Day 148, September 12: Mile 2533 to 2555
Start: Dolly Vista Trail Camp - Mile 2532.5
End: Mile 2555.0
Miles: 22.5
Ascent: 4216 | Descent: 4921
Washington wouldn’t let me leave the PCT without at least one day of rainy hiking.
It had drizzled all night into the morning, and I woke up not excited to hike out in the wet weather. However, I had no choice but to do so. I packed up and left camp around 6am, and I was immediately pretty miserable. The rain falling from the sky wasn’t too bad, but the trail was super overgrown on the whole descent, and the water that was sitting on the plants promptly dumped into my shoes, down my legs and even got my shorts soaking wet. I felt like I had dipped both of my feet into cold buckets of water… not a pleasant feeling.
To add to the discomfort, there were so, so many “blowdowns,” aka trees that have blown down and lay across the trail.. Many required tricky and uncomfortable maneuvers to get over, under or around them. I wish I had someone filming me getting over some of them, because it must’ve a pretty hilarious sight to see. For some, I had to wrap my entire body around, gripping onto the stubs of branches on either side. Others, I had to take off my pack to army crawl underneath. And others required a long, twisting path to walk around as they were entirely too big to climb over.
Despite the bad weather and the blowdowns, I was enjoying the day for the most part. We had a long descent before a long climb, and I felt I was able to get into a flow with my hiking. The rain came down decently hard on the afternoon’s climb, but I was enjoying it and feeling strong.
I spent much of the day reflecting on this journey. Am I really ready for it to be done? Am I a quitter if I do quit early? Will I regret ending my hike in Stehekin? Will I ever actually come back to do the final 80 miles of the trail (or any of the other 600 or so miles that I missed)?
I’m not sure the answers to these questions, but I know they will come to me in time. I think for now, I feel it’s acceptable for me to end my hike in Stehekin, especially given the current circumstances with the wildfire smoke. I would like to continue on with my friends, but I definitely don’t want to do the alternate route they will be taking to the border. So I guess that’s decided!
It feels bizarre that tonight is my last night sleeping on trail for now. I feel lucky that we got a beautiful campsite situated in a valley surrounded by mountains. The rain even stopped and the clouds dispersed long enough for us to get some views during dinner. I will miss the simplicity of trail, and sharing a meal with friends after a hard, long, physical day of hiking.
More thoughts to come. For now, sleep.