Sunday 08/18/2024
Today I wake up again shortly after 6 a.m. I put my things together and have breakfast in the room. Although I have reached the end of the PCT, I have to set out again today to get to Vancouver by bus. I’ll get a few Canadian dollars from an ATM to be able to pay something in cash.
Then it’s on by bus. After about 20 minutes I have to change trains again and then continue on a pretty full bus. After about an hour I get off at the terminus. From here we continue by train. In the meantime I have booked a bed in a cheap hostel in Vancouver. There I take the train and walk the remaining meters.
Since I can already check in at 12 o’clock, I leave my stuff in my room and then make my way to a park. Apparently I can’t really stop hiking, even if it’s more like a walk today. I walk the almost 10 km around the peninsula of the Stanley Park. In contrast to the last few months, I’m really relaxed on the road and without a backpack, it feels kind of weird.
I walk a total of more than two hours along the water and look at the city from different angles.
The sea air is really good and the gentle noise of the waves is really relaxing. In between, I even see a sea vault that rests a few meters from me in the sun.
After I finish the round, I take the bus back to the hostel. On the way I buy fresh tomatoes and an avocado. So I freshen up my last couscous with tuna.
During the meal I am suddenly approached by a man and as it turns out, it is Thibault. I met the Frenchman at Scout and Frodo and apparently he hiked a day behind me the whole time, which is why we haven’t seen each other since the start. It’s all the more funny that we both meet again here in the hostel. We exchange ideas for a while about what we have experienced and we both accidentally fly to Frankfurt tomorrow with the same plane. Similar to the trail, we discuss what we want to eat delicious when we return home. After a long time he goes a little rest and I take a shower.
After that I take a short afternoon nap, which I haven’t done for a long time. I then go to a bar that is right below the hostel. There I eat a delicious burger and today I drink a beer on reaching my destination Canada.
Since I’m sitting alone eating today, I write a diary and read something. After that I return to the hostel and meet Thibaut again and another hiker. We get an ice cream together in a nearby supermarket and then we sit together for some time and eat our Ben & Jerry almost traditionallys, while we tell each other stories about the PCT. Although I haven’t seen Thibaut since the beginning of my hike and had never met the other hiker before, it still feels like we’ve all known each other for a long time. Maybe it’s because we all had the same problems and worries on the trail and the same places. So we’re all part of the PCT community and have a lot in common, although we don’t really know each other. After a while, we go back to our room and sleep.
Monday 08/19/2024
Although I could actually sleep in, I wake up just before 6 a.m. today. I lie down a bit and then go to the kitchen to eat my last oatmeal. I meet Thibault directly and sit down with him. Like me, he couldn’t sleep any longer and so we had breakfast together. Since I have a lot of time today and can’t find coffee, I’ll make my way to a café opposite the hostel later.
When I get back, my Thibaut and the other hiker that they go to a restaurant for breakfast. So I pack my things up and go for a second breakfast. In addition to the two hikers from the morning, there I also meet 4 other PCT hikers, all of whom I met somewhere on the trail. So we all talk together for a long time about our experiences on the PCT and it’s really good to sit down with the other hikers again.
After some time, most of them want to go on again because they still want to stay here in the city for a few days and want to see something. So we say goodbye for good and I’ll make my way to the airport, even if I still have a few hours.
Once there, I have lunch and spend time watching videos and reading news. Later, Thibaut will be added again, who will fly to Frankfurt on the same plane as me. We sit together for a while and later drop off our luggage. After the security check, we have dinner again and then we’ll soon be on the plane. Surprisingly, there is no passport control when leaving the country and since we have entered the country on foot, we have no proof in our passport for entry or departure, which surprises us. Our paths then separate on the plane and from then on we go for 9 hours in the direction of Frankfurt.
Tuesday 08/20/2024
Even if I could only sleep for about 2 hours, the flight passed quickly. In Frankfurt I am then greeted warmly by Germany again. Since there is a technical problem with the luggage belt, it takes almost 40 minutes to finally get our backpacks.
With my backpack I then go to the train station, only to find out that I have to drive to Mannheim with a rail replacement service, as the tracks between Frankfurt and Mannheim are apparently being renovated. Since the bus is a bit slower, I naturally miss my connecting train and will only arrive at the train station in Karlsruhe around 5 p.m. In total, it took me over 4 hours from the plane to here.
Luckily, my parents are so kind as to pick me up here and so there is even a picture of my arrival in Karlsruhe.
After almost 4 months on the road, I enter my apartment again in the evening. Even if the first few minutes feel a bit strange, it’s nice again to arrive at home after such a long and eventful time. Since I only slept a little on the flight and because of the time difference, I’ve been awake for quite a long time, I’ll soon be exhausted in my soft bed and fall asleep directly.
Review
When I arrive home, my journey on the PCT actually ends for me. In a way, it’s crazy that 4 months have passed since I left home for the USA and made my way from Mexico to Canada. So the time has passed very quickly this time and somehow it feels more like a few weeks instead of months. Here is a short summary of my trip.
On April 27, 2024, I started my hike on the PCT in Campo, on the border with Mexico. For the first few miles I went through the desert of Southern California, which was partly much greener than expected. I not only encountered a number of rattlesnakes, but was also able to marvel at the fantastic landscapes of the desert, which I really liked overall. Due to the dry nights, I gave up my tent on many days and enjoyed sleeping under the stricken sky. After 35 days and just over 700 miles (1126 km), I arrived at the end of the first section on my trip to Canada.
From Kennedy Meadows South, I continued towards the mountains. Equipped with a bear canister, micospikes and ice ax, I made my way to the Sierra. After I had climbed the highest mountain in the USA outside of Alaska with Mount Whitney (4421 m) after just a few days, I went on to the north via fantastic, snow-covered passes. Due to the extra weight of the equipment and food for many days, I made much slower here. But neither the snow, which sometimes made running strenuous, nor the numerous and often really ice-cold river crossings could stop me. So after another 27 days I reached South Lake Tahoe, which meant the end of the Sierra for me.
Next up was Northern California for me, where I was able to slowly increase the number of kilometers with lighter luggage. While the trail itself became a lot easier, I always struggled with great heat and especially in the numerous sections that led through the burned out forest, the sun was often unbearable. Here I also had the first section, which I unfortunately had to skip due to a larger fire. The bus and the car went around the outside and I was lucky that I was able to cross the border to Oregon on foot before another fire made this section impassable as well. As a result, after 81 days I was finally able to leave California, the first state, and continue my journey in Oregon.
In Oregon, the path then became much flatter again and here I was able to regularly complete more than 30 miles (48 km) per day. In addition to Crater Lake, the 24-hour challenge was certainly one of the highlights on the otherwise rather unspectacular trail. Unfortunately, there were always fires here that affect hiking and I was once forced to bypass almost 30 miles. In contrast to some other hikers, however, I was able to wander through large parts before more fires made many people jump almost all of Oregon.
In Washington, everything went very quickly at the end. While the path led up and down much more frequently, I was able to enjoy the last miles on the PCT in fantastic mountain landscapes. In contrast to the partly monotonous sections in the forest, hiking in the mountains felt really good again. Unfortunately, since I also had to skip a larger section here, I came to the north much earlier than expected.
After a few last days I reached the border with Canada after just 113 days and thus the end of my journey on the PCT. From here we went back home via Vancouver.
Here is the overview map again, which shows where I walked and which sections I unfortunately had to skip:
So my articles on my trip on the PCT end and that is probably the last experience report. I hope you enjoyed the reports and that you enjoyed reading.
P.S.: In the following days I will publish another article with the final statistics and I hope that I will be able to finish a small film about the PCT again in the next few weeks 😉
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