Day 155 - Hart's Pass to Monument 78

What a long day it was.

We woke up at 5:30, and from then I tried not looking at the time. It was cold, but not nearly as cold as yesterday’s morning had been.

We left quickly, and filled our water at the small stream just north of Hart’s Pass. Since we were not using the Halfmile app, we usually filled up whenever we came upon a stream. We knew we had enough water sources throughout the day, so that 1 liter would be enough.

The trail was still chilly in the shade, and nice in the sun. We met many section hikers that told us we are “nearly there”. They have been telling us that for two weeks. I was beginning to lose faith.

We stopped for our second snack at a campsite just below what we thought was Woody Pass. Not using our apps and maps left us guessing. We thought this would be “the last climb”, but apparently Woody Pass was the next pass, after some more serious climbing, and from there we still climbed about 1000 feet before finally starting our long down hill.

On the way down we meet Shrek, the trail angel from Cascade Locks, and later Legend. The were just sectioning this bit of trail, from Hart’s Pass to the border, in five days. Shrek mentioned some switchbacks right before reaching the monument, and hiking down the trail, every step hurts the soles of my feet, I kept looking around for them.

We finally started hiking down the switchbacks, and saw some people standing around. We figured that was it, and I took Lighthouse’s phone to make a video of him reaching the end, for the German Television documentary he will be on.

At the monument we meet Darwin, Shadow and Pollack. Shadow headed on later, to have an easier day into Manning Park tomorrow. Pollack came in from the park, waiting for his friends to finish the trail. He broke his foot down in Oregon a while ago. We both did our photo shoots, and sat around for a bit. We left to set up camp at the nearby campsite just when Red Light strolled in.

At the campsite we all had dinner together and had a nice chat, before going to sleep for the last time inside a tent, on an inflatable mattress, in cold weather…

Tomorrow I’ll have to get up even earlier than today, in order to do 8.6 miles before 10:10, when the bus leaves Manning Park. I hope I’ll make it, but if not, no worries. I’ll just spend the night there and do nothing.