5th October 2013
No miles
To all my readers who have been following my blog over the last 5.5 months i want to first thank you all for reading it, and apologise for my erratic behaviour over the last few weeks. I have no doubt that the quality of what i have been writing over the last few weeks has suffered greatly as a result the emotional rollercoaster i have been riding since i got back on trail at White Pass. I don't tend to articulate my feelings well at the best of times, and have really struggled to keep up the entries while the events the past couple of weeks unfolded. In a month or two i will try and re-write some of them, but for the moment all i can do is apologise and hope you understand.
After a lazy morning Peter Pan, Hoop Dreams, Dishcloth and myself packed up or stuff and checked out of the motel. They were all headed north into Canada for a few days, and i was headed back to Seattle before continuing back down to San Diego, from where a new adventure would begin for me (more on this later). Yesterday i had bumped into Bob and Kelley, Jess' parents, at Manning Park who were there to meet Jess as she came of the trail. Being the wonderful people that they are they immediately offered me a ride back to Seattle so all i had to do was hitch back across to Manning Park and meet up with them. Hitch complete i was back in the lobby of the lodge milling about and chatting to various family members of hikers that were due in that evening. It was here that i bumped into Chosen One, and had my all my plans turned on their head. Chosen one had hiked on his own from Hart's Pass through waist deep snow to finish his PCT odyssey and was close to tears as he came to terms with it all. He had broken trail for 3 days in waist deep snow all on his own in an attempt to get to the monument i time to meet up with a friend who had been filming him all the way up. His friend, whose name i forget, told me that they were headed back to Winthrop that evening and that I'd be welcome to join them if i wanted a ride. As he said this i decided my PCT was not quite over. One reason i had decided that it was over was that logistically it would have been a nightmare to get back to Winthrop, from where i could continue hiking south to connect the dots from Rainy Pass to Snoqualamie Pass and finally finish my hike from Mexico to Canada. These guys however, had just provided me with a way to get some real closure. Right from outset my goal has always been to hike a continuous line from Mexico to Canada, not worrying too much if i missed little bits of the PCT as long as a line of footprints remained intact. From Snoqualamie Pass, i skipped first up to White Pass and the Dinsmore's, and then up to Winthrop and Rainy Pass from where i hiked into Canada. So in order to connect the dots i would need to road walk over 200 miles, a daunting prospect, but there and then i resolved to do it. Before heading back down to the US a big group arrived from the border including Jess and Hercules, and also Goldielocks and Frosty. They all looked totally done in by their experience out in the snow, but i was thoroughly jealous. Seeing them finish successfully hardened my resolve to do the road miles and finally finish the PCT. Having said goodbye to everyone, Chosen One, his friend, Rafiki and myself started the long drive south to the border arriving back at the Winthrop hostel sometime just after 3am. i was unbelievably tired when i finally climbed into and fell asleep almost instantly content to at last being on course to finish my continuous hike from Mexico to Canada.
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