Flip it and reverse it

Changing course is hard. Admitting that your bright and best-laid plans didn’t work out is harder.

And getting up to rural Northern Washington without a car is perhaps hardest of all.

But it’s the right choice, we think.

At the midpoint of the trail near Chester, CA, we realized that we would have to make every day 25 or more miles to finish a NOBO on time before the snow flies in Washington.

But there was no wiggle room, no room for error or injury or sickness.

So we decided to play it safe.

After a long, long series of transportation (a yogi to a hitch to a hitch to a train to a train to a bus to a bus to a bus to a hitch) we are in Mazama, Washington at Ravensong’s Roost, preparing to hitch out to Hart’s Pass, the nearest road access to the northern terminus. We’ll head up to the border monument then turn around and hike back south to the midpoint.

I’ll miss ending the trip on the high of finishing at the border but I am glad we will have increased our chances of finishing at all.

Onward. —K