Wasington PCT 2015: Day 39

Beautiful morning

Day 39 was amazing, especially at the end. It started out with a long gradual climb through the forest. Then, we were in some amazing mountain meadows.

Ridge walking

Shull Mountain

Hiking up to Rock Pass

A beautiful field

Panorama below Holman Peak

It was a lovely parting gift from the trail to get views for hundreds of miles in all directions. We saw snowy peaks to the south and tall mountains up north. There were flowers and berries along the trail. We talked a lot about how this was our last day and tried to soak up every moment of it. We also talked a bit about food... we were excited to eat our arrival meal at Manning Park!

Amazing view to the south

Heading over Rock Pass

Woody pass: so close yet so far

Woody pass was a funny moment in day. It is a very short hike to it straight across from the nearest pass but that route is a dangerous deer trail. The PCT winds nearly two miles into the valley below and up the the next pass.  It was a very long hike and we never seemed to get to the top of Woody pass. By the time we did arrive, we were grumpy hikers yelling at the pass. It is kind of fun to yell at the top of your lungs in the middle of nowhere!

Heading down into the valley

Our last ridge walk is ahead

Not a fan of Woody Pass

New view to the north

Highest point on Washington trail

After our moment at the highest point of the trail, we headed down to our final campsite next to Hopkin's lake. It started out difficult as we hiked down the Devils Staircase. That is a steep scary section of trail that is not for those with heights problems. It was rough for Laura but she got through it like a champ! It was like one last cruel joke played on her by the trail.
We were soon down at the lake. There were deer everywhere making noises and things. We had a lovely dinner and relaxed. We were excited to have finished our last full day of hiking on the PCT. We had hiked 18.5 miles and had only a short hike to the border.

Hopkins lake

Our last campsite