Episode 35: THE END

it's like before you just soak up and see Bagas way see the list coming in right there sit down folks good my sleeping bag is not quite so it's just damp pretty much everything else I have it sent including the compactor contractor bag that I keep my sleeping bag in here so I just don't really trust I know it's gonna continue this all-day training so I don't really trust that it'll be dry enough to stay warm tonight and I can I mean I'm sure if I can you're gonna be fine but then climb into sleep but it's gonna suck worse see hypothermia and die as far as I knew from the forecast I do have to get to Canada so check in all these ears not even finished so not throw about this I'm sitting here like second-guessing myself like sure if you turn around going to town but I know that should cuz anybody got no business being out and 20 to 30 degree weather no Wesley oh so if today was a day that was gonna be sunny I would just hike until that point and then pay my stuff out to dry for lunch or something but I don't think the sun's gonna show its face today so I reckon I'm doing the right thing still looking earning we get to Canada damn somehow in hell or high water raining so we make it [Music] so after I got to the room and I pulled out my sleeping bag I realized it was it was pretty pretty sopping wet but I put it in the dryer fluffed it up and now it's got more loft than its had in a while so it was really a good call from my part to pull the plug and come back and you know even though I've lost a couple days now I could have potentially lost my life right so it's totally worth four extra days so I talked to another through hiker who has a z-pack duplex at the hotel he was telling me that I may have had an issue with my scent the other night in the rain because of the way that I set it up so he said you know you have to watch how the bathtub is positioned which makes sense I mean it was the same thing when I had the Big Agnes five creaky all to I had to make sure that I set it up properly the fly and all because otherwise it was basically pointless and wood soaking I think that there's a chance that I had my pack leaned up against the bathtub so it was actually collecting rainwater because it may have been pushed out further past like what you would call the fly or the wall of the tent well I was sleeping so that's the problem and then also definitely I mean the air was just so wet and you could see moisture flying in this hint when I woke up and found everything wet so definitely going to be more cautious of that if I do run into rain again I would hopefully I won't but and then just I took the precaution of also taping the seam on the top of the tent I don't think that that's what it wasn't like I said I couldn't pinpoint any leaks or anything like that um so I don't think I don't think that was the problem but better safe than sorry so I just double taped the seam just as a precaution but I don't know I just hope that that doesn't happen again much [Music] the other day you can hardly see anything and now three birdies [Music] so this here is the kind of Kindle catwalk and yeah you could not see any [Music] goodness gracious that's where it was home sweet home I just passed this lady went southbound and her name's is Brazil nut and she is on the last trail this VCG going southbound working on her double-double Triple Crown that is insane so she'll be I think the second woman to double the triple crown which is just amazing talking to her and asking her you know we've done all three trails and from us all of them twice now so which is your favorite and she made a really good point she said what do you like more though shouldn't are the mountains why can't you just enjoy them both and I was like I know like all the trails it's like comparing apples to oranges and she said you know you hold on to your first experience which for me and for her was the Appalachian Trail but she said you know even though you remember that experience even if you go back and do that same trail it's never gonna be the same right cuz it's different and she said it's all about enjoying the beauty of every day and just being in the moment for whatever it is and well she's right um you know I've been one on the part days out here to dwell on you know home is the camaraderie of 80 artists you know this part of even this trailer or whatever but the point is you know can't dwell in the past because you're never gonna have it back things are never gonna be exactly as they were yesterday because it's a different day it's a new moment in a new experience and you just have to be willing to accept that and to be excited about the present and what the future holds so gosh I just love running people like that back in the clouds again I'll take it I'll take the clouds as long as Mother Nature doesn't decide to pee on me I remember being a little girl and folks always saying you know don't leave your head in the clouds and you know what y'all I promise the cold and gots my mind it made me a crazy person yeah I thought maybe if I sang to the Sun she'd come back out but no lookit you are my sunshine my only son you make me happy when skies are gray doo-doo-doo it comes the Sun and I said it's alright dude hallelujah I stopped the strike I don't know that it rained last night at all but still I was waking up like every few hours and like my tent I'm touching my sleeping bag luckily dry as bone putting on soppy wet shoes is worse but luckily at least my socks were dragged because I've right now I'm carrying three pairs of socks my sleeping socks that are like real thick and then one pair of and gingi ankle socks and one pair of darn tough ankle socks so hopefully it looks like the sun's gonna shine some today so I'll hang the darn tough socks on the outside of my pack and maybe they'll be dry by tomorrow morning so I can put on dry socks again even if my shoes are wet I mean I know that your socks end up wet anyway from your wet shoes but for some reason it's just like it feels better to put on dry socks and then put your foot into a wet shoe then put on wet socks I would have never taken that many zeros if it hadn't been for just a horrible weather that was coming through and you know all of the locals kept saying like I'll just wait it out you know after these next few days the weather is supposed to be nice and honestly should have taken another zero because you know what happened and everything I would have been better off doing that but you know I get antsy normally I can do about one zero and then I'm itching to get back on trail so especially this close to the end so likely well not zero and uh Stevens Pass and Leavenworth or that's taheke n if I get there before the shuttle to Stehekin so I can beat more bad weather there is barely anybody out here these days and I'm so confident that nobody's gonna come by cuz I just never seen anybody out here anymore that I'm pretty much having lunch right here on the trail although nothing is completely soaked except my socks I'm letting everything air out to try to get the dampness out of it since I got a little bit of sunlight to work with I see you frog but gonna play dead get off the trail for somebody kills you I'm gonna come and step right on you there you go you look like a koala bear and a mouse had a baby yeah means my serve on crazy so the my stood there a tent stole some of these shoelaces none of my things were damaged you said you could hear him running over the top of y'alls yeah they were climbing up the mesh of mine too like looking in I flicked one off at one boy I can't twist and most people that I've camped boys than like forever last night there were four other people and in talking to them this morning there was a couple there and they are the ones that had to turn back twice to go back to Snoqualmie Pass and so talk to them about that and and apparently they knew several other people who had to do the same thing and some had to get up and go in the middle of the night because they got soaked that quickly so and then I passed ended up passing a fella that I know from the 80 from 2015 um and he was heading south yesterday he did like a flip-flop and he said that from Stephens past which is where I'm heading right now huh the people did the same thing including him so it was crazy how many people had to end up turning around and heading back because of that storm and I'm just really thankful that I wasn't in the middle of the stretch and then I was close enough to town although I don't love the snow it is useful for leaving hiker techs I have a new hiking buddy today I finally got serviced last night where I was camped and park was aiming to make it to town yesterday afternoon um so this last section was slow going for him also he also said that before he got word first from some people that I camped near it I guess you know passed by him that morning that uh he was psychologically prepared to come back and find my body so that's that's it's pretty crazy honestly I was pretty worried about him also you know it was like well if you didn't come back to town when I did then obviously he didn't get wet and he's fine or he's dead right so um I know that sounds absolutely horrible but I mean the snow and the rain and the cold and the wet and freezing temperatures and hypothermia it's really nothing to play around with so um and I'm telling y'all miss Washington uh rain and cold it's way different than like Smoky Mountain cold or else I've just gotten soft I don't know but anyway luckily uh neither our port perk Nora I have two more on each other hey this place out I found a perk Washington in Leavenworth and here's like you know we're all like oh wow this looks like miniature golf but legit and then there's a goat in the middle of town I guess this is how they cut the grass [Music] just got done with my second-to-last recently I'm not sure how much of a resupply sticky can we'll offer but I really don't care honestly the less options the better at this point because I don't want to eat any of it really anyway I mean there are some things I'm excited about still but I'm leaning more and more towards like junk and cookie to straight sugar rather than even trying to be healthy anymore [Music] I knew that blueberries could be so photogenic so there's something that I don't really mentioned yet but I'm pretty excited about and that is I have a bracelet that I wear on this wrist you can't even see it anymore but it's got the coordinates of Katahdin Mount Katahdin in there which is the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail and so I have one just like it except it has different numbers and that is the coordinates for the northern terminus of the Pacific Crest Trail so I've carried it with me all this way and I figure when I get to the monument I've earned it and I'll get to put it on so pretty pretty thrilled about that it's been a long hard year and for six months whatever and I'll be really excited and feel really good when I have accomplished two-thirds of the Triple Crown and I get to put that bracelet on tomorrow is supposed to get rainy and gross initials for snow yesterday was nice today it's beautiful this doesn't remind you of The Sound of Music they're just wrong [Music] [Music] it's crazy to see what a beautiful day it is today and to know that it's gonna be just awful tomorrow the weather does look daunting but right now we're just gonna focus on the task at hand which is make it to so he can between this section and Stehekin there really is no places to bail out so if you get stuck between two higher peaks because you've already come over some and then you know it snows just dumps a bunch and you can't get over the next one so stressing out a little bit about that but perk and I are sticking together through the stretch so that's nice there's actually a couple the ones who had to go back twice interesting to call me because of the bad weather actually quit they just decided they were done with the weather and I don't know when you see somebody quit this late in the game you know it's just like it messes with your mind a little bit but uh Burke and I are feeling strong and we're just ready for Canada the other morning I was looking up out of my tent and I noticed that I had several little bitty holes in the wall of it and I was gonna just patch them but there was a section hiker who's done like a thousand miles on the trail this year asked me if I wanted to borrow his tent until the end instead of worrying that patching it wouldn't work or you know hold that because there's supposed to be bad in the stretch so that's what it did swapped him tints it's kind of scary too to swap somebody attend that's late in the game but I didn't have a chance to contact Z packs you know being out here and I won't really have time for them to send me some repair tape and to deal with all this logistics so I had to make a decision on the fly so right now I'm borrowing a Nemo tent which I've never used one of those before but it's very similar to my Big Agnes Fly Creek you well too so hopefully that was a good decision and we'll see if it gets me through to the end [Music] [Music] every day me and her you wanna go pay another day so bringing me it's cold it's wet it's miserable and it's raining it was snowing earlier but trying to stay in good ish spirits the rain has chilled out it's still kind of currently raining but we're up under these trees so don't try to cook some lunch while there's like a slight window of opportunity even though I'm not necessarily starving right now but days like this year you eat when you can and the snack bank is running a little low knowing that there was bad why they're coming I really should have planned for lunches that I didn't have to cook but hindsight's 20/20 and there's what it is now yesterday just before stopping for camp uh had a no five mile hill or so and on that hill oh I was getting warm not sweatin you know but warm and so I kept taking my hood from my raincoat and flipping it back and I decided that was a good idea it's cool myself off it was raining on me and everything wet my hair but in the moment it felt kind of good well I like to never got warm last night but I finally got to camp I mean I was freezing on that two-mile ridge walk and then yeah trying to dry my hair out warm up was just nearly impossible it was still kind of damp this morning so not making that mistake today I've got like seven more miles about pill left and then I think like a half a mile down hill or something to where I'm gonna camp and uh I will not be taking this off it might be a little damp with sweat but it will not be soaked with cold rain so just a little something to keep in mind if you're hiking in really cold weather and it's raining Oh this is my favorite part of the day getting in my tent and eating dinner and going to sleep I'm ready to be done hopefully you're gonna make itjust he can tomorrow - there's a bus that picks up at the ranger station and that means I have to do 20.9 miles by 5:30 which lately has not been happening but most of tomorrow is downhill so if I can make myself get out of this tent at a decent time in the morning maybe I'll be alright but hopefully get over this last little bit in the morning before it gets too crazy but and then I'll have to check the weather once I get to sneak in and get some service or Wi-Fi or something but anyway I'm gonna go wash dishes and brush my teeth and go [Music] [Music] [Music] seeing all the little tracks and trying to you know guess what they are that might be like a shitload or squirrel and that's probably a percolator if this thing says cloudy past then we're exactly 100 miles from Canaday park would you see what it says to us the honors exactly 100 miles from here to the Canadian border just ran into a southbounder who while in sahih kent said he heard word that today was supposed to be snowy and rainy but the rest of the week should be nice and now son but Park and I have been running all day trying to catch the 5:30 shuttle that goes from a dirt road to stay he can and from what I understand Stephens a funny little town apparently you can only get there by the shuttle by ferry across the lake by foot it's like 2:30 now so I think we're gonna make it but has been kind of stressful and as hard as it was to try to get out of the tent this morning with it being rainy and snowy and just everything wet I'm proud of us oh goodness we're almost there just getting this these nice people took us here so we didn't have to wait for the bus now we just hope they have a vacancy this is what a hiker room looks like oh hey when everything gets all yeah when everything's also didn't you're trying to get everything all packed up it's bad stuff strode everywhere but things are mostly dry it's so crazy when I got on the bus to get shuttled here back to Highbridge ranger station um there was a guy on the bus named Joe that I haven't seen since the desert and then I just ran into a girl she's about to go into steak and named patchwork that I haven't seen since Warner Springs for my birthday um so it's just so crazy like I haven't seen these people for weeks and weeks months you know and then suddenly here they appear at the end of the trail and that's just the way the trail works it's it's pretty crazy recharge his batteries got everything dried out and yeah I'm ready I've actually never been so excited to leave a town but I'm actually excited to get back on trail and to walk this out and it looks like the weather should be better oh here we go this here is the chicken pot pie mushroom I don't really know but that's not looks like I kind of hope it's not raining but at this point I don't really care the point is the finish line is happening regardless because even if I were to fall down and break my leg at this point I'll just drag myself there I was reaching the top of a climb and looked up and then I see this umbrella coming towards me it wasn't raining at the time so I was like what in the world and then the person lowers umbrella and is heading southbound towards me and says is this the way to Mexico and it's looking in a second for it to register my mind was like does not compute but it was mayor and he had come out here finished the trail with me in pert so mayor came from the CDT he was kind of waiting on the snow out there to see what it was going to do but it just kept jumping and dumping he brought like bacon pork loin and steaks and asparagus I think it's just really gonna add more to these last few days definitely surprised us and we're excited to heaven to the finish line it's my last day of my PCT thru-hike 11.9 miles to Canada I can easily say without a doubt that the PCT is the hardest thing that I have ever accomplished in my life I don't know if that's just because the Sierra Nevada this year had raging rivers and treacherous passes with all of the snowpack that it accumulated the winter before and then all the logistics with the fires but I think through it you know I learned more perseverance for miles I learned to try to find the sunny side of you know any little thing that I could even on the horrible days you know I made sure to actually enjoy the good moments does it feel good to be honest done or sad or look at the weather is out of it sometimes thing you envision of how they will go I can tell you it's not always as planned right and you just have to make the most of it how do you feel earlier today I said it felt like another day but it kind it doesn't feel real but I'm getting a little excited now it's actually I'm gonna happen pretty excited sometimes you just have to take what life gives you and just realize that not everything's gonna be perfect but the dead government sometimes it's close enough even though I didn't beat the snow and I didn't read the weather to Canada somehow I made it and well this has been an amazing experience and a very challenging one but I did it I imagine this is less graceful than you imagined at some point you don't care you're just happy to be done finishes better than her [Music] exciting the second time I'm starting to finally believe that it's over I'm done I'm done I I through hiked the PCT this year completed every single open mile of trail and it feels absolutely amazing yes we suppose it does twist it does Swiss yeah you

Channel: Homemade Wanderlust

Views: 171,618

Keywords: travel, hiking, backpacking, hike, gear, adventure, fun, story, PCT, thru-hike, Auburn, Alabama, epic, Appalachian, Trail, climbing, canyon, national, nature, mountains, update, park, lake, trail, tents, camping, summer, University, Aubie, River, stream, Mountains, National, Scenic, PCT 2017, Washington, Snow, Ice, Canada, Nemo, Zpacks

Id: MQ6QjQWp95A

Length: 37min 43sec (2263 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 18 2017