Top 5's

After reviewing and reminiscing about our trip we came up with a few "top 5" lists that we hope everyone will enjoy!

Best food/Meals

1. Stehekin bakery
2. Dan's cooking in Tehachapi
3. Baring store
 4. Maureens sandwiches
 5. Taco salad at BLYC

Best milkshakes

1. Chester/pine shake frosty
2. Seiad Valley/restaurant
3. Cascade Locks/Charburger
4. Ashland/Callahans

5. Etna/Breakfast place?


Best towns

 1. Stehekin

 2. Idyllwild

 3. Mammoth
 4. Ashland
 5. Shasta
 6. Wrightwood

 Best Trail magic experiences/most needed at the time

 1. tied for first: Dan in Tehachapi, Marlyn and Maureen in Wrightwood, Casey and Catch23 at Twin Buttes road in WA

 2. Okie Girl at Walker Pass

3. KC saving us a liter of water from a cache and only taking a liter for himself for 20+ miles

4. Honey Bee and Stumbling Norwegian at Stampede Pass

5. water cache outside Tehachapi by Larry and Daniel
6. Warner Springs community center

7. all water caches

Worst water sources: (that we actually got water from)

1. McIver spring (Water was so bad we couldnt even drink it and just went without water for 7 miles)

2. Stagnant pool by Sulfur spring
3. Horse trough at Sunrise Trail head

4. Rusty colored pools after Paradise Cafe

Favorite Camp Spots: These aren't in any particular order.

Scariest/Creepiest Moments

1. The very scary owl that followed us for five minutes and kept swooping down near our heads. Nate decided to stay up and cook but Jenna went straight to bed. Not sure it was worth cooking dinner on a foggy dark night with that owl nearby.
2. Crossing a creek in Washington at 9 pm when it was pitch black. We had no choice but to cross the river due to extreme danger of rock fall in the small canyon we were in and it was listed on the maps as a dangerous crossing.
3. The loud screech in the middle of the night on the endangered species detour in Southern California.
4. The hitchhike to the Anderson's house where the guy showed us his target that he had shot his new guns at and warned us not to steal his tools.

-Jenna (totem) and Nate (jungle cookie)

Trail Stats & Fun Facts

Ya, ya I know we said we would update this soon after getting back. We get side tracked sometimes. Now you can understand how it was on our thru-hike. "Ya, we will definitely get out of town tomorrow morning...after a big breakfast...well we really should just stay for lunch now...and dinner." 4 sandwiches and 2 pints of ice cream later we usually made it out of town.

We put together some fun facts and statistics about our hike. Before we get to that though, we want to say how jealous we are of all those planning a thru hike in 2013. We looked at a lot of journals and websites for help when we were in the planning stage and we would love to help out anyone thinking of a thru-hike in the future. If anyone has questions, wants to hear stories, or just talk about what an amazing trail the PCT is, feel free to email us at totem.junglecookie@gmail.com.

Trail Stats

Days total: 147
zero days: 11
most days off in a row: 2 (shasta and tahoe)
miles per day including 0 days: 18.3
miles per day not including 0 days: 19.6
longest day: 41.4 miles
shortest day: 0.25 miles
earliest started hiking: 4:30 am
latest ended hiking: 10:00 pm

average pack weight: 25-30 lbs
4 pairs of shoes each
10 pairs of socks for Nate 8 for Jenna
 replaced: glasses, headlamp, many batteries, Nate's insoles, Tent, water treatment method
most water carried: 15 L shared
most food: 8 days
candy bars per day: 1 each in the beginning, after a month it became 2-4
meals that Jenna got sick of: EVERYTHING except cereal, oatmeal, and instant breakfasts
meals that Nate got sick of: vanilla instant breakfasts, cinnamon poptarts (still cannot eat poptarts), hummus, pre-made trail mix
Favorite trail meals: Jenna- cereal, avocado with tortilla, nutella with a spoon, Nate- avocado and tuna in a tortilla, peanut butter and nutella in a tortilla, broccoli cheese rice knorr side, candy bars
Things we missed the most: Jenna- family and climbing, Nate- family, dog, reading, and climbing

2 days of hiking in rain
20 showers
14 loads of laundry (two times we washed our stuff in a bucket)
3 bears seen
0 mountain lions seen
falls on trail: 2 nate, 1 jenna
estimated thrus met: 100
hottest we ever were: near whitewater creek
coldest we ever were: Whitney sunrise, followed by morning under Mt. Adams

Two months after being back it is still hard to believe we even did this. We miss it so much and it is so bittersweet to look at pictures and talk about the trail. We are both pretty confident in saying that, while this was our first thru-hike, it will not be our last. We have caught the bug!

-Jenna and Nate

Post-Trail thoughts - Nate

          At all stages of this adventure there have been thoughts and expectations about what coming home would be like. Upon returning, some of these expectations were met and some were shattered.
   
           After two weeks of hiking Jenna and I were completely immersed in the hiking lifestyle. Our responsibilities included waking up at a reasonable time, taking care of our feet, eating the correct amount of food, and a few other trivial tasks. After hiking for several months we both began to reminisce about home and what we would do and eat when the time came to come home. I thought it would be hard to leave the trail and come home but at the same time I was beginning to get deeply worn out. I did not believe I would struggle reintegrating into society and the lives we led before the trail.
   
     When we arrived at the monument the feelings were joy and a weird sadness. It is hard to explain my feelings at the monument. It was the end of a great adventure, incomparable to anything else I have ever experienced. It was hard comprehending what we accomplished. We took each day as it came and slept in a new place nearly every night. Every day was an adventure in and of itself. When we reached the monument we ended an amazing adventure, one that we meant we had to go home. It is not that we did not want to go home and see our families, but that we just wanted to keep hiking forever on our adventure living a simplistic worry-free lifestyle. I had to realize over the course of the next few days that reaching the monument was by no means the end of the adventure and the unknown, but was just the end of one chapter of our lives. Life is an adventure and this was just one small sub-adventure. Once I came to this realization, ending the trail was easier to cope with. I missed the trail immensely but I was okay ending the adventure and heading into society with this in mind.
       
      It was a bit of a shock coming into Seattle and having a huge population of busy people running all around us, living their lives. This was not as huge of a shock for me as it was for Jenna I think, although she adjusted to this fairly quick. Seattle still felt like we are on vacation and was still part of the adventure. Coming home however was different than I had envisioned. It was great to see my family and be home again but it was such a weird feeling. I am able to picture every day and almost every hour of our PCT adventure for the last 5 months and all of a sudden that was over. Being at home felt like I had been gone for no time at all...it felt like yesterday. That was such an unusual feeling, it really felt like our whole trip had been a dream. On the trail, time went by as normal but everyone said it felt like a long time. It is just odd to me that now that I am home and it feels like no time at all. I guess time flies when your having fun. I imagined eating lots of food and eating at all our favorite restaurants for weeks. This was not the case. I did eat fresh fruit and salad a lot but have still yet to eat at the majority of the places I fantasized about while hiking. Also, I had a list of things I wanted to do when we got home. When we got home all we wanted to do was hike and be outside, it was too hard to sit still for more than 30 minutes. At the same time, home tasks such as doing dishes, walking the dog, typing, and other things all felt normal and came naturally. I thought that when I got home I would not know how to do anything and I thought that I would have forgotten how I used to live. When we left for the PCT we had just graduated. When we got home that finally started to sink in. Also, when we got home it was October and we didn't know what to do with all the time in the days since neither of us were in school anymore and neither of us started up work right away. There has been no point in either of our lives where we can not remember going to school. This was one hard aspect of coming home and integrating back into society.
   
       Now that we have been done with the trail for two weeks and home for nearly a week and a half some things are different. I am able to sit still and read or watch a movie etc. Life seems normal again but we still both miss the trail. I don't really feel any more stressed than I did on trail. On trail there are as many things to be stressed about as at home (in my opinion). For example there are trail chores such as cooking and setting up the tent or worrying about snakes, mice, and other animals. To me these things are no more stressful than paying bills or any other task at home, working being the exception. For this reason coming home didn't stress me out any more than being on trail. The main stress came from not hiking all day or simply missing the trail.
 
      It is great to be home. We are helping each other integrate back to society. It is fun hiking around our area. Washington and Utah have very similar hiking trails and scenery. Fall is amazing here and is the best season. As I said earlier, life is an adventure and the trail was one small adventure in our lives. I can't wait to do another long trail in the future and in the meantime it is great to be home. Just like coming home and living our lives came naturally, I think that once we get on another long trail that will come naturally again.

May the force be with you,
Nate/Jungle Cookie

Post-trail thoughts- Jenna

Life after the trail has been both easier and harder than I imagined. Some things I was expecting but other feelings caught me by surprise. I organized my "post-hike" thoughts into two sections, one written on the plane home, just after finishing, and the other written 10 days later.

3 days after finishing

Reaching the Canadian border was accompanied by many emotions. I feel like I should have something profound or novel to say but so far no epiphanic ideas have reached me. Before I left I imagined all of the things I would be glad to come home to. My own warm soft bed, iced water, a shower. But it is just as cozy to sleep on the ground, ice hurts my teeth, and I've grown to love rinsing off in cold streams and lakes. I imagined that I would be so relieved to return to "normal life" for all of the comforts it entails but I am mostly filled with a sense of longing and guilt. Guilt for using so much water and toilet paper to flush the toilet, guilt for buying a meal that costs more than 3 days worth of trail food, guilt for having the privilege to shower everyday, and most of all longing to live a simplistic, raw, physically challenging, nomadic lifestyle. I enjoyed a dr. Pepper today and it meant so little, was so easy to obtain. I didn't chance upon it in a trail magic cooler or walk 100 miles at a 3 mph pace to reach a remote rural store before it closed.

For us the journey continues. We don't need to take time off from hiking and we did not feel a sense of closure at the northern terminus. The adventure was never about making it to Canada, but enjoying every day as it came. Perhaps this is why the border seemed so anti climactic to me. I have read journals, watched videos, and heard stories in which thru hikers cry, hug, celebrate, and sing at the border because their dream was finally accomplished. Our dream was accomplished every single day so the monument was just the end of another successful day. The only difference being that it was the last. When looked at this way, it is easier to see how bittersweet an ending it was.

2 weeks after finishing

The first few days after I got home were much harder than I imagined. I found myself missing the trail already and looking ahead to the next hike. I was expecting to miss the trail and the life I lived for the past 5 months.  I was expecting to miss the freedom, the scenery, and the constant sense of awe and peace. However, there was one thing that I was not expecting that manifested itself upon my return.  When I looked back to events that happened on the trail, it really felt like it had been 5 months. Conversely, if I thought back to the days just before I left, I felt like I had only been gone a week. Parts of society, like crowds, technology, and the fast paced, hectic nature left me uneasy, but everything at home seemed familiar: driving up to my house, seeing my family and dog, sleeping in my bed, grabbing a meal out of the fridge. Nothing at home was foreign, and for some reason that was hard to wrap my mind around. Because everything at home felt so normal, it almost felt like the hike had all just been a dream, like it might not have ever happened at all. I am not sure if I expected to feel happy to return to a life in society or if I expected to feel reluctant, but I definitely expected it to feel drastically different from life on the trail.

The past week has been much easier. I am happy to have the time to rest when I want to and love being able to talk to my family every day. I still miss the trail and outdoors just as much, but the scope of what we accomplished has become more real each day. I no longer wake up terrified that it never happened and I realized that life is full of adventures; this was certainly not the last. Regardless, I still find myself excited at experiencing unfamiliarity and clinging to anything that reminds me that I was actually hiking for 5 months: the lingering dirt on my toes, heels, and hair, the foot pain that hinders movement for the first hour of every day, the weight loss, the pictures and videos. Looking at pictures and videos and reading my journal has allowed me to relive the journey and realize what an irreplaceable and humbling adventure it was.

Again, thank you all for following along. If you have dreams of hiking the PCT or embarking on another adventure, all I can say is do it! Committing is the hardest part.

-Jenna (Totem)
-Be Free

Video, Pictures, & Thank You!

Hey everyone!

Just wanted to let everyone know that we have created a new tab on our blog that contains some of our favorite videos from the trip. Hope you enjoy them!

Also, the Washington photo album (as well as Southern Cali, Central Cali, Northern Cali, and Oregon) is know up under the Pics tab on our blog. Hope you enjoy these as well!

Finally, we updated all of our Thank yous on the Thank You tab of the blog for the whole trip.

There will be more posts coming soon. The next posts will be about how Jenna and I are doing after getting back from the trail. Those will be sometime this week!

Cheers,
Nate & Jenna

Day 144-148:Spoiler Alert...We did it!

September 26-29
Day 144-147
Mile 2585-2660.1
Bridge creek campground to Monument 78 & Manning park

Day 144-The Rocky Road to Canada

Today we woke up at the Bridge Creek Campground in North Cascades National Park. We camped with Nugio and Pounce and several other hikers who left Stehekin with us. The walk out was all uphill but was a very low grade and very beautiful.




Unfortunately we left the National park fairly early in the day. PCT hikers only get to visit a sliver of this National park. Around midday we reached Rainy Pass and took a lunch there with two people we hadn't seen since Mt. Whitney.








After lunch we hiked up to Cutthroat pass. This is one of the bigger ascents we have left on the trail. At Cutthroat pass we enjoyed the views for a bit and took in everything we were seeing.








From what we hear it is views like this all the way to the end of the trail. We hiked on another few miles to another pass to end the day. As I was starting to cook dinner it started to sprinkle rain on us. You just never know in Washington. It was a really great day and we had some of the most amazing views we have had in Washington. We also had an amazing sunset, one of the best on trail.




That is one great thing about this state, there are amazing sunsets.

Day 145- Nom Nom

We slept in a bit today because it was kind of chilly out. It has been some really amazing hiking. Jagged peaks and exposed views everywhere.




It was a pretty normal day, we descended into a canyon and then ascended up to a beautiful saddle where we took lunch. The views in Washington are so amazing. Lunch at the saddle was one of the best lunch spots in Washington.We laid out and dried our damp clothes from the climb.



After lunch we walked along some exposed ridges and descended down to Harts Pass, the last little evidence of civilization until the end of the trail.







At the pass there were some people doing trail magic and we sat down and embraced the goodness. We ate some yummy tacos, soda, cookies, and a few other snacks. We reluctantly left the awesome trail magic done by Chuck and hiked on a few more miles. The distance from where we camped to the Northern terminus monument is 26 miles.




We are going to bed very excited but sad.

Day 146- The End and The Beginning

It was somewhat sad waking up...knowing that today is the last full day of hiking. We ate the last of our cinnamon rolls from the Stehekin bakery and set off on our final 25 miles. We entered the Pasayten wilderness within the first few minutes of the day.















We didn't take many breaks, as we wanted to get to the monument before the sun went down. This wilderness was absolutely amazing.



We passed the highest point on the Washington section of the PCT, a little bit after Woody pass. This point was somewhat anticlimactic. About a mile before the pass we started to get a light rain. It wasn't much but it felt kind of good. Today we passed many hikers who were hiking back to Harts pass from the monument. Some hikers choose to do this for a variety of reasons (no passport, denied entrance to Canada, etc.) They were all really happy and congratulated us and we started to get excited because we were getting so close and it started to feel real.The hike down to the monument flew by. Before we knew it we could see the cut trees that marked the border and we were at the monument. We sat there for an hour taking pictures and looking at the register.













It felt really weird to walk to our last camp spot on this trip. We set up the tent and ate our celebratory dinners. There were lots of mice running around so we knew we were in for a sleepless night. We went to sleep knowing our trip was almost at an end, a very sad but exciting feeling.

Day 147-Canada Eh

Last night, as expected, the mice were running around keeping us up. Also, the moon was shinning on our tent with clouds occasionally moving in front of the moon.This made the view of the moon interesting and slightly creepy. We woke up and hiked the quick nine miles into Manning Park British Columbia.




Once there we met several new hikers and went and ate at an all you can eat breakfast buffet.




We sat around for a few hours waiting for our friend Max and his girlfriend Denise to pick us up.They got there and we made our way back to Seattle. We stopped in Hope for some lunch and got to the border. We had a little trouble getting back in to the US. We had to get out of the car and have everything searched and we got asked many questions. It was a pain but we were happy when we got back into the US and into Seattle. A lot of people get car sick after not taking drives very often, but we were fine. It was a really fun day and night. It was very weird to be back in a big city and it hasn't really set in that we are done with the trail. It is hard to comprehend what we have accomplished and it will take awhile to sink in.

The Last Days

We spent 2 full days in Seattle relaxing and taking it easy.We visited our other friend who lives their, Zach, and went and saw the University of Washington campus with him. Also while we were there we visited the boat locks, ate at yummy restaurants, and hung out with Max and Denise. On October 2nd we flew out of SEATAC airport into Salt Lake City where our families were waiting. It was a happy reunion and it felt really good to be home, although a bit warmer than Seattle. The few days in Seattle still felt like we were on vacation. It is a very strange feeling to be home. It is happy, but at the same time we both miss the trail and our lifestyle on the trail badly. This was an amazing trip and we had the time of our lives. Thank you to everyone who has followed us along the way. All of your love, support, and well wishes have helped us through these past five months. Jenna and I hope you have enjoyed our blog as much as we enjoyed writing it for everyone. We are going to post more things on the blog so this is not the last post. We'll post a statistics page in the coming weeks in addition to Jenna and I each writing our final thoughts. We will also have advice to future hikers, things we would have changed, and some gear reviews, among other things.

One final thought...

 Roads go ever ever on,
  
Over rock and under tree,
By caves where never sun has shone,
  
By streams that never find the sea;
Over snow by winter sown,
   
And through the merry flowers of June,
Over grass and over stone,
   
And under mountains in the moon.
Roads go ever ever on,
   
Under cloud and under star.
Yet feet that wandering have gone
   
Turn at last to home afar.
Eyes that fire and sword have seen,
   
And horror in the halls of stone
Look at last on meadows green,
  
And trees and hills they long have known.
The Road goes ever on and on
   
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
   
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
   
Until it joins some larger way,
Where many paths and errands meet.
The Road goes ever on and on
   
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
   
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with weary feet,
   
Until it joins some larger way,
Where many paths and errands meet.
   
And whither then? I cannot say.
The Road goes ever on and on
   
Out from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone.
   
Let others follow, if they can!
Let them a journey new begin.
   
But I at last with weary feet
Will turn towards the lighted inn,
   
My evening-rest and sleep to meet.
Still 'round the corner there may wait
   
A new road or secret gate;
And though I oft have passed them by,
   
A day will come at last when I
Shall take the hidden paths that run
   
West of the Moon, East of the Sun.

Poem by JRR Tolkien

-Natey

Days 139 - 143: Nearing the End...and savoring it

Sept. 21 - 25
Days 139 - 143
Mile 2476.0 - 2585.0
Stevens Pass/ the Dinsmores - Bridgecreek campground

Day 139: Echos in the Dark

Even though it was the last day of summer, it really started to look like fall. We woke up to condensation on our tent and coastal fog. We went to breakfast at the store where we met Collector. He had just finished his thru hike and was coming back to the Dinsmores to get something he left behind. After one of the best breakfasts we have had on trail, he gave us a ride back to Stevens pass. We had service on the trail so we were able to post the blog and make calls to warn our parents that we would not have any service until we finish and are in Canada. It was cold and smoky all day and we were in our usual after town slump.








At one point I heard Nate cry out in surprise and happiness and I turned around to see him on the ground looking at garnets in a rock.




We stayed there for about fifteen minutes while he inspected all the rocks in the area and we had a lot of fun. When we looked up we found that a fog had moved in just below us.




We walked right into it and decided to go to sleep early because everything was getting wet and cold. We camped by pear lake which had one of the coolest echos I have ever heard.




Day 140: Ghost Mountain

I feel like today was one of the most beautiful days in Washington...if only we had been able to see it. We woke up in fog and it lingered for the whole day.








The fog cleared for a few minutes and we were amazed by what we saw. It was so beautiful!








Visibility was pretty bad all day so we couldn't see much more than this. It didn't actually rain but the fog would condense on the trees and plants then the wind would blow all of the water on to us so we got pretty wet. It was really cool to see the wind blow the fog clouds down the mountain. It looked like a slow waterfall.




Even though we could barely see the trail at times we could tell we did a lot of ridge walking. I have to admit it was a little frightening to walk out onto a section of trail having no idea how long it will be or if you will be able to find a spot to sleep that night in dense fog. We passed mile 2500!




Around dusk when we were looking for a spot to camp an owl started following us. It would swoop down an almost grab Nates head then land on a branch right in front of us then follow us with its head till we passed. This continued for about 5 minutes and we were really confused with its curiosity. We decided to keep walking in case the owl had a nest in the area. When we finally found a spot to sleep I was so cold that I went to bed without eating. Nate somehow always has the willpower to cook dinner though and sat outside the tent happily stirring and perfecting his Mac and cheese.

Day 141:Glacier Peak

Today was almost a polar opposite of yesterday. It was calm, warm, and dry. However, we got frustrated for different reasons. I woke up with a headache, the trail was very overgrown today and steep. We enjoyed the steep climbs for the most part but the trail was very overgrown and trees were downed everywhere. Not only was the trail itself steep but it dropped off on both sides and a few times, while we were pushing through trees and brush, we slid down the hill. A few hours and some twisted ankles later we found an open spot to lay our stuff out to dry from the day before.




The last 2 miles of the day consisted of a really awesome exposed, moonlit walk after a 3000 ft. climb.




We are going to bed very tired and ready to sleep.

Day 142: Tminus 100 miles

We awoke in the night to animals crawling on our tent. They never chewed holes in the tent but they kept us up all night. We had one of the best sunrises yet.




When we reached the suiattle river crossing, we were unsure if we should take the old log crossing or the newly built bridge crossing. Someone had written on the trail junction that there was no log crossing anymore so we took the longer, bridge route. The trail was maintained nicely and was gentle so we made good time. Later we found out that the log was still there and were a little disappointed. After that the trail was gentle and pretty. We walked past colored forests and canyons with jagged cliffs on either side.








We passed some of the largest trees we have seen on this hike.




We have less than 100 miles to go till Canada and that really started to sink in today. We could almost smell Canada. We are really just trying to savor the last few days of our journey and it is going by so fast.

Day 143: The Best Bakery Ever

We were awake by 5:00 and hiking by 6:10 to try and catch the 9:00 bus to Stehekin. We had to walk with headlamps for a few minutes but after that we cruised and got to the bus stop with 15 minutes to spare. We entered north cascades national park.




The bus stopped at the Stehekin bakery and it was by far the best food I have had on trail. We bought a loaf of bread, cinnamon rolls, cookies, and muffins. My cookies were gone before the bus even got to the beautiful lake town.








There is no way to reach Stehekin other than hiking in to a bus stop or taking a 4 hour boat ride from Chelan. There is no car access. We spent the greater part of the day here resupplying and just enjoying the last town stop with other hikers. We took an afternoon bus out and hiked 5 miles to a designated camp spot in north cascades national park. It was nice to be able to sit around with other hikers before dark and contemplate how the return to society will be. I went to bed dreaming of eating cinnamon rolls.

-Be Free