Resting up at Tom & Steve's place...

Clean shaven & with a bit more weight back on us, we have been spending some solid quality time on the couch, taking it as easy as possible.





Our joints, feet and muscles are still aching & tired... Possibly worse than before we finished even! But hopefully things will improve with more rest... Taco Bell tonight! Yippee!!
RWK
Resting still...

OK... another Post... Video this time!

Hey Spencer!

As it says in the clip... This one's for you, bud!

Rock on!!

RWK.
DONE.

COMPLETE!

Well, after 4.5 months, over 2600 miles, and each having lost in excess of 30lbs in weight, we have made it to the northern terminus of the Pacific Crest Trail, crossing into Canada on Thursday morning at 0900. After a tired, cold but happy celebration at the monument, with copious amounts of picture taking and video recording, Tom and I had to make the final 8 mile push further north into Canada through Manning park to reach the nearest road... it was either that or a 30-odd mile hike back to Harts Pass in the USA. And obviously, by then, with bodies long beyond knackered, we chose the 8 mile option. That was tough enough!

So after reaching the lodge and hostel at Manning Park and discovering electricity and water was as good as it got, we rested up that day and began to try the weight recovery process with a few hefty meals at the resterant there!

Stacie, Will and Christa joined us there for celebratory dinner too. We did final interviews for their film the next morning before F1 driver Stacie drove us all the way back 5 hours, to Seattle where we are all chilling and internetting like mad. And eating too. Lots!

Once Tom and I get back to MN, I will get busy with an update to the journal with the last sections worth of pix and narrative, and probably follow that up with a "stats" style last entry... but for this 'blog', this will probably be one of the last, if not the last, post.... we'll see!

OK, gonna upload the all-important pic, and then get busy again with some more eating!

Cheers y'all.

RWK.

Accomplished.

A Blast from the Pass't.

After 2 years and 3 months, Tom and I found ourselves back in a familiar place... Rainy Pass.

We'd cycled up the long steep road to Rainy Pass during the Northern Tier bike ride in June 2007, rough-camping on the side of the road in the snow that was still there.

This time we emerged from the forest to cross the road to the now snow-free proper campsite that we couldn't get to those 27 month before.

It was pretty cool to be back there, and during the hike up along the trail, we crossed over the creek that further downstream we'd been camped next to, cold and tired. This time we were in better shape and the weather was much warmer!

From Rainy Pass, it is around a 'mere' 60 miles to the border... so we are almost there!

RWK

Pushin' on!

Berry berry good!

The past 100 to 150 miles have been pretty damn good... The sun has been shining & the trail, for the most part, has been well graded. Some steep slogs, but lots of long flat sections going around the mountains, not over them. Amazingly, lining the trail as much as 6 feet deep, there has been a massive abundance of wild blueberries & huckleberries. Fantastic! I have been stopping every so often, especially when I spot some fat juicy ones, and picking a handful to snack on. It's these little things that make this what it should be...

RWK
Berried up!

Mount Rainier

After the misery & near zero misty visibility of the low clouds & rain, when the weather cleared & the sun came out, we were treated to some fantastic views of the surrounding snow covered mountains... Especially Mt Adams & Mt Rainier... & just cos I can, here's some info I copy n pasted from Wikipedia;

Mount Rainier is an active[7] stratovolcano (also known as a composite volcano) in Pierce County, Washington, located 54 miles (87 km) southeast of Seattle. It towers over the Cascade Range as the most prominent mountain in the contiguous United States and Cascade Volcanic Arc at 14,411 feet (4,392 m).[1][2]
The mountain and the surrounding area are protected within Mount Rainier National Park. With 26 major glaciers and 35 square miles (91 km2) of permanent snowfields and glaciers, Mount Rainier is the most heavily glaciated peak in the lower 48 states. The summit is topped by two volcanic craters, each over 1,000 feet (300 m) in diameter with the larger east crater overlapping the west crater. Geothermal heat from the volcano keeps areas of both crater rims free of snow and ice, and has formed the world's largest volcanic glacier cave network within the ice-filled craters.[8] A small crater lake about 130 by 30 feet (40 m × 9.1 m) in size and 16 feet (5 m) deep, the highest in North America with a surface elevation of 14,203 feet (4,329 m), occupies the lowest portion of the west crater below more than 100 feet (30 m) of ice and is accessible only via the caves.[9] [10]
Mount Rainier has a topographic prominence of 13,210 feet (4,030 m), greater than that of K2 (13,189 feet (4,020 m)).[4] On clear days it dominates the southeastern horizon in most of the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metropolitan area to such an extent that residents sometimes refer to it simply as "the Mountain."[11] On days of exceptional clarity, it can also be seen from as far away as Portland, Oregon, and Victoria, British Columbia.

Cheers!
RWK.
Out.

I love Arby's!

When we had our near-o & zero in Cascade Locks, we took a 50 mile gear resupply to Portland with Christa & Will. A big, very important part of that trip was gorging ourselves at Arby's, home of the roast beef n cheese sandwich... & I had 2 meals, plus 4 more roast beef sandwiches to go! Awesome!!