Last Day on the PCT – Reaching Mexico

Yesterday morning, I woke up to a 5:00 AM alarm for the last time in the foreseeable future. It was to be our last day on the PCT. We were camped about 16 miles from Campo and about 18 miles from the border with about a liter of water each. With no more water access until Campo. It’s pretty impressive that we managed to fail at having enough water on our last day on trail. You’d think we would’ve had it figured out by then. Rationing one liter of water for a 16 mile hike wasn’t the most fun thing I’ve ever done, but luckily we had relatively cool weather and cloud cover for most of the day.

We arrived in Campo around 2:30 in the afternoon and chugged a 32 oz. Powerade each. We’d gotten into town early enough to make it to the southern terminus while we still had sunlight. We hiked the last 1.6 miles to the monument, which meant we’d hiked about 2,280 miles of the PCT. I’m pretty happy with that number. After the goal of completing the entire trail, the secondary goal I’d had in my head from the beginning was to hike a minimum of 2,000 miles. And I did it! Hooray!

Walking away from the monument, I had this sinking feeling that it was time to start being a normal person again. We were treated to a beautiful sunset for the 1.6 mile walk back to town, which lifted my spirits. Once we got back to Campo, we set up camp behind the museum for the night. I felt proud of what I’d accomplished, sad that it was over, and not sure what was next.

As a gift, my mom told me she’d arranged for a driver to pick us up in Campo at 9:00 this morning and take us to a hotel in San Diego. My body clock woke me up at 4:45, so I lay awake, my mind racing with thoughts of what post-trail life might look like. After I’d had enough of that, I sat up, ate Apple Jacks, donuts and tortilla chips for breakfast, and packed everything up one last time. We took down the tent by 7:30 in the morning which meant we had plenty of time to waste before our driver showed up, so we hung out at our campsite picnic table. Then, to my surprise, who came prancing down the hill with two dozen Krispy Kreme donuts and a bunch of bananas in hand? My aunt and my mom. I. HAD. NO. IDEA.

After I ate more donuts than I thought humanly possible, the four of us drove to the monument and took a few more photos, with mini trophies and gold medals courtesy of mom. I was happy to go back one more time and celebrate!

As conflicted as my brain is feeling about being done, my body is ready for a break. I’ve been feeling new aches and pains over the past week or so. It’s like my body knew it was almost quitting time and just barely held out until the end. Thanks for all of your hard work, body!

And just like that, I’m done with the PCT. For this year, at least.