Day 187: CANADA!!!!! kinda...

Monday 10/22/12
Miles 2,654-2,668 (14 miles)
Elevation 3,900'

Ooooo man it was COLD this morning!!!!  At around 10:30am we were all still huddled in our sleeping bags.  Kyle and I were the first to leave.  Gotta get movin!!  We were camped at 6,200 feet and it was chilly!!  Dang it was hard to get up in the morning.  It was hilarious, we were all just talking to each other inside our tents, no one was in a hurry to move.  But alas, the border will not get closer if we just sit on our butts in the tent all day!

Once on trail, I was soon passed by Scallywag and then Cityfood.  They were in much more of a hurry than I to get to the border.  When we were about a half mile away, we suddenly hear a bunch of screaming and yelling.  Cityfood has reached the monument, and wasn't far away.  Lol!  It was hilarious, him and Scallywag were screaming like Banshees the entire time from when we first heard them til we got to the monument.

Doe Eyes, taking a photo

We finally found it.  The monument.  The concrete block that we've been seeing in other hiker's photos for the past month, from all the hikers that have already finished.  The pillars of concrete that seemed like a mere fleeting wish, just 6 months ago.  The carbon copy of the same monument at the Southern Terminus of the trail, in Campo California, right next to the Mexican Border.  Holy crap.  We did it.  And we did it in snowshoes.  Hahaha!  Dang, we hiked a lotta miles to get here!!

victory is ours!

at the bottom right corner of this picture is another, hollow monument that people left a lot of random crap in.  amongst that was the Staples' "that was easy" red button.  hahaha.  thats the red thing you see on the monument to my left.  when you push the button, a voice says "well that was easy".  hikers...we have a sense of humor ya know. :D

doing it Aloha style!!

Kyle, celebrating with some whiskey! you see that white line that is just above the monument?  That is the US/Canadian border.  Yup, its just a giant long treecut in the middle of the forest.

Squizzle is high-5ing the snowman (that Scallywag made)

Team Snowshoe For The Win!!

We didn't really spend that much time at the monument.  It was cold and I wanted to keep moving.  Besides, it ain't over til the fat lady sings, right?  We still need to get to the Manning Park Lodge which was 8 miles away.  And it started snowing which means the clouds moved in and it was getting cold!  Its amazing how much body heat you lose when you stop moving.  The good news is, its all downhill from here!  YAY!  At this point we didn't need snowshoes anymore.  We were in low enough elevation that the snow wasn't very thick at all and it was much faster and easier to just walk in our regular shoes.  Kyle and I absolutely hauled ass to get to Manning park lodge.  We were now in Manning Provincial Park (the Canadian version of the State Parks that we have here).

We hauled so much ass, in fact, that we missed a turn at right as it was about to get dark, we realized we were on the wrong trail.  WHAT THE HECK?!?!  The last few miles of trail we were on an old jeep road.  At some point we were supposed to make a left turn.  We missed the left turn and ended up at the bottom of the hill.  The good news is, we can hear the highway and we knew it was right in front of us.  The bad news is, there is a wide stream between us and the highway.  The trail pretty much just stopped.  We have no idea what trail we were on now, but it basically led to nowhere.  A dead end in the forest with a stream.  Meanwhile, we can hear cars.  On the other side of the stream.  ARRRRRRGGGGGG!!!!  What made this incredibly frustrating is, it is now dark, so bushwhacking is not an intelligent option.  If we slipped on some unseen branch and broke and ankle or something that would just be horrible. 

We saw a map and a sign that pointed to a trail that supposedly led to a stream crossing about 3 miles up, so we tried for that.  We opted to stay on an established trail, as opposed to trying to bushwhack and then getting lost or something equally dumb.  So, about 2 miles into this random side trail, it heads inland and  uphill.  WHAT THE HECK?!?  According to the sign we saw, it was supposed to parallel the stream and then eventually cross it.  We were going up the mountain, opposite of where we want to be.  Damnit, Canada!  Update your signs!!  Lol!  Geez... Perhaps the most demoralizing thing of the whole ordeal was that the highway was so close that at a couple points on the trail, we could see headlights of the passing cars through the trees.  Only problem is that damn stream between us and the road.  We could have just tried to ford the stream in the dark, but that just seemed like an accident waiting to happen.  So we made camp and would try it in the morning when it was light out.

Who'd have thought we'd be camping another night in the snow?  Lol.  Oh the beautiful irony of the trail.  The PCT was not going to let us go without one last hurrah.