Day 156 : Canada

3rd October 2013
May Creek to Canada
Mileage : 27

Today i hiked from the USA into Canada. My day started late as i only had about 25ish miles to the border and knew i would make it before dark. Eventhough i didn't get moving til 9am i didn't see anyone come past me, which i thought was weird. I didn't see anyone all day as i made my way through the forest towards the border until finally appearing almost right on the border to find a back country ranger, and a pair of hikers Two Bad Dogs, that i hadn't seen since Tehachapi. The three of them told me the only hikers they'd seen were Cuddles and Atlas who were about an hour ahead of me, so i guessed all the others were behind me, which was plausible given how late i hiked the night before. The ranger told me the border was technically closed, but seemed totally perturbed that i would cross anyway. I continued up a gravel road to the head of Ross Lake and the border, and crossed into Canada at 6:30pm. The crossing was decidedly nondescript, with just one sign saying i was crossing an international boundary and that was it. The whole experience was weirdly anticlimatic. On the other side of the crossing sat Aloha who had driven almost 400 miles to pick up hikers crossing the border. After a few congratulatory hugs he explained what had happened with the rangers at the road the day before, and it was not good. The rangers had indeed been there to stop us hikers from crossing the border, and i was the last of only 5 hikers to make it through. I felt gutted for the others, to have gotten all the way from Mexico to Rainy Pass and then get turned back  30 miles from the border. On the way back to Hope, where PRT was staying we passed Cuddles and Atlas road walking out from the border into Canada. These two were determined to hike from monument to monument, and so had another 50 more road miles to do to get back to the actual PCT monument, i though was content to have just made it to Canada, and had no intention of hiking a step farther into Canada than was absolutely necessary. A while later i met up with Diahcloth, Peter Pan and Hoopdreams in the motel they'd gotten in order to find out their plans. They had decided not to go back qjd do any road walking, so for them the PCT was over. For me though, i was in two minds. A large part of me was totally done with the PCT, the emotional and physical rollercoaster which i had endured over the previous 10 days had taken its toll.on me, and i had little to no desire to hike even one more mile of the PCT. But another, much smaller part of me knew that i would regret not hiking those final road miles, regardless of the pain would entail. I tried ti put i from my mind and had a few beers with the others reminiscing about our adventure over the last 5 months. Falling asleep that night i tried to feel pour of my accomplishment, but that feeling didn't really surface. Mostly i felt robbed and drained, robbed of the feeling of accomplishment that i should have been feeling and drained of any emotion with which to feel robbed. I mostly just felt tired. It was not the end that i had envisaged.