Daily Miles: 19
Total Miles: 2639
It seems like we are experiencing so many “lasts” on the trail. Today was our last full day on trail…tonight is our last night setting up camp…this morning we left our last trail magic. It feels surreal that the trail is almost over, but the reality is that we are currently just a mere 11 miles from the Canadian border.
The best part of today was that the sky finally cleared and we were able to see the beautiful views surrounding us. We all breathed a sigh of relief when the fog burned off and we could see the sun again. Our spirits are always lifted when the sky is blue.
Even though we didn’t start hiking until 7:15, we still made good time as the trail was fairly easy. We crossed over four or five passes in the course of the day, but passes here are not like the passes in the Sierras. Instead, the passes are fairly gradual and with some of them, you don’t even realize you’ve come to a pass.
We weren’t sure if we would be able to hammock at the mile marker where we had planned to make camp. Because of the high elevation and spotty trees, we thought we might need to keep walking another five miles to find a place to hammock. But, as we got close to camp, we passed one campsite that was too small for all of us, the next two campsites were already full, and then we came to this great campsite that was empty and which had plenty of room and trees for good hanging. We were glad that we would all be able to camp together.
We had a nice dinner together, reminiscing about our favorite days on the trail and our hardest times on the trail. RoadRunner and Hammer shared an activity from their camp
counselor days for bringing closure to a long journey. They gave us each a candle and we thought about our proudest moment on the trail as our candles were lit. Then we blew out our candles and they read a nice poem. It was a really nice way to end the night.
As we head to our hammocks, it is really starting to feel like fall. The air is cold and breezy. We are hopeful for another clear and beautiful day tomorrow to finish the trail.
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