September 8
Mileage 16.25
Mile 2601 to Brush Creek 2617
I again leave first but I haven’t had my breakfast yet so I stop after a mile and chow down. Ok, chow down is an overstatement since my hiker hunger in nonexistent. I eat a bar and and a dried pineapple slice. I’m soon on my way up and up and up. 1500 ft. in 3 miles. No biggie really. But I can feel it in my lungs. I crest at Cutthroat Pass (6836 ft.) where the group in taking a break.
Guess it’s time for another snack. And it’s cold. Down jacket goes on. Sunshine snaps a nice picture of me and his rock cairn. Then it’s time to take some glamor shots of Tree Killer in his Backcountry Ninjas T-shirt. Apparently he’s doing a whole dude section in their upcoming catalog. A man, his cotton T-shirt and wilderness. Epic! And because we have boundless energy we throw rocks at Sunshine’s rock cairn until Tree Killer victoriously kills it. Man, I really thought I was going to get it.
And off we go. Through the most amazing country you’ll ever climb. Mountains as far as the eye can see. After a leisurely lunch, we crest Methow Pass. 50 miles from the border! Commence crushing. Downhill forest miles skip by quickly. The 3 mph legs are working and we arrive at our Brush Creek camp just after 5 pm. We tuck into little campsites and then we’re just sitting around staring at each other. Now what? We didn’t learn to camp on the PCT. We only know how to walk. And sleep and walk. And eat and poop and walk some more. Camp time, what’s that? Somehow we survive this long evening and Tree Killer and I watch the full moon come up as it blasts us with light.
Journey Return 