I know many of you are thinking “wow, is she still on the trail, she must be done already!” Those of you thinking this are right, I finished on September 30, just in time to celebrate Dennis’s bday with a homemade lasagna in Seattle.
By the time you are reading this blog many of you may have already received pictures to confirm that Dennis and I have made it to the Northern Terminus of the PCT. Whether it be from my dad sending pictures to the various family group chats, or personal updates with friends, this last blog post isn’t a surprise to most. It may be mid October, but I did finish the trail on the last day of September.
Take a breath, and hold back those tears. We’re almost to the end of my most epic adventure to date! So far northern Washington has been beautiful, and the ending was even more grand. Enjoy the last section where we are reunited with our closest trail friends for an amazing group finish.
Day 138: 9/25/2025; mile 2575.1 - 2580.1
After a poor night of sleep we quickly packed up camp and headed down to the trail shuttle. The shuttle left the general store at 8am, 11:30am, 3pm, and 5pm. It always stops halfway between the trail at the bakery, so Dennis and I decided to stay at the bakery all morning until the second shuttle came.
We drank coffee, ate breakfast, packed out pastries, and chatted with a man who was canoeing Lake Chelan, Washington’s longest lake at 50.5 miles in length. Finally it was time to board the second shuttle. After an entertaining ride with bus driver Steve, we arrived at the shuttle stop where ALL of our friends were waiting! Sam, Sky, Flo, Pablo, Charlotte, Overflow, and Bush Pilot were at the shuttle stop. We leaned out the windows and waved at our friends excitedly.
We only had about 5 minutes to chat before their bus departed, so we made a plan to wait for them to finish their town chores and rejoin us. Dennis and I hiked 5 miles into North Cascades National Park where there was a PCT site we were allowed to stay at.
We set up camp by 3 pm, took a nap to recover from last night’s poor sleep, and waited for our friends. I chatted a bit with Mo and Lilac, friends from Grass Valley until pitch black dark set in. Finally by nightfall Flo and Pablo arrived!! The gang was reunited once again. We had been two days apart for the entire state of Washington after a bee sting incident which caused Dennis and I to strategically bypass ahead to Trout Lake. Somehow this one event kept us from seeing our friends until just now. We ate some celebratory chocolate that my dad sent in the mail and settled down for a chilly night of sleep.
Day 139; 9/26/2025; mile 2580.1 - 2604.0
Today was a fantastic day! I was the first to leave camp, heading out by 7:15am while the boys continued to sleep. I knew I had 20 miles of gradual uphill for the day, so I steadily trudged on.
I spoke to a few weekend backpackers, and it wasn’t until 10 miles into the day that Pablo caught up to me. We heard there might be trail magic ahead and our hopes skyrocketed. It was so nice to have Pablo’s company for a few miles, I had missed him and Flo during the past few hundred miles. We were elated when there in fact was trail magic! We gorged on muffins and bananas, and chatted with Rabbit, a friend who we had met early in the desert. He had finished the PCT a few days before and was participating in the trail magic.
Eventually we left to finish the last 5 miles of our climb. Dennis and Pablo separated from Flo and I, and we walked in our pairs up the pass. We were gifted cookies from an incredibly kind grandma who quite literally stuffed cookies into my pockets.
We had stunning views of sunset and somehow made it to camp just after dark which was a record day for us!
Day 140: 9/27/2025; mile 2604.0 - 2630.4
This morning we awoke to a light drizzle. Thankfully the weather report stated there would only be rain for the first few hours of the day, and it wasn’t a heavy rain. I desperately needed to use the bathroom and was grateful to find we had camped near one of those luxurious wooden Washington toilets. I had a bit of a snafu due to the new trail toilet paper I had recently been gifted. In Stehekin, Frogger gave me some “just add water” toilet paper tablets that unfold into wet wipes with just a bit of water.
Unfortunately, in my rush to the toilet I hadn’t “opened” the toilet paper before dashing to the loo. I found myself in a situation where I desperately needed toilet paper and was just sitting on a wooden toilet, pants down to my ankles, hoping for the rain to pour. With a stroke of genius I decided to rub the tp against some wet leaves and voila, I had working toilet paper!
Unlike the weather last week, today’s wetness was manageable, and we were hiking by 8:30am. We had miles of downhill that felt a bit slow, with switchback after switchback. By late morning we had a long climb with 2,500 ft of climbing. It stopped raining halfway up the climb, and although it was cloudy, it wasn’t too cold. I was listening to the audio book of 9 Perfect Strangers, an entertaining read (and Hulu show) if you need a recommendation! We decided to have lunch at the top and all gathered for an hour-long break.
I had the first cell service in over a week at the top of the ridge and called my sister during the descent. It’s her 21st birthday tomorrow and I’m hoping to reach Canada to commemorate the event! An hour before sunset we crossed Hart’s Pass, a campsite we would eventually return to. As of last year you can no longer enter Canada via walking on the PCT, so we will return in a few days to this pass to hitchhike to Seattle. A kind man was waiting for his friend to finish and served us hot dogs, apples, and a beer. I guzzled my glizzy (term for hot dog I had never heard until Oregon) and continued on trail into the dark. We had 5 more miles until reaching our selected campsite. The last few miles were hiked under a completely dark sky and the Big Dipper was grandly shining above us.
Day 141: 9/28/2025; mile 2630.5 - 2652.1
This morning I left camp as early as I could in an attempt to make it to the border. I wasn’t sure if today or tomorrow would be when I reached Canada, but today is my sister’s bday so I wanted to try my best to arrive today. I had 25 miles to go from where we woke up until we reached the border.
We passed many hikers completing their victory lap, which is when they are hiking back to Hart’s pass after making it to Canada. I personally love the victory lap because everyone gives out celebratory fist bumps! I powered on, barely taking a break until after 13 miles or so. Dennis eventually caught up to me and convinced me to wait until tomorrow so we could touch the terminus with Flo and Pablo. I was hesitant at first because I wanted to finish today, a day that was super important to me. Not only was it my sister’s birthday, but it’s my cousin’s birthday, and my grandparents’ wedding anniversary. Dennis made a strong argument for creating a new holiday called Terminus Day (September 29). I guess we’ll reach the terminus tomorrow. We enjoyed the rest of the day and continued fist bumping hikers who had already finished. When we finally arrived at camp Dennis made a beautiful campfire and about 10 of us sat around and enjoyed its warmth. It felt like a final hurrah to our hiking!
Day 142: 9/29/2025; mile 2652.1 - 2641.1
This morning I awoke to the sound of rain and was instantly a bit frustrated with the world. Doesn’t it know I wanted a clear day to touch the terminus! I get so cold when it rains and couldn’t possibly believe Mother Nature would hand this to us on our last day. When we got out of the tent we realized that it wasn’t actually raining super hard, and that the rain fly made it sound much more dramatic. We exited the tent to find a very light drizzle. We got hiking and headed toward the terminus. In an underwhelming amount of time we were there! Flo and Pablo had left an hour before us, and were waiting in the prime terminus viewing seat. There was a small dry area under some trees. After 142 days of hiking towards this monument, a 3 mile morning stroll felt like too little. We sat there for a while, a bit unsure of how to feel. Eventually Sam and Sky, our other two best friends arrived, and we had a big celebration.
Some of us were teary together, but we also shouted and celebrated joyously. We took a million pictures to commemorate this event. More of our friends trickled in over the three hours we spent at the terminus including Bush Pilot, Charlotte, Overflow, Manzanita, Frogger, Merlin, and more. It was so exciting to see all the familiar faces and celebrate this huge accomplishment together.
We had slack-packed to the terminus this morning, so by noon we left to retrieve our backpacks and tent from camp. We ate a large Jetboil full of ramen and continued uphill. We spent the rest of the day talking about the highlights of our trip and admiring the beautiful scenery around us.
At one point the mist made it feel like I was immersed in the scenery of a fairy tale. It got so foggy that we could barely see in front of us and I honestly thought I might be on the moon. We were hiking late into the night when the rain really picked up, so we set up our tent in the only spot we could find, a mostly flat spot under a tree with large, protruding roots. It had turned from misty to pouring rain pretty suddenly, and we knew we needed to wait it out because it was beginning to feel dangerously cold. We hoped the rain would be gone by morning so we could enjoy one final day on the PCT without being cold.
Day 143; 9/30/2025; mile 2641.1 - 2625.2
We woke up at 5:30 am this morning for an early start. We had nearly 16 miles left until we would reach Hart’s Pass where we needed to hitchhike back to Seattle from. Today was Dennis’s bday, so I sang him happy bday and made us a double instant packet coffee to get the morning started right. For breakfast we had a Mountain House dinner and then we sped along the trail. We didn’t stop until we reached Flo and Pablo who had camped about 6 miles past us. We agreed we would try to find our own hitches back to Seattle as two separate pairs to make it easier for us. When we were 6 miles from the parking lot, Dennis and I ran into Merlin and Worm.
Worm’s stepdad was meeting her at the trailhead and there would likely be room in the car for us. Well, lucky for us there was! The first 11 miles from the trailhead was down a dirt road. When we reached the main road we stopped at the bakery in Mazama for yummy sandwiches. There we ran into Flo and Pablo who had also gotten a hitch to the bakery. We asked if they could join us and we all squeezed into the 8 seater car. We had to keep some backpacks on our laps, but I was relieved that we would be brought all the way to Seattle in one hitch. We stopped to grab some wine and beer to give to our hosts for the evening, John and Erika, who were close family friends. They had a hot lasagna waiting for us when we arrived. Just like that we were back in Seattle!
Day 1 of real life
This morning I hustled the boys out of my family friend’s house because it was time for me to head to the airport. Dennis was staying with Flo and Pablo for an exploratory day in Seattle, and I was heading home. We said our goodbyes for now, but we would see one another in Antioch for a final dinner in a week!
Well dear readers,
This concludes my trek along the Pacific Crest Trail. It has been a beautiful and equally difficult trek across the west coast. For the foreseeable future I will not be hiking 25 miles a day, and will be enjoying time at home with my family. One day I will likely regain status as a through hiker, but my digestive system needs to heal first! Thank you for following along these past five months. I couldn’t have done this hike without all of your support! Thank you to my family who visited me for multiple hikes and for sending the best care packages along the trail. I am deeply grateful to Dennis for suggesting this 2,650 mile trek in the first place. Without his idea and our dear friend Jess Cooper (PCT class of 2023), I may never have done this crazy hike in the first place!
Until we meet again,
Rainbow Carrot 🌈🥕 / Backcountry Brooke
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