This post originally appeared on The Trek, which you can read here.

If you want to see more from my 2025 PCT thru hike, make sure to check out my Instagram (@annamckinney22) and TikTok (@magicinthemountains) for daily vlogs!

*these posts are coming straight from trail, I apologize in advance for typos!*

Day 148: September 2, 2025

Location: Northern Washington
Start: Leavenworth – 2467.3
End: Leavenworth – 2467.3
Miles: 0.0
Sleep: Building

What a lovely and much needed day of doing nothing! It felt so good to sleep in and have an easily morning. The only downside to our AirBnB is that there’s no A/C so it was hot overnight and there’s very little air movement in the condo. I sat outside to drink my coffee, the condo has a great little porch that was shaded and cool.

When everyone else got up, Pimento started making his legendary biscuits and gravy for breakfast. We had biscuits and gravy, sausage, and scrambled eggs and ended up with tons of leftovers despite our hiker hunger.

We talked about potentially going tubing which would have been a great way to spend a hot and sunny zero, but we all decided we were pretty lazy and honestly didn’t want to do anything. If we didn’t leave the condo that’d be fine by me. We all found different spots to chill at and pretty much just played on our phones all day. I tried to get caught up on my vlogs and blogs.

Later in the day Truffles and I did a load of laundry and sorted through our resupply package. Hard to believe this is our second to last resupply! With most of our town chores done, Truffles and I walked across town to Dan’s Food Market to get stuff to cook for dinner. Truffles decided to cook a creamy chicken and ranch pasta and we got salad and bread to go with it. We took the free bus across town back to the condo, and Truffles got to cooking.

Dinner was delicious and made with love! Our group spent some time looking at FarOut to try and figure out when we’d likely finish so that we could go ahead and book plane tickets home. Purchasing those made it really sink in that this grand adventure is coming to a close. We ended the night by all watching Mrs. Doubtfire together and eating ice cream. Back to trail tomorrow!

Day 149: September 3, 2025

Location: Northern Washington
Start: Leavenworth – 2467.3
End: Lake Janus – 2477.1
Miles: 9.8
Ascent: 2022 | Descent: 1933
Sleep: Tent

Back on trail after our final zero. I set my alarm for 6am this morning because I didn’t want to feel rushed getting out of the airbnb. Getting up early gave me some time to sit and drink my coffee before everyone else got up, and I had a peaceful morning enjoying the rental’s porch. We had said we all wanted to try and be out the door around 9am, so the rest of the group got up at various times throughout the morning.

We all reheated leftover pasta and biscuits and gravy for breakfast and packed up our stuff. It took longer than expected, but we had tidied up the airbnb and were out the door just before 10am.

We walked down the street to the round about heading out of town. The bus driver had told Truffles and I that this location would be the best to hitch from. Based on how long it took to get a hitch coming into Leavenworth, I was worried we’d have our thumbs out for a while.

Thankfully when we got to the corner there weren’t any other hikers. A Czech couple and Scout Master showed up after us, but they were insistent that we’d get the first ride. Hitching as a group of 5 is tough because realistically no one can haul all of us. I feel like people often don’t stop because they see so many of us. We almost always have to divide up, and somehow Truffles and I are always the last ones to get a ride.

We’d be standing on the curb for about 15 minutes when a CyberTruck pulled over and said they could take 3 people up to Stevens Pass. Pinky, Hangman, and Pimento got in and were whisked away. Truffles and I stood there with the others for another 20 minutes or so before a woman pulled over in an SUV and said she could take 4 of us. Scout Master let the couples go on ahead and promised to see us up the trail.

We hadn’t ever met the other couple before, but it turned out dour driver was also from a he Czech Republic and so the 3 of them spoke in their native language the entire 45 minute ride up to Stevens Pass. It was nice to have an excuse not to talk and I enjoyed watching the river go by as we drove up the mountain.

When we were dropped off at the ski resort we found our friends and got a move on. At this point it was around 11:30am and I was glad we had gotten moving earlier in the day.

The trail was mostly flat and over pine needles for the first couple of miles. I know this is supposed to be the hardest section so I was surprised by this gentle start. It was a good way to get back into the grove after a day off, but my heavy pack still made me feel slow. We crossed a couple of creeks and then began climbing.

Hangman looked ahead for the rest of the trail and picked our campsites for each night. We don’t usually plan ahead like this, but since we needed to book plane tickets in Leavenworth we needed to know what day we’d be finishing on. He found campsites that were roughly 20 miles apart and close to water. Our campsite for the night was only about 10 miles from Stevens Pass, so we didn’t have to worry about rushing.

The climb wasn’t all that steep but it felt difficult with 5 days of food. We all took it pretty slow and I passed the time by listening to my audiobook. Around 1:30pm I stopped for lunch at Lake Valhalla and got to eat with Rockslide and the rest of our group. We found a good spot in the shade and ended up staying there for nearly 2 hours. We are, cut up, and all took brief power naps before packing up and hiking on.

The final 4 miles of the day went by quickly since it was mostly flat and downhill. I hiked ahead by myself and saw a couple of snakes and even a very curious squirrel that got really close to me. I made it to the lakeside campsite just after 5pm and pretty much had my pick of campsites. There were other people around, but there were so many sites it was easy to find a large area with some privacy.

The rest of the group arrived and we got set up and began making dinner. A new guy who we’d never met before showed up and ate dinner with us. His name was Innocent and he’s from Alabama. We all chit chatted while we ate and it felt good to be back on trial. The sun set around 7:45pm and it didn’t take long for things to start getting dark. It feels like it’s going to be chilly tonight, hopefully there won’t be a ton of condensation to deal with in the morning.

Day 150: September 4, 2025

Location: Northern Washington
Start: Lake Janus – 2477.1
End: Lake Sally Ann – 2496.6
Miles: 19.5
Ascent: 5271 | Descent: 3900
Sleep: Tent

Today was a good day. When I got up around 6am it was really hazy out. It had been clear and beautiful yesterday, so I wasn’t sure where all the cloud cover was coming from. As the morning wore on and we started hiking, it became obvious that it wasn’t clouds but was actually smoke. When we left Leavenworth there had been several small fires around town, but nothing close to the trail. The higher we climbed, though, the smokier it got. Every time we were on a ridge we tried to get signal to get fire updates, but didn’t have any luck. The smoke wasn’t enough to make it hard to breath, but it definitely obstructed our views and made me nervous for what was ahead of us.

Aside from the smoke and threat of fires, the hiking today was good. We had a big climb first thing this morning, but jt looked way worse on FarOut than it actually was. Truffles and I talked the whole way up it and got to go over Grizzly Peak together. The FarOut description made me laugh because it said “in a rare occurrence, the PCT passes over the top of a mountain peak, the 5560 foot Grizzly Peak”. There weren’t great views because of the smoke, but I’m sure it would be nice on a clear day. The open sprawling grass and dotted evergreen trees on the summit reminded me of the balds in southern Appalachia.

After crossing Grizzly Peak the trail took us down and back up again to Pear Lake. We stopped here for water and I dropped my pack and took the blue blaze down to fill up our water bags. I ran into Pinky and Hangman here and was able to get water form the deep blue lake. Back at the trail Truffles and I filtered water while Pimento caught up to us. The 3 of us set out together and were floored by the short and steep climb after the lake. It seemed to come out of nowhere and had us gasping for breath. We took it slowly and finally created over the top of the hill.

We hiked down toward a stream and stopped for a lunch break at a campsite by water. The smoke was getting worse and it felt very hot out. It was weird because we were in direct sun, but it felt like there was a layer obscuring the sun so that its rays were directly on us. Instead it felt like we were insulated and being slowly roasted. Despite all this, we still sat at our break spot for nearly 2 hours. Everyone else took naps but I got going again after 2pm.

There were a few more ups and downs before the final descent of the day. I passed the junction for Cary Creek and then began the final long ascent for the day. Like before this climb wasn’t as bad as it looked. Along the way I ran into an older woman hiking south who gave me some distressing news about the fires. According to her, a section of the trail north of here was closed due to fires and she recommended we get off at the first junction we come to. She said the smoke was really bad up top and figured we’d run into trick closures soon.

This news was distressing, especially since I had no way verify it. I thanked the woman for her intel and kept trudging up the hill. Thankfully I had updated Gaia before leaving town so I alternate trials I could Look at for potential exit points. I stopped several times on the climb to try for signal and look at the map, but no luck.

Eventually I made it to the top and got a single bar of signal. I was able to check the PCT closure app and saw that there was an “alert” issued for a section of trail about 10 miles north due to the Red Mountain fire. Watch Duty wouldn’t load with my crappy signal, so I continued on with plans of discussing my findings with the group.

The last mile and a half went slowly to make Sally Ann just because I was ready to be there. I was the first to arrived around 5:30pm and scoped out a site then began filtering water by the lake. The rest of my group slowly trickled in along with Jubilee and her husband and at least 7 other hikers. There weren’t a ton of campsites so I was glad we got there when we did.

Our conversation over dinner centered around the fires and what our plan of action should be. We knew we didn’t want to backtrack the 30 miles back to Stevens Pass, so that meant we’d either have to bail ASAP or press on. We looked at the map and saw that if we bailed off at the Cady Ridge trail tomorrow morning, we could potentially make it all the wh back to Leavenworth and then skip up to Stehekin. No one really knew what would be the best answer so we all decided to make a decision tomorrow. Hopefully we’ll get a good night’s sleep and be able to make the right call tomorrow morning.