One last night of sleeping in a bed for awhile. In Seattle, excited, kind of exhausted too. I’m hoping to get to sleep soon.
Trail life has started seeping into normal life in the sense that we’ve been keeping our plans flexible and fun. We have driven thousands of miles and gotten to see some amazing parts of the country. From trail in 2021, we flew to Ohio, drove to Denver, drove to Alaska, drove back from Alaska to Washington, and now we’re waiting to ride the train tomorrow, to catch a bus, to thumb for a hitch, and then start walking North. I think that is the simple, travel version of the past 21 months for us.
Alaska was an incredible year and a half and I’m so happy we were able to move up there for a brief time. Drove up in November ’21 and winter had already arrived in the North. It was 80 degrees in Denver when we started the drive, and when we left Tok 6 days later it was -29. It was a long, but enjoyable drive on snowy roads through Canadian wilderness. During our time in Alaska, I got to spend the summer of ’22 fishing salmon with my cousin Alex who runs a commercial fishing operation in Shirleyville. Marie and I also worked a few shifts alongside my cousin Laura on her food truck. Friends and family visited, we drove to a few other towns, saw tons of wildlife, the Northern lights, Denali from the air, and even hiked a few times. Alaska really deserves its own post, it was awesome.
The biggest update is that on our way back from Alaska, we stopped in Williams Lake BC and got engaged! I didn’t propose on trail, as a few people in our lives had expected. It was a calm, cool evening on the deck of a cabin that backed up to Chimney Lake. We were watching the sunset, listening to the loons, and the timing felt right. She said yes!
PCT Hike 