We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time. -T.S. Eliot

Manning Park.   Waiting for the bus to Vancouver:

MP 2646     Camped at a small spring.   Weather getting colder and I am hiking with a windshirt and gloves.   There is a beautiful aroma in the air, somewhat like Parmesan.    The golden-yellow Larch tremble and quake in the wind.  Berries at this elevation are all gone now.   The North Cascades are stunning in their beauty.   I love the beep of the picas which dodge behind the rocks when they see me.   There are sprinkles of rain but my luck is still holding and I have been able to stay dry.
     I reached the PCT terminus monument on the Canadian Border today.    The hike is officially over.   There are nine more miles to Manning Park where I will finish the hike at MP 2669.   

MP 2623    Camped up high on Butterfly Pass.   Very cold at night.  Freezing.   Got down to maybe 20 degrees would be my guess.   Still sleeping outside the tent.  

Larch at Butterfly Pass:

MP 2601   I crossed a highway and headed up as it started to get dark.    The trail switchbacked up a mountainside with a steep grade, maybe 100 degrees  (45 degree angle).   Finally found a small niche in a hollow next to a large, old-growth fir tree.   No room for the tent here.    Unfortunately it did start raining, lightly, during the night.    I pulled my tent over myself like a sheet and fell back to sleep. 

 

MP 2580   Ten miles to High Bridge and then catch a bus to Stehekin.   This is the last stop for resupply before I get to Canada.   The Agnes River Gorge is breathtaking.   I am sitting around with a bunch of hikers waiting for the bus.
     After coming out of Stehekin I camped out at High Bridge C.G.      The CG looked liked an invitation to other hikers so I broke the rules and camped on a ridge above.

Waiting for the bus:

 Gnu:

 Hiker Trash:

MP 2570   Continuing to hike through the Glacier Peak Wilderness.   Mountains on all sides tower above.  Crossed over the Saddle Bow Mountains which were as impressive as any I have seen on the hike.   The forests are more quiet than usual, probably because the migratory birds have started to fly south.   Vine maple colors the landscape.   Bear scat is purple from the huckleberries.   Fungi are abundant.   I frequently see mushrooms which I think, but an not sure, are edible:  Lion's Mane, Chicken of the Woods, boletes, rusula brevipes.     Saw a growth of chicken-of-the-woods that must have stair-stepped about 20 feet up and around a tree.    Don't feel quite confident enough to try them out though.   It has been many years since I collected edible mushrooms.