Canada at last!

Greetings supportive blog readers!

I'm happy to announce that after a full five months of hiking, I finally arrived at the Canadian border on Saturday morning!

First things first: to my former coworkers at aCoupleofGurus.com who have bets going as to how many pairs of shoes I would go through on my hike, the final count is six. In case anyone is curious how my other gear held up, I have holes in my sixth pair of shoes and my tenth pair of socks. My gaiters also have holes. My pack has been repaired in five different places with duct tape, safety pins, dental floss, and two different colors of thread. My sleeping bag smells like a locker room. The holes in my pant legs got so bad that I finally just zipped them off and got rid of them. One of the twist-locks on my trekking poles is failing and needs to be tightened every 15 or 20 minutes. Mice have chewed seven different holes in my food bag, as well as chewing up the handles on my trekking poles. Several seams in my poncho-tarp shelter are coming undone. My sunglasses are scratched to the point where visibility is impaired, and I've never owned a piece of clothing as stained as my hiking shirt (my wife has made a polite but strong request that this shirt be thrown away).

Currently I'm at the home of my sister Hannah and her husband Matt in Tacoma, Washington. I'm drinking my beloved decaf coffee and wearing cotton clothing that I borrowed from Matt. My body continues to insist that I wake up at 5:30 am like I did on the trail, so I'm pretty tired in addition to being very sore. However, I'm happy! I hiked every single step in a continuous footpath all the way from the Mexican border to the Canadian border without taking any shortcuts. The majority of hikers who attempt this end up quitting for one reason or another, and not many who make it to the Canadian border do so without skipping any sections. As such, I'm extremely proud to be among the few 2009 hikers who can claim a literal continuous footpath.

Tomorrow I fly back to Minneapolis to join my wife in celebrating our second anniversary. Once I get settled in a bit I'll post more thoughts/feelings/reflections/pictures.

Thanks for cheering me on through this adventure!

Joel

More Pictures!

More Pictures!

Picture time again!

The Victory Lap

Greetings persevering blog readers!

I am currently taking my final day off in the tiny town of Stehekin, just 89 miles south of the northern terminus of the PCT. Hikers call this last stretch "the victory lap." We're not quite finished yet, but there is definitely a spirit of celebration among the few remaining hikers who have made it this far.

The past few weeks have been wonderful. My good friend Cuidado caught up to me and we've had beautiful weather throughout a section known for its rain. The rugged scenery of the North Cascades has been spectacular! We've seen bear, elk, deer, pika, and marmots. We've watched amazing sunrises and sunsets over alpine lakes, and eaten our fill of the wild blueberries and huckleberries that cover entire hillsides. We've scrambled through 20 miles of damaged trail full of washed-out bridges and downed trees, and stood in awe as we watched dense fog roll through mountain valleys hundreds of feet below us.

It's hard to believe that I'm so close to done. Unless something very unexpected happens, Cuidado and I will be at the Canadian border on the 19th, to Manning Park in British Columbia on the 20th, and I'll be home on the 22nd - just one week from today. My emotions are all confused inside me: never have I been so excited and so sad at the same time. I can't wait to get home, start living with my wife again, and reconnect with people in the Minneapolis area. On the other hand, I'm mourning the end of this crazy, brutal, spectacular adventure. It will certainly be a challenge to learn how to maintain a life of adventure while building a career and paying a mortgage.

By the time I post again I will have completed my hike and started a new chapter in living a life of adventure with my wife. Stay tuned for my post-hike thoughts and reflections as well as pictures from the final few weeks. Thanks again for all your support over the past few months!

Joel

Pictures!

Pictures!

Pictures!

Joel is happy when Amy is happy.

(from Natalia: sorry I'm a little slow on posting this note from Amy and the accompanying pictures... it's my fault, not hers!)

This is Joel’s wife, Amy -- reporting from the homefront. As both Joel & Natalia mentioned in their recent blog updates, I went out to Oregon to visit Joel last week. Initially, I was hoping to have an opportunity to hike part of the PCT with Joel again during our 2nd trail reunion. Unfortunately, I’ve recently developed a mysterious, nagging pain in my knee that prevented me from doing anything that could even remotely resemble backpacking. Since I couldn’t hike, Joel chose to stay off the trail for a longer period of time than he anticipated so that we could maximize the window of time we could spend together. And not only did Joel take almost a week-long break from the trail to hang out with me, but he also let me decide what we would do for 4 of our 6 days together. If you’re a woman, you’ll understand why this decision made me very happy. J Ever since we started dating, Joel’s motto has been, “When Amy is happy, then Joel is happy”. I must admit, I’ve always been a fan of that philosophy!

So, as you’ll see from the accompanying photos – much of what we did together in Oregon is much more “romantic” than what you’d typically read about on a PCT blog. We drove down the coast from Astoria to Tillamook and spent hours walking on the beautiful, rugged beaches along the way. We ate at seaside restaurants and meandered through historic streets lined with antique shops in small, coastal towns. We picked wild blackberries until our hands were stained violet. We strolled for hours through both the Rose Garden and the Japanese Garden in Portland – and took oodles of pictures of pretty flowers & landscapes. We drove the historic highway along the Columbia River Gorge and stopped to gaze at lookout points and waterfalls. And we even stayed overnight in a lovely French-style inn at Arch Cape and watched the movie, “You’ve Got Mail” while listening to the ocean from our 2nd story room. (Joel may not quite finish the trail before our 2nd anniversary in Sept., so we thought we’d celebrate a little early). J Needless to say, I LOVED Oregon and love my husband even MORE!

If you’re curious about what we did the other 2 days … just scroll through the photos. It took us 1 full day to sort, pack, & mail all of Joel’s resupply for the state of WA. Thankfully, the amazing Ms. Stephanie Mack (who graciously let us stay with her at her apt. in Vancouver, WA while we were in the Portland area) helped us with this daunting task, so that we could complete it all in a day. Stephanie is a whiz at rolling fruit leather and may have the set the new Guinness Book of World Records time for sealing the greatest number of freezer bags ever sealed in 10 hours. You rock, Stephanie! The other day was set aside for traversing the many miles back to the place on the trail where Joel had been picked up earlier in the week. If you’ve read Natalia’s story about “Joel caching”, the magnitude of this feat will be very clear. By the mercy of God and a somewhat reliable GPS, we did find our way back to Olallie Lake – and miraculously timed our arrival to meet up with another PCT thru hiker (Munchie) that Joel knows well. The “Disco – Munchie reunion” was a welcome surprise and celebrated by the 3 of us indulging in some wonderful trail magic that was just a mile up the road in a campsite along the lake.

I’ve been able to talk with Joel twice since I left Oregon and both he & Munchie are doing well. If you’ve been following his progress on the map, you’ll see that he made it to Washington. That means only one more state to go. I’m confident that he can finish and I can’t wait to see the little hiker icon cross the Canadian border on the map in about a month!

P.S. Several of the latest pictures are from areas of the trail in Oregon prior to my visit. Joel especially enjoyed hiking around Crater Lake during that stretch of the trail.

End-of-the-tunnel syndrome

Greetings dry blog readers!

I am currently in Snoqualmie Pass, just 260 miles south of Manning Park, BC. As you might guess, I've had quite a bit of rain in the last few days and am very much enjoying being inside and drying out.

Originally I wasn't planning on taking a day off in Snoqualmie Pass. However, last night I was talking with my father-in-law, Alvin Wissink, who is always full of practical wisdom. He warned me against what he called "end-of-the-tunnel syndrome." Alvin said that when people are walking in a dark tunnel they proceed carefully and watch their steps, but as soon as they see the light at the end of the tunnel they tend to speed up and are more reckless. According to Alvin, it's when the light at the end of the tunnel is visible that the most mistakes happen and most problems occur. I thought about that for a long time after I got off the phone with Alvin, and realized that I've been pushing way too hard in Washington. So ... I'm taking a day off. The last thing I want is to get lost or injured this close to the end.

The buzz over the last few days has been a wildfire which is just north of here. Unfortunately it has burned a significant portion of one valley and the PCT is closed for about 15 miles through that area. The good news (very good news) is that there is an alternate route that hikers can take which, while not the official PCT, will still allow me to continue the unbroken northbound footpath that I started at the Mexican border.

One highlight that I wanted to share is that a few days I've passed through amazing huckleberry and blueberry fields. I've picked tons of berries as I've hiked, and it's been a lot of fun and has brought some excitement to the otherwise rainy days. I could have picked and ate berries all day long and not gotted tired of it.

Two more weeks until Canada!

Joel