Washington was my absolute favorite place that I’ve ever hiked. The days around mile 2500 were a mix of views, eating berries, running into friends, including Warm Boy, Stuck on the Ground, Flamingo, Breezy, MacGyver, and Many More™! I was hungry all the time and stopped to eat constantly from huckleberry and thimbleberry bushes. Warm Boy said she was eating so many berries, her poop turned blue. #goalz. I had times where I felt a lot on anxiety about making miles, and times of relief that I was making good time, stopping to relax, and making conscious decisions to sleep in (until 6:30). I climbed around blowdowns, got hangry, dried my tent and my feet at lunchtime in the sun, wound my way around old growth behemoths, and skirted around Glacier Peak. All this led to the fire closure that previously was the end of the PCT for many. Since they opened the last part of the PCT, hikers now took a detour down to Holden Village, and from there via ferry or a hike around the lake to Stehekin, the last trail town.

Holden Village lies in a remote valley and is reachable only by foot or by a ferry. The Christian retreat opens its doors to PCT hikers and lets them buy a pass to their continental breakfast. Everything there was aggressively wholesome and completely homemade. Bread, yogurt, granola, muesli, peanut butter, jam, and more, all homemade. I thoroughly enjoyed breakfast with Stuck on the Ground, Warm Boy, Flamingo, Wink, and MacGyver. We all had to wait for the bus to take us to the Stehekin ferry, and wandered around, waiting. I laid out my sleeping bag to dry from the condensation of the night before and sat in the sun, reading. Driven back inside by my insatiable hunger for more toast, I ended up sitting with a couple hikers when “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)” came on. SOTG, Breezy, and I held an impromptu karaoke session. The bus was soon ready to leave after that and the driver expertly made her way down the one lane, winding road to the dock. We had 15 minutes to kill until the ferry arrived. SOTG really wanted to jump in off the dock. The thought had crossed my mind as well, as soon as I saw the blue-green water of Lake Chelan. I thought, “Fuck it” and started pulling off my shirt and shorts. We jumped in the freezing water, just as we saw the ferry rounding the corner. We quickly got out of the water, grabbed our clothes, and ran back down the dock, so the ferry could tie up. The cold of the water made the air seem much warmer, which was nice. The ferry took us along the narrow lake, the mountainsides thinly veiled with the smoke of the nearby fire. In Stehekin, we once again had public transport to wait for. There was a shuttle to return us back to trail. I chose to take the later one in order to get in a shower, pick up my resupply, hurl the sardines I had packed myself into the hiker box, and replace them with something that wasn’t disgusting. I also bought a small bottle of champagne that the store clearly had stocked for hikers anticipating the celebration at the northern terminus. I finished my last visit to a trail town planning the last miles of the trail, eating ice cream, and letting my family know I was still alive.

I also became slightly obsessed with fungi.