2,663 miles, +8 to road – Welcome to Canada, eh!!!

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Countdown leading up to our arrival…

Sunday, September 12, 2010

“Grrrrmmmmph. Me neither!” I replied.

To our surprise, there was no rain dancing on our tent Monday morning. We crawled out of our bags around 5:30am and started our normal routine of breaking down camp a wee bit earlier than usual as butterflies did loops and lunges in our stomachs.

What was not part of our routine was the trail magic we were privy to at Harts Pass (the last roadway to cross the trail before Canada). When we arrived at this pass the night before, we were excited to see fellow hiker and trail magic extraordinaire, Serpent Slayer, grilling up double cheeseburgers with grilled onions for all of us crazy hikers. He thought of EVERYTHING we could possibly need including a shelter, warm/dry clothes, and green olives (ok, I didn’t need them per se but they were gooood). At this point we had come together with 7 other thru-hikers – Comet, Flash, Dreams, Hurricane, Lone Ranger, and, of course, Milksheikh and Cliffhanger. We celebrated our second to last full 30 mile day of hiking by sharing stories around a fire.

Monday, September 13, 2010

In the morning, the magnificent Serpent Slayer made us blueberry pancakes before we set out on our last full day of hiking – 31 miles to the Canadian border. The sun streaked its golden rays as it rose over the steep Northern Cascades. We couldn’t of asked for a more gorgeous day as we climbed and descended these majestic mountains for the last time.

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After I reached a ridge on the trail and started to follow the hillside, tears dripped down my face.  Swift turned back to me and smiled as he whispered what we both were just realizing, “Those are Canadian Mountains.”

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We had our last snack break with Cliffhanger and Milksheikh on the top of a ridgeline before making our final 8 mile descent to the border. “I think this is our best snack spot on the trail,” Cliffhanger commented.

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As we descended, I smiled at our friends. Cliffhanger was teaching Milksheikh the Canadian national anthem (Cliffhanger is from Buffalo, NY and used to sing both anthems at the start of sporting events – a fact we all learned two weeks prior).

“Ohhh Canada…” I hear Milksheikh practicing up ahead and giggle. Swift and I walk together a ways back, simply in awe at what was happening.

The countdown began. “5.2 miles from this creek… 3.8 from this pass… 2.2 from this campsite…” and then…

“Look!! There is the border!” Swift shouted.

Up ahead you could see the cut out treeline dividing the US and Canada. We hollered and our fellow thru-hiking buddies responded in the distance. I started the last switchbacks down to the terminus. The vision I have been dreaming about for the past five months was about to become a reality.

As I followed the last bend of the trail, I saw the Northern Terminus of the Pacific Crest Trail and all our fellow hikers taking pictures of my expression as I walked up. I turned to see Swift following close behind. He immediately wrapped his arms around me and we both started to cry tears of joy.

We did it! We hiked the entire Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada, 2663.5 miles!  We are physically exhausted but mentally we have never been stronger.

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So much more to come! We are currently traveling back to the US.

~ Buckeye