September 20th, 2018
We woke up this morning to the sound of snow falling on the tent. It was cold, but very pretty. We crossed Harts Pass, which is the last road we’ll cross in the USA. That means there’s no jumping ship now–unless we backtrack for some reason, we’ll make it to Canada. At Harts pass we began a fire detour that takes us east of the PCT before we rejoin 11 miles before the Canadian border. Until a few weeks ago, a nearby forest fire had completely closed access to the Northern Terminus of the trail, so we’re very happy that this detour is now available. As we hiked the detour we saw three horse-trains. One was carrying trail-building tools and the other two were outfitters taking out guided hunting parties. It is “high buck” season in Washington, which we think means buck season at high elevations. The horses were loaded with tons of gear, so those hunters will be camping in comfort! We are camping at a much lower elevation tonight than last night (4,300 feet), so it is relatively warm down here. At camp we ran into Rich, a hiker we haven’t seen since the second week of the hike, walking back from the Terminus (he didn’t get a permit to enter Canada). He was injured and stuck in the town of Idyllwild when we met him, so it’s very exciting that he made it! We don’t want to admit to ourselves how close we are to the end of the trail.
