Day 117: The Final Stretch.

September 4th, 2021

Mile Marker: 2592.4

Miles Hiked Today: 20

We woke up this morning planning to catch the 8 am shuttle ride back to the PCT trailhead. We had minimal time to finish getting everything together, make a small breakfast, and board the bus.

The bus ride back out to the trail was drastically different than when we took it in. This time it was loaded with hikers eager for the final stretch.

The bus did its usual stop at the bakery. We all filed out, bought and ate an insane amount of goodies, and filed back onto the bus within 20 minutes.

We then were all amped up on sugar and excitement. It felt like we were on a school field trip. Riding the bus, excited to be out of school and going somewhere new.

This was it! The final stretch to the Canadian border that we have been walking to all summer!

When we arrived most of us found a spot to finish eating our bakery items and then headed out for the day. I couldn’t help myself so yes, I got another cinnamon roll the size of my face. 😁

We were planning for a 20 mile day which we were excited for. It would be the least amount of miles we have hiked in a while.

It was well deserved. None of us felt rushed, we could take all the time we needed today.

The baked goods had us feeling lethargic and the first 10 miles took us over 5 hours to complete. We took many stops and ended up stopping for a lunch break 2 hours in.

Shortly after, we ran across a huge tree that we had to take a picture with.

The terrain was a nice, steady, gradual uphill for majority of the day through the forest.

In the afternoon I heard loud branches being snapped off to my left and spotted a black bear. I immediately stopped to watch him. He looked up and stared at us for a second and then turned around and darted down the mountain. He was adorable. I wish we could pet them!

Towards the evening we hit a highway that we were going to camp next to.

Journey and I had thought there was going to be water present at the nearby campground and went looking for it. We had no such luck so we decided to ask some of the day hikers if they knew where water was in the area.

We ended up asking 2 ladies and they said they didn’t think there was any and asked if we were PCT hikers. We let them know that we were. They were so excited and offered us their water.

They claimed that they were heading home and didn’t need it. We walked with them back to their car and talked a bit about the PCT. They also gave us their leftover snacks to enjoy!

We couldn’t thank them enough! Its always been said on trail, the trail provides.

The evening just kept getting better too. We walked .2 down the road and ended up seeing Susie and Eric for the 3rd time providing trail magic for us!!

I was so excited to be able to see them again. Susie had a big smile on her face when she saw us and gave us a big bear hug.

What wonderful people. They had their lovely bean and rice and tortilla chips for us. Plus some veggies and bread. It was just what we needed.

As we were leaving I asked them to take a picture with us and Susie goes to the back of the van and starts grabbing something. She then comes out and says, “For the special people who we get to see 3 times, they get a soda.” And follows it with a smirk on her face “There are no favorite children.”

We busted up laughing. She was an absolute hoot.

We hiked a few minutes down the road to a camp spot and while we were eating second dinner a man comes over with a pizza box and asked us if we wanted it! He told us that he was unable to eat it and didn’t want it to go to waste.