There and Back Again...

"A man becomes a man when he reaches the ends of his means and manages to still live afterwards"

-Alex Hansen, a good friend

Folks, I'm Done. I'm back in Albuquerque, dry and warm.

I reached the Canadian border and northern terminus on the 28th of September, cold wet, exhausted and happy.

It was hard to find motivation to get back on the trail at Snoqualmie Pass, but after a couple days off and what looked to be a break in the weather Train and I hit the trail, ready to make one big final push to the end. The first day held no rain , but the clouds were heavy and dark. Each day in this section required us to gain 3,000 feet, lose it... regain it again and then lose it, making it the most notorious climbing on the entire trail. But what a spectacular landscape, nothing in my book quite compares to the Cascades. People ask me 'how was washington' and i simply put i tell them its 'best of times and the worst of times'... because just when the magic of the landscape can take you no higher, the precipitation starts... and it becomes a struggle not only to continue hiking but to keep yourself alive.

Its hard to really describe the following days because it was mostly keeping my head down and just banging out the miles to stay in motion and somewhat warm. As I described in the last blog entry the rain doesnt stop and eventually everything gets wet and all my awesome expensive gear basically loses all functionality and I basically become walking sack of wet laundry. When hypothermia begins to set in, thats when things get bad. On several occasions I lost function of my fingers and became very disoriented and Train said several times i wasnt saying things that made sense... but I could say the same for him. When things always seems to be in the worst possible place, the sun would come out for a few minutes an the rain would let up a bit.

One of the benefits of the cold rain is the non-stop moving and no breaks, knocking out alot of miles became easier and in the town of Skykohmish we were able to finally catch Trains original party, the MeGaTex at Rainy Pass, 60 miles before the border. It was one of the happiest moments on the trail because Axilla's father had 'trail magic' set up for them there at highway 20 so when we rolled up they had beer and pizza and all sorts of good food, and a car blasting Outkast, it was sort of the last celebration party before the end of the trail. We had a blast and it was pretty fun rolling 11 people deep to the border, it was by far the most people I've ever hiked with.

MeGaTex is a core of three guys who hiked the Appalachian Trail together in '08. Uncle Tom from Maine (ME), General Lee from Georgia (GA) and formally Richard Wizzard from Texas (TEX)... add it up MeGaTex. On this PCT adventure they added Train, Axilla, Duff, Wizz's younger brother The Mayor, Genius and more recently Pony and Bear who i've met several times. And the next few days to the finish were like summer camp with all these characters to hike around and with. The first day coming out of Rainy Pass was bright and sunny and awesome. I hiked mostly with D-Wizz and we had the most trail conversation that i've had since Brandon left. It was awesome. A unique aspect about the last bit of trail is that it bounces from pacific NW rainy forrest to dry desert mountains as we weaved in and out of the rain shadow that creates the deserts of eastern washington.

To keep it short, it rained off and on the last 3 days to the border and we all crossed within about and hour of each other. But unfortunately, thats not where Train, The Mayor and My journey ended. Since we didnt have our passports in order (Mine was Stolen in Prague in 06) we all had to hike back 35 miles on the trail to a forest service road where had arranged a pick up from Genius (the Mayor's girlfriend he met on the trail 4 months ago back in Agua Dulce). We said our goodbyes to the whole crew but the day we left the border coming back ended up being the worst day of wind and rain we had in the entire state, but somehow knowing it was the last day it didnt seem so bad. On the way back we passed several old friends making their way to the border including Fuzzy Monkey. Everybody had big smiles on their faces knowing they were so close. We made camp 6 miles before the road, and the next day there wasnt a cloud in the sky and it was the clearest day we had since 3 weeks before in Goat Rocks. What a day to end the trail.

The trip back to Seattle didnt go as planned, as Genius's car broke down along the service road before she got to us and long story short Train and I ended up riding in the back of an contractors work van for 3 hours from the tiny mountain town of Mazama all the way to just outside of the greater Seattle area, where Trains mom picked us up... Genius and the Mayor got a ride in the tow truck. I had a great weekend hangin out and partying it up with some friends from the trail and then my boys Luke and Clint from my Seattle days. Then I flew back and I'm here now. Alive and Happy.

In the next couple days after I have processed things, I'll write a "so long" blog entry and i guess explain what the adventure has meant to me and what i've learned about myself and life, maybe write something meaningful. who knows.