Mile 2638.7 – 2650 + 8 miles in Manning Provincial Park.
The mountains were black silhouettes against a horizon of deep red. Lifeless clouds slowly gained definition as the sun, still hidden, rose toward the horizon. As it broke the horizon, rays of light fell like sparks from a furnace on the landscape alighting it in orange light. We were getting a good show on our last day on trail. I thanked the trail gods as I packed up my tent.
We had camped just below Woody Pass at 6,600 feet, and it had been a cold night. We had the distinct feeling that we had reached some sort of turning point and the weather and temperatures were just going to take a steady turn for the worse from here on out. Night time temperatures were already flirting with freezing.
We climbed up and over the pass and noticed that the view to the opposing mountains were more hazy than yesterday. The prevailing winds were blowing in smoke from the Diamond Creek Fire.
After about 4 miles, we ran into more hikers coming the opposite way. They had already finished the trail and were hiking back to Hart’s or Rainy Pass. Over the past few days, I have been surprised by how many people aren’t going into Canada, but rather hiking to the monument and then heading back. I didn’t even know this was a thing. I talked to a few of the hikers and it seemed like many of them hadn’t filed the proper paperwork to get into Canada. Both Bedazzled and I couldn’t imagine turning around and hiking back after hiking north for so long.
As we continued on, the trail became a little more overgrown. When we crested each rise in the trail, we imagined that we could see Canada up ahead. I periodically looked back at Bedazzled and each time we both had goofy grins on our faces that threatened to split our cheeks. Our mood was cheerful and upbeat and we tried to drink in our surroundings knowing that soon our journey would be over.
After so many steps and so many days, it is hard to believe that our walk is coming to an end. It is hard to remember a time when we weren’t walking. Walking has become a staple of our lives. Something that is like breathing, eating, and sleeping. It was once at the forefront of each day, but it gradually shifted to the background. Now to stop walking almost feels like we are giving up breathing, eating or sleeping.
Various thoughts ran through my head, but I felt decidedly upbeat and had a sense of euphoria that built with each step. A goal that was too grand to imagine was now about to be accomplished. The obstacles to reaching this goal have been well documented in this journal and I never assumed success was certain.
As we came around a bend in the trail, we saw the clear-cut that spans the length of the U.S. – Canada border. “There it is!” I yelled to Bedazzled. We paused a moment and took it in.
Down below, I could half see something that looked like the monument at the northern terminus. We bounced down the last length of trail and came into a clearing.
“Oh, boy!” I muttered to myself. There it was. The northern terminus of the Pacific Crest Trail! Bedazzled and I kissed the monument and each other. We had done it! We had thru-hiked the entire PCT. Through the desert, Sierra Nevada, wildfires, and the North Cascades, we preserved through cracked and bloody feet, snow and ragging rivers, and fires with throat burning smoke. The obstacles fell one by one before our determined feet.
I set down my pack and climbed up the monument. I stood atop it and raised my hands to the sky. My journey was done. My goal completed. I had hiked the Pacific Crest Trail.
April 23, 2017
September 17, 2017
April 19th, 2017
September 17, 2017
We have enjoyed following your blog and adventures. Great pictures and great prose. We will miss reading your daily entries. Amazing accomplishment for you and Bedazzled!! Now on to the next great adventure of life!
Congratulations on your tremendous achievement! I have enjoyed tagging along through your gorgeous photos and graphic prose. And I will miss checking each day to see if there is a new post, unless of course, you decide to document your continuing travels! (hint, hint) 🙂
Absolutely Amazing!! I am SO happy for you to have reach this tremendous goal!! Congratulations to you and your faithful trail partner, Bedazzled!! Thanks for all your great posts and fantastic pictures of your journey!! It was a long hard road but you got it done!!
Congratulations, to you and Bedazzle. Amazing! We will miss your blogs, unless, of course, you continue blogging. We were at Steven’s Pass on 13th and we figure you were there about the 9th. It was fun to just stand on the trail and get a picture. Thanks for this wonderful ride.
Well done fine sir, well done. Ive been following you for what seems like a long time. I have to say Im sad your blog will conclude. Your a gentleman and a scholar! Thanks for bringing me on your journey!
Matt Parsons
Denver CO
Thank you for your kind words. It was great to share my journey with everyone, and I am glad you enjoyed it. Take care!
Congratulations, so proud of you both! Thanks for your dedication to the trail and your blog. Love you!
Oh, Owen! Tears come to my eyes…you have given us a new look at life, a slice of your life that we got to see in your photographs and hear in your words. You met challenges, faced situations on your own terms, experienced joy and friendships and angels, folks helping out on the trail and those following you electronically. I too will miss seeing your extraordinary photos from the trail and your honest, descriptive comments daily. (Though I hope to see new photos from your life perspective and hear comments from you.) This Aunt’s tears are ones of joy for your and Bedazzled’s accomplishments, dedication, teamwork and grace. So, proud of you! Congratulations!!!
Thanks Betsy! It was great to know you were reading along the whole time. Your comments and encouragement helped keep me writing on all those nights on trail.
Thanks for including photos of you both at the start of this journey and at its conclusion.
Dear Harley,
we also want to thank you for sharing all your photographs, your impressions and your thoughts with us.
Every day I was in expectation to read your blog what has happened to you and my daughter.
I was so proud of you both, that I told all my friends from your adventures. I think they all are glad now that you finished the PCT.
But I realy will miss my daily reading.
I also enjoyed the comments from your followers. Greetings from Germany to all of them, espacially to Aunt Betsy.
So congratulions to you both. I am so glad that you have reached Canada healthy, because of some risks like old and damaged shoes,a falling Bedazzeled and much more.
Yes indeed, it certainly is possible to fall from the mexican border to Canada.
Hope you stay friends for the full life.
We hope to see you in Europe.Anytime.
All the best and enjoy every day, we try too….
Thanks for following along and more importantly for encouraging Bedazzled to follow her dream. I’m not sure what the trail would have been like without her. I look forward to the chance to meet you and your family.
Greetings to you Claudia! Your daughter is an amazing young woman!I feel privileged to have “met” her through this blog. I am thankful for her perseverance, sense of humor and willingness to be photographed. She helped give us a perspective of the grand size of the mountains and natural habitat. Her smile, sweet face and good attitude are a blessing especially on a journey like this. I’m glad she walked with Harley to the end. Blessings to you and your family.
Thank you very much for sharing your adventures and thoughts with us. It was really a pleasure to read your blog for all 146 days. Your blog was not only the decription of the daily landscape you saw and people you meet. For me it was the profound thoughts you always put between, what makes this blog so worth reading. And of cauase the fantastic pictures, which gives us a direct approach to what you experience.
And by the way: it was fantastic for us to read what our daughter experience at the pct. And what a luck for her to be so often on your picture!
Congratulations to you both. We wish you good time back in California and a good transition to your “normal” life in NYC.
Greetings from germany also to all other busy comment-writer
Thank you for the kind words! I am so glad that you all were able to read about Bedazzled’s journey and see so many photos of her in action. You have a remarkable daughter.
Grüss Gott!
Congratulation to you both!You really can be proud that you both reached your goal as a tru hiker! Thank you for your daily reports of the PCT, for the impressions you made, for the description of the mountains and for your absolutely wonderful fotos! I have been following your journey the last five months and I will miss your daily blogs. Thank you for sharing your experience with us.
Greetings from Bavaria!
It was a great pleasure to share Bedazzled’s and my journey with all her family. Thank you for all your kind words :-).
Congratulations Harley!
It’s Luise, Bedazzled’s little sister.
Thank you so much for taking us with you on your long journey, I enjoyed every blog entry, every picture you took. They all were truly, truly beautiful and inspiring.
Both of you can be freaking proud of what you’ve done, you really do.
Thank you and huge congrats, I am very happy that you made to the Canadian border safe and sound.
Lots of Love and keep walking (maybe another trail in the future?)
Luise
Ah, Bedazzled’s little sister. She showed me a video of you playing the guitar. You’re pretty good. Thanks for the congratulations and I am glad to hear you were reading the blog too. Bedazzled might try to get you to hike the Continental Divide Trail so watch out!
Following you and Bedazzled (along with Rebekah and Rachel )has been a pleasure and I looked forward to each installment of your blog! Your pictures and journal entries were inspiring and a thing of beauty. Congratulations to you and Bedazzled for a
Completing your goal! May this just be the beginning of MANY accomplishments which fulfill your individual bucket lists! You mentioned Bedazzled said you might want to consider being a National park ranger. One of our best friends worked at the Devil’s Punchbowl and absolutely LOVED his job and life til retirement last year. He’s a wonderful photographer and philosopher just like you! He’s also 70, looks 45 and contributes that to his love of nature. Anyway, seems like whatever you choose to do with your life you can! Thank you for sharing yourjourney!!!!
One of the greatest joys of the trail was all the chance encounters with people along the trail. It was a pleasure to meet you and Marc and your comments helped keep me writing.
All the Rangers I met along the trail seemed so relaxed and to genuinely enjoy their jobs. It is reassuring to know that your friend did as well.
I hope all is well and that you two are enjoying your hobby farm.
Another German reader says “Congratulations” to these successful hikers! Bedazzled’s grandma is very glad that they have reached their goal after 5 months healthy und happy! All what I would now say is just remarked from the other comments. Now I wish both hikers luck for all further hikes and travels in your life!!! At last:I’ll miss your daily blogs!
Dankeschön Frau Fischer! I heard you are an avid hiker as well. Perhaps Bedazzled gets it from you :-). I hope I have the chance to meet you some day. Take care!
Agree with all the comments already posted. Pictures – amazing. Commentary – informative about all aspects of your experience. Congrats!! I hiked the JMT this summer and could not imagine doing some of those passes when there was considerable snow on them!!
If you have the chance to reply, can you tell me what app you used to create your blog? I assume much of it was done offline as a draft and then published when you had service???
Thanks, and congrats again.
Hey, Ron thank you for the congratulations! I used the WordPress app on my phone to write the blog entries and saved them as drafts. When I had service, I would add in photos and then schedule posts to come out once a day. It worked pretty well.
Phantastic achievement! Was great to read about your daily progress! Greetings from my vacation destination Greece, your German blog-reader Eugen(e)
Congratulations! So remember that feeling. Thoroughly enjoyed your pictures and account of your journey. Transition back to NOT walking everyday for hours is a little weird, but you’ll adjust. It’s like changing jobs. Once again, congratulations on you and Bedazzled’s finish. Welcome to the club. Be sure to put in for you medals…they’re really cool.