trail in Cascade Locks and hopefully come back to finish the trail next year. This is totally understandable. As great as it is to hike in conditions like today, we all know how quickly it can change and become downright dangerous. The three of them then inform us about the upcoming detour. Right after Goat Rocks we will leave the PCT and get on a detour taking us straight into the town of Packwood. The PCT is once more closed due to fire. We realize that we have to get going eventually, as we still have about 18 miles ahead of us.

Saying goodbye is hard, but we know we will see Wizard again. We will visit her in Australia in February. And off we go. 5 minutes after we leave her we are walking through a snow field. The scenery behind it changes again dramatically. There is a valley we can’t see for there is so much fog in it. And the fog is leaving the valley on all sides, overflowing. It looks incredible. But this is also the valley we will be hiking in later today. Not so much fun…

After the snowfield we start our ascent on Old Snowy mountain. The PCT would take the easier route on the side of the mountain but it’s common for thruhikers to do the Knife’s Edge route following the mountain ridge on the top. It’s a hard, but short climb and when we reach the top we are really on top. On top of the world. The world lies at our feet. It’s all downhill from here. The horizon is endless. The mountains are high. But we are higher.

We take some pictures and movies. They look funny because we are in our shorts and t-shirts. It’s not too cold up here but it looks cold because there is snow all around us. It’s one of the best views we’ve had on this trail, if not the best. It’s a moment we will treasure forever.

The ridge walk turns out to be quite sketchy. There is a lot of wind now, and whenever we get lower we are hiking in fog and it’s really cold. We hike like this for another two hours before we reach the PCT closure and start our hike into Packwood. We have no idea what we’ll do when we get there. We know of a trail angel called Mama G but we have no cell reception to contact her to see if she has room for us. It sounds like the last 2 hours of the trail will be a road walk on a desolate road from where it will be highly unlikely to catch a ride. So we do what we can do at the moment - and hike.

It’s all downhill now, in the fog and so the scenery isn’t as spectacular as before anymore. But we are hiking through dense rain forest now, which is still pretty. We have to climb across a lot of fallen logs and the steepness doesn’t help much.

We reach the bottom after a couple more hours of hiking. There is a beautiful lake there called Packwood Lake. Can’t be far to Packwood now, can it? But we are wrong. After we’ve surrounded the lake we reach a dirt road and follow it for another 2 hours. We then reach a asphalted road which is very deserted. It’s dark by now and we are exhausted. My shoulders really ache and we don’t know what we’re hiking for. We have no place to stay in Packwood. We still have 6 miles of roadwalking to do until we reach it. We’ve just had the most amazing day but now it feels as though it might end up in a fiasco. Why not just set up camp here? Well, we’ve looked, but there is no space anywhere to set up camp. We see the town of Packwood far below but it looks big. How are we supposed to reach Mama G? We still have no reception and according to Guthooks we won’t get any once we’re in town. No AT&T network provided here.

We are really desperate by now, but are still hiking because it’s the only thing to do. Suddenly we hear a car come up. Come up? Why? There’s nothing here! Except for us! The car slows down even before we stretch our hands out to wave frantically. It stops next to us and we see Benjamin Button in the passenger’s seat. What the…? He looks relieved to see us and states that he contacted Mama G (he has a different network provider) and she had someone drive up here to look for him as well as potential other hikers. Benjamin Button of course knew that we must be somewhere behind him and once he was in the car he asked the driver to keep looking for us. Lucky for us they did! I have never been happier to see a car in my entire life!

The rest of the night is a blur because we are both so exhausted. We get in the car, drive over to Mama G’s. She fixes us up with a huge plate of pasta, lets us shower and makes up the bed for us. Benjamin Button is also sleeping here and it seems like BigBro made it to Packwood early enough to find a hotel. After the shower we both fall asleep instantly, not really grasping just how lucky we were tonight.

Miles 2244.3 to 2273.1. Killen Creek camp to Mountain Panorama camp.

It was a really cold night. I might have to order some additional clothes to stay warm soon. There’s morning dew on the meadow that I cross in the morning to wash our dishes. The water has frozen over night. The water is icy cold, just the perfect temperature to rinse our pots in! And there is Mount Adams there. All white. All pretty. What a special moment this is. The sky is cloudfree. It’s so quiet. Coach and BigBro are still asleep. We start hiking fast to get warm. It’s all downhill or straight terrain and when we stop for our sunny breakfast break after two hours we’ve already hiked 7 miles. That’s pretty good! And I just can’t get over how beautiful today is! No cloud in sight. We are so lucky. If it stays this way until Canada we will be the happiest people ever!

While we dry out are tents and sleeping bags in the sun we take a lengthy breakfast. But nobody catches up with us. We get going again, getting more and more excited about our approaching encounter with Wizard, and Goat Rocks Wilderness.

When we stop to collect water at a creek BigBro finally catches up. He is also in an excellent mood today! We pass him again later when he takes his lunch break in the sun. And he passes us again when we are having lunch in front of this spectacular panorama view. If only it would stay like this! We would hike until Alaska.

Later in the day we start approaching Cispus Pass. There is no camping before it so we think that Wizard might camp at the first camp spot behind Cispus Pass. I can’t even begin to describe the breathtaking scenery we are hiking in right now. Mountains, meadows, creeks and lakes. Sun. The sun is already quite low, the mountains carry all autumnal colors available and the mountain peaks are white. And we even spot some mountain geese!

Cispus Pass itself is quite hard to climb. It’s steep and rocky but we don’t let it slow us down. We practically run up the pass. After almost 29 miles of hiking today!

The other side of the pass is equally beautiful. We are really close to our campsite now. The sun has just set when we reach it. BigBro’s and Flat Earth’s tents are there. Flat Earth calls out to us saying that BigBro walked up to the next campsite to check whether Wizard is there. How sweet!

While we set up, BigBro comes back. He didn’t see Wizard but left her a note in case she’ll come in later. That way she will know that we are only camped 0.6 miles further south. We don’t think we’ll still see her tonight though. But that means we will bump into her tomorrow. And hike Knife’s Edge on Old Snowy in the Goat Rocks Wilderness. Today was bloody fantastic. How can tomorrow even surpass today?!

Miles to 2228.9 to 2244.3. Trout Lake to Killen Creek camp.

We sleep in. Hikerish for sleeping until 8am. The only morning shuttle back to trail leaves at 9am. Too bad we didn’t check that yesterday, because now we get in kind of a hurry. I pack and buy some sandwiches and huckleberry rolls for breakfast while Dario gets the tents at the community centre. We are just in time for the shuttle which is packed. Haven’t seen that many hikers in one spot in a while! The sky is blue, the sun is shining, it’s kind of cool outside, so it’s the perfect hiking weather! We get off the shuttle and eat a sandwich and a huckleberry roll for breakfast. Yummy, these are so delicious! It’s like cinnamon rolls, but with the local huckleberries we’ve been picking for days and days. And loads of icing on top, so tasty! At home I could never eat this, it’s probably got 1000 calories at home. But here, who cares. :-)

We are all standing at the trailhead, hesitating to get going. The ambience is good, relaxed, we’re all motivated. There’s BigBro, Coach, Flat Earth, Benjamin Button, and a SOBO called HappyFeet. Anticipation is in the air. Only 4 more resupply stops until Canada!!! It’s getting real. Suddenly someone storms out of the forest. It’s Sasquatch! The last time we’ve seen him was after Bend when he was just about to go into town. He looks beaten, exhausted, tired. He joins us and says “that’s it, I’m done. I quit.” We all stare at him, shocked, but also understanding. He had a tough, rainy night last night, while we slept in the comfort of our rooms. He looks relieved. Happy to be able to have come to a conclusion. He’s made it so far! I feel sad for him. But also jealous. I’ve thought about quitting a lot in the last couple weeks. And it’s the hardest thing to actually decide to go through with it. He puts his pack down and takes out his stove and starts making coffee. “Might has well have breakfast here while you’re all here.” We stay with him a little longer and eventually get going, back on trail. Back on this ass-kicking, yet amazingly beautiful trail.

And it is beautiful today. The forest is still wet, rain drops dripping from the plants and trees, but the sky is still as blue as ever. It starts with a slight uphill climb, after the forest we hike through a burnt area, and then we see Mt Adams. One of the famed Washington mountains. It’s covered in snow and very pretty. We keep seeing it all day, except for some time that he’s stuck behind some local fog. We will only do 15 miles today because there is supposed to be a great camp spot there, with a lovely waterfall and space for all of us. We’ll catch up on the miles soon…

When we reach the campsite it turns out that Benjamin Button and Flat Earth must have pushed on. But Coach and BigBro are here, getting started on a sweet campfire. We set up camp, then Dario joins the guys to make the fire. I am way too cold now to join in, but enjoy lying in my sleeping bag when it’s still light out. I can hear the waterfall nearby and the guys joking. Coach has an awesome Spotify playlist on. We feel great. We feel we are right where we are meant to be.

Hopefully our next couple of days stay rainfree, but it looks good according to the weather forecast. And we’re really excited for tomorrow as we will be reaching the beautiful Goat Rocks Wilderness. And we’ve also been in touch with Wizard, our Australian friend we hiked with back in the desert, and she’s skipped up north to hike south a while ago. And tomorrow is very likely the day we will run into each other. So many things to look forward to!

Miles 2147.1 to 2162.1. Cascade Locks to woods camp.

We caught up way until after hikers midnight last night. So we sleep in, take showers, eat spaghetti leftovers for breakfast, write some emails, pack our stuff. And are ready by 11am. We stayed about 2 miles away from the Bridge of Gods across the Columbia river, which is the state between Oregon and Washington. And every aspiring thruhiker knows this bridge. It‘s a big milestone. Even for us who skipped the last 49 miles to get here. It‘s also known among normal people who read the book „Wild“ by Cheryl Strayed. Or watched the correspondent Hollywood movie with Reese Witherspoon starring. 

We don‘t want to hike the 2 miles of course because they are of the kind that don‘t count. So let‘s try hitching on this rather rural street. But we were lucky yesterday when we went grocery shopping so let‘s try again. And again, the first car stops and takes us directly to the Bridge of the Gods. It‘s a big deal walking across it. It‘s rather long, it‘s high up with beautiful views on both  sides. We are not really in a hurry since we only want to do about 10 miles this afternoon. We take our time, take pictures and take in the change of states. We made it to Washington. 

We know Dario and I, unlike BigBro, didn‘t do the whole thing. But sometimes we have to remind ourselves that we still hiked more than 1700 miles and have been living trail life for 115 days now. It’s more than we ever dared to think about. So crossing this bridge, it’s a big deal.

And Washington, from the start, isn’t making this easy. We’re back in the woods, it‘s going uphill, it‘s going uphill fast and we realize that the altitude on our app has again been adjusted to match the terrain. A steep mountain on the app is a steep mountain in Washington. Here we go. 

After about 40 minutes Dario realizes that he must have dropped his sunglasses. He turns around while I wait for him. BigBro is long gone by now. He finally comes back 35 minutes later, completely out of breath, having run the whole way back again, down and back up the mountain. At least he found the sunglasses again.

We meet BigBro out on a clearing where we decided to have lunch before and just when we start eating our couscous, it starts raining. We eat very quickly and start moving again, putting the rain covers back on our packs. And off we are again. Not exactly the most relaxed lunch break, but that‘s what it will be like from now on. We have to adjust to the weather and take our breaks when it‘s not raining. The trail leads further uphill, and our tentsite will be on top of that mountain. We are very focused now to reach it soon and hope it stops raining soon.

It does stop raining very soon and the sky is beautifully clear, but when we reach our campsite we find out it‘s already taken and there is no room for both our tents - which is why BigBro probably went on. We keep hiking straight for another mile, it‘s dark now, when we finally see a flashlight and hear BigBro calling out to us. He found some flat ground but there‘s not enough room for both tents. We are in pretty dense and steep forest and it‘s hard to find a large enough area, but we encounter one eventually and set up our tent in the light of our flashlights. It‘s nice to have company tonight in this very remote and dark forest. Our first night in Washington, and with new and functional inflatable pillows. Yay! Dario and I will get up early tomorrow to cover some ground before BigBro gets up. We will try to do 22 miles every day now so that BigBro will reach the Canadian border in time for his flight. We are aiming for the 6th of October. 

The sky is clear now, but the trees are still wet and keep dropping down on our tent. A ground sound to fall asleep to.