August 29, 2016

Mosquito Flat Trailhead to Ruby Lake

Miles: approx 3 (plus 6 hour drive from LA to Mammoth)

We woke up at 5 am. Laurie couldn’t move. We haven’t had sufficient sleep for 2 nights in a row.

We were on the road by 6:30. The ride up to Mammoth was easy, we slept (well Laurie slept, Andy tried but couldn’t get comfortable), uploaded more blog posts and looked out the window. It was nice riding in the Super Shuttle with more room than an average car.

We got to Mammoth at 11:30 and picked up our resupply boxes from Motel 6. They have been sitting there since early June. We also got a literary care package from Laurie’s cousin. Thank you Sophie and Suzanne!

We found a park and set up our usual feast. In Stehekin we emailed Andy’s parents a list of the food we were craving and Shushan and Greg did a wonderful job preparing it all.

Big Red, someone we met on the trail near Mojave, lives in Mammoth and joined us. We told him our plan to get back to VVR and he provided suggestions that were more direct.

We gratefully appreciated all of the info and suddenly we had saved ourselves a day and would get to explore a new area.

At 4 pm we were dropped off at the Mosquito Flat Trailhead. We said our goodbyes and shouldered our heavy packs. Leftovers + bear cans + 5 days of food makes for heavier than usual packs. But we were only walking 3 miles.

We slowly made our way up to Ruby Lake. We were happy to be back in the Sierras. The granite walls and yellow and green valleys felt so familiar. We were home.

We were not so fond of the “Sierra steps” however. With heavy packs each large step up took a great deal of effort. We felt like we hadn’t hiked in months. We felt stuffed, slow and sleepy.

We got to the lake around 5:30 and set up the tent. Andy immediately fell asleep without even inflating his pad. 

After two hours he woke up and we enjoyed leftovers for dinner (bell peppers stuffed with quinoa, tofu, spinach and feta cheese) and gluten free oatmeal raisin cookies for dessert (thanks Tommy and Ali!! – we saved some of the goodies you sent us for this leg 😉

Tonight we feel grateful for time with family and for sleeping under the stars.

August 27 & 28, 2016

Bellingham to Seattle to Glendale, Ca

Miles: 0 

We woke up around 7:30. We both felt confined in the bleached sheets and overly tucked in blankets. These days we sleep best on our air pads in our tent. 

Within 30 minutes of waking our stomachs started to growl. We walked to the shopping center across the street and were lured into a restaurant by their hearty servings and gluten free toast.

And you will never believe what is in that same shopping mall….. Another REI. We took a picture just for the fun of it but never went inside (they weren’t open yet and we couldn’t think of anything that we needed.)

After a filling breakfast we wandered around the grocery store trying to decide what we wanted for lunch. 

It was overwhelming. 

There were so many choices. The only thing we knew we didn’t want were more nuts. We left with 2 local peaches and the intention to return later to buy lunch and breakfast for the next day.

Check out time was noon so we lounged around, tried watching a movie and sorted through our belongings. We had to discard lighters and gather everything that needed to be checked. 

Unfortunately trekking poles can’t be carried on so we put all of our sharp objects and liquids in Andy’s pack to be checked in.

At noon we walked to the grocery store with the intention of buying a rotisserie chicken. On the way we walked by Pho 99 – a Vietnamese restaurant – and were lured inside with thoughts of large bowls of vermicelli noodles and Pho.

When ordering the waitress asked if we wanted a small or large bowl of Pho.

“Extra large please” Andy replied with a smile. “We need to stay hydrated.”

The food was delicious and we happily ate everything.

We then went over to the supermarket to get breakfast for the following morning. We ended up with granola, a bag of chips, yogurt and a bag of gluten free ginger snaps. 

Very healthy huh? 

You would never know that Andy is a nutritionist.

As we were paying Laurie noticed a buy one get one free sale on Talenti ice cream. “Should we?”

“Nah, we don’t have a way to keep it cold. And we don’t have a rewards card so we won’t get the deal.”

“We have reward cards for visitors” replied the cashier. “If you want the ice cream I will wait for you.”

“We don’t want to hold up the line, we will think about it” responded Andy.

It didn’t take more than a minute to decide that we wanted ice cream. Roman Raspberry and Tahitian Vanilla Bean are our current favorites.

We finally left the grocery store and walked 2.5 miles to the greyhound station. It was a nice walk near Western Washington University and down through the cute downtown of Fairhaven.

We ate ice cream on the benches of the Greyhound station waiting for our bus and wondering how they stay in business. The station desk was closed and we had no way of getting our tickets from will call.

“This happens all the time. Who knows if they will come back today. They’ve been in and out all day. Just tell the bus driver and show him your confirmation email and you should be good to go” said Dave, the very helpful Amtrak employee.

Even our bus driver was upset when he pulled in and saw no one there. He clearly needed something and was unable to get it.

Now we know better. Amtrak has buses too and we’ll look to them first when we need a lift.

The ride to Seattle was uneventful. Most of the time our heads were buried in our phones trying to upload the previous 10 days worth of blog posts. 

When Andy took off his shoes we both remembered that we did need something from REI – socks! We have new shoes waiting for us in LA but most of Andy’s socks have holes. 

Man! We could have bought new socks this morning. Oh well!

Andy’s college friend James picked us up from the Greyhound station and we went to have clam chowder for dinner. 

As we walked around the Pike Street Market James asked if we needed anything.  Laurie joked that we needed to go to REI. Turns out we were only 5 minutes away. 

Two REI’s in two different cities in one day – this is getting a little crazy!

The REI in Seattle is the flagship store and a little overwhelming. And the Labor Day sale was on, making it doubly overwhelming. 

We stayed laser focused, got what we needed and got out.

James was gracious to let us crash at his place for the night. We chatted for about an hour and went to bed around 10. 

We had a super early morning and wanted to make sure we got enough sleep so we don’t get sick on this last leg.

—

Sunday morning came too early. Our alarms went off at 3:45. James very graciously took us to the airport. We were amazed at how many people were there at 4:45 on a Sunday morning. Then again it is the end of summer. And apparently we aren’t the only ones chasing deals. 

We slept on the flight and the rest of the day was a blur. We ate, consolidated all the extra gear we have at Andy’s parents house, sorted food, picked up our bear cans, visited more family and again worked on editing and uploading the blog posts.

We even managed to dehydrate leftover gluten free pasta and food from Andy’s aunt and uncle’s restaurant Mini Kabob. We both love their food and have been fantasizing about whether it would be possible to dehydrate their chicken kabob, rice and grilled tomatoes. Why not?

Our time in LA always seems to go by so quickly. It wasn’t until 11 pm that we finally went to sleep.

We’re full and tomorrow morning will be another early one, but it’s all worth it because we will get back to the trail before our bodies think we’re done hiking and start hurting.

Tonight we are grateful for good friends and delicious home cooked food.

—–

August 26, 2016
Hopkins Lake (mile 2643.7) to Manning Park, BC

Miles: 15.2 (6.4 PCT miles + 8.8 miles to Manning Park)

Our total miles: 2243.8

At some point we finally stopped caring about the elk outside our tent and went to sleep. But Andy didn’t sleep well. He woke up many times with tight IT bands.

We watched the morning light coat the mountains around Hopkins Lake. We were eager to get to the border but also wanted to enjoy our last morning in Washington. 

The clouds dominated the sky but occasionally the sun poked through. We walked through the forest, trying to make sense of our emotions. 

Today we would reach the northern terminus of the PCT. For most this is the end of an exhilarating journey, for us it is just another milestone. 

An important one and one that Andy has dreamed about for years, but because our journey isn’t over the monument felt less momentous.

The trail was overgrown and we clambered over down trees. About 2 miles from the monument we met Mountain Sweep, a woman in her 60s who has been section hiking the PCT for 16 years. 

This was her final section and her children were hiking in to meet her the following day.

Around 8:50 we came to a clearing. The clear cut that marks the border between Canada and the US was evident.

“We are so close!” said Andy beaming.

After 3 quick switchbacks there it was.

The Northern Terminus. 

A monument very similar to the one we had stood on just under 5 months ago.

We paused, hugged, signed the register and took pictures. 

As anticipated, seeing the monument was anticlimactic. Our journey wasn’t over. It felt like we had the book ends of our story but were missing a chapter. 

From here we walked 8 miles to Manning Park, a small resort in British Columbia and the first place resembling civilization in Canada. 

Our “trail” was a combination of hiking trail, fire road and mountain biking trail. They were all through the forest and although nice, nothing special.

Another hiker had suggested that we summit Mt Frosty on our way to Manning Park. We were tempted but with the poor nights sleep Andy was over it. “I don’t want to climb anything, I just want to get there.”

We were both tired, not looking forward to the long journey back to LA and apparently not in the mood for more walking.

We got to Manning Park around 1 pm, showered, did laundry and ate a celebratory lunch.  

With full stomachs and semi clean bodies (we took cold showers with no soap) we began to discuss our options for getting to Seattle.

We had booked a 6am flight from Seattle to LAX on Sunday. It was Friday. There is a Greyhound that runs from Manning Park to Seattle everyday and it leaves Manning Park at 1:50am. 

We had not made advanced reservations to allow wiggle room in case the weather changed. It never occurred to us that Greyhound buses sell out but apparently they do in Canada in August.

We heard from other hikers that the previous night there was only 1 seat available. Other employees mentioned that sometimes the bus doesn’t stop. Depending on this bus started to feel less reliable. So we turned to our only other option. 

Hitching.

Laurie stepped out of her comfort zone and started talking with everyone. She asked a woman coming out of the restroom if she was heading west. 

We were off of a smaller highway and any western movement would bring us closer to more populated areas.

The woman responded that she wasn’t sure what she and her husband were doing but asked if we had just gotten off the trail. When we said yes, she responded with “my husband wants to hike the PCT, wait here.”

We waited while making a large hitching sign on our Tyvek.

We chatted with Stephen and Katherine for about 10 minutes. They were planning on staying at Manning Park but there were no available rooms. They weren’t sure where they were going next but said if they saw us on the side of the road they would pick us up.

After 15 minutes of unsuccessful hitching, they pulled over and we piled in. Stephen and Katherine were amazing trail angels. They drove us 2 hours to Abbotsford (the closest border town in Canada), treated us to dinner and then drove us to the Greyhound station. 

All the buses from Abbotsford to Seattle were sold out. 

“Well, I am glad we didn’t wait for the bus!” Laurie said as she turned to Andy.

Had we waited in Manning Park there would not have been room and we would be hitching anyway since our flight departed earlier than the arrival of the next bus.

We inquired about buses leaving from Bellingham to Seattle. There were 3 per day and the 4 pm bus had 4 seats available – the first two buses were sold out.

We had planned to have Stephen drop us off at the border so we could walk through without them having to deal with exiting and then re-entering Canada but they insisted on driving us all the way to Bellingham. 

We had no other words for Stephen and Katherine besides ‘thank you, thank you!’ 

As we pulled up to the customs agent Laurie felt herself getting nervous. We had all the paperwork we needed but it still felt uncomfortable to have to explain your actions and reason for being somewhere.

When asked where we lived Andy responded with “we last lived in San Francisco.”

“Last?” Was the follow up question from the agent.

“Well we have been living in our tent the last 5 months” chimed in Laurie.

Wrong answer Laurie.

The agent smiled. She looked at Andy’s passport photo (bald and with minimal facial hair) and then at his bearded face. “We see a lot of you PCT hikers, you guys don’t look so bad.”

“Thanks” we replied.

We all had a good laugh and were good to go.

We watched the pink evening glow on Mt Baker and were treated to an amazing sunset as we drove through the agricultural land of northern Washington.

Stephen and Katherine dropped us off at Motel 6 where we got the last non- smoking room.

We feel so grateful to have met Stephen and Katherine and greatly appreciate their generosity. 

Stephen wants to do the PCT in the next few years and we look forward to helping him plan his journey and ideally along the way as well. 

The generosity of strangers continues to amaze and baffle us. People want to help us succeed. And as we’ve mentioned before, we simply have to be brave enough to ask for and be willing to accept help.

Had Laurie not stepped out of her comfort zone and asked a stranger for a ride, who knows how things would have turned out. 

Because of her courage we got to meet and spend 4 hours with a wonderful, caring and generous couple.

We love the world we live in!

By 9:30 we had crawled into bed. Laurie was so tired she wasn’t even tempted to turn on the TV in search of Romantic Comedies. The sound of the freeway didn’t bother us either.

Tonight we are grateful for kind people and border agents with a sense of humor.