September 29 - Last Full Day

End: castle pass
Daily: 25
Total: 2650.5

Wow. I never have to walk twenty five miles in a day again if I don't want to. I probably will, but we are less than that from Manning Park. And only 3.5 from the US-Canada border. Tomorrow before we normally take our morning break, we'll have finished walking from Mexico to Canada.

Can you tell I'm having trouble believing all this? I had just assumed the trail would go on forever and now it's ending so quickly. After tomorrow, all our routines and our tricks and our habits mean nothing. Who cares how many miles we walked before 10 am? Who cares if I put my spoon somewhere accessible? Who cares what that ridge is called?

Today was mostly spent thinking about the end and admiring amazing views. Just after our morning break we met Goodness and Zm coming back from the border and heading towards Harts Pass. Canada didn't want Goodness (he didn't have a DUI or anything like that, it was something much less selfish and more admirable that he got arrested for) so they couldn't go through an unmanned border crossing. So we caught up with them and then headed on our way.

Woody Pass was pretty much our last big climb of the trip, but it was really silly because we had to climb up to one pass about 2 miles before, then drop down into a bowl and climb back up to Woody Pass. There was an old trail that cut straight across from pass to pass, but it's been abandoned because it's too hard to maintain and it's on too steep a slope. We were tempted, but read in Yogi's guide that people who tried it turned back because it was too steep and the trail crumbles into nothingness when you step on it. I kept remembering the line from Yogi's that said "unless you want to DIE on your very last day of hiking, suck it up and take the original PCT to Woody Pass." so we did, and it was tiring and a little frustrating, but I guess it was just the PCT's way of saying goodbye.

Anyway, then we camped with Roo and Marmot here at Castle Pass and plan on walking to the monument (at the border) together. I'm a little nervous. In videos of the trail I could never watch people's reaction to the Monument.

Here we go!