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 (@annamckinneysmith) and TikTok (@magicinthemountains) for daily vlogs!

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

Day 151: September 5, 2025

Location: Northern Washington
Start: Lake Sally Ann – 2496.6
End: Cady Ridge Trail – 2497.1
Miles: 0.5
Sleep: Building

Today took an unexpected turn (for the better?). I woke up several times during the night and could smell smoke each time. When I finally got up around 6 and got out of the tent, the sky was thick with smoke and the sun was blazing red in the sky. It looked like something out of a post apocalyptic movie. The smoke had significantly worsened overnight, and we unanimously decided to bail off at the Cady Ridge trail.

After we went to bed last night even more people showed up at the campsite by the lake, so everyone was talking this morning about their plans. The bad part was that no one had reliable signal to be able to check Watch Duty to see what fires were actually close by and how much of a threat they were to us. It’s hard to just go based on what limited information we had, but we felt like the smoke was bad enough that we didn’t want to prolong our exposure. There were other folks that felt similarly and were planning to do the same thing, and then other hikers that felt like we were over exaggerating by getting off trail. We knew we were making the best decision for us, but it still felt kind of shitty to be leaving even despite all of us coughing and carrying on in the haze.

We started hiking just after 7:30am and it didn’t take long before we veered off the PCT on started heading down the Cady Ridge trail. We weren’t sure how long the trail down would be, but a 2021 FarOut comment said it was around 7.5 miles to the trailhead. From the trailhead we really weren’t sure what to expect, but we figured we’d just deal with that when we got there.

The Cady Ridge trail was remarkably well maintained, I think we only encountered a single blowdown the whole way. It was bumpy at first with some ups and downs, but once it started descending the ridge it was a dramatic downhill slope. There wasn’t a switchback in sight as we came bombing down the hill. The only switchbacks were less than a mile from the parking lot, and I felt like they were just there to slow down the speed we had built up all but rolling down the hill.

The whole morning went by quickly and we were walking into the trailhead parking lot around 10am. We could see on Gaia that the road was gravel and eventually turned into a paved road before meeting with a main road further down the way. The issue was that we had no way to tell how long our potential road walks would be. We arrived in the parking lot hoping for the best, and the trail provided! There were a couple of cowboys who were finishing up their horse packing trip. We asked them about the fires and when we explained what we were doing they offered to give us a ride to Hwy 2.

Ryan and Clint were from the western side of the state and were in the area scouting for the upcoming hunting season. Pinky, Hangman, and I rode in the truck and Pimento and Truffles rode in the truck bed. I’m so beyond grateful we ran into them because we ended up being in the car for nearly 45 minutes! Walking that would have taken us all day and we would have been miserable. We talked about the trail and their hunting season and work as linemen. They dropped us off at the 59er Diner and wished us luck.

We treated ourselves to lunch and were surprise to learn that the restaurant had been featured on Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives. I had a Philly cheese stake with curly fries and Truffles and I split a chocolate milkshake. While we were eating we were trying to plan a plan and look for a place to stay in town. We figured out it would be significantly cheaper to spend the night in Wenatchee instead of Leavenworth, and there was a free bus heading there from Leavenworth.

We were on the fence about where to get back on trail. Stehekin is the next town, but the only way we could get there would be to take a bus from Wenatchee to Chelan and then a ferry to Stehekin. The other option would be to take a bus from Wenatchee to Chelan and then another bus up to Mazama to then hitch to Hart’s Pass. The later option would require us to skip about 50 extra miles of trail, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to do that unless we absolutely had to.

We decided to tackle one problem at a time, and the first problem was where to stay for the night. We knew we had to hitch from the diner down into Leavenworth to get the bus to Wenatchee. We were discussing all of this when a woman approached us and asked if we needed a ride into town. She could only take 3 of us, so Truffles, Pinky, and I loaded up and were off.

River was new to the area and drove for Uber and recently started giving rides to hikers. She charges for rides up to Stevens Pass but picks up hikers for free on her way down the mountain. We talked about the areas history and her work in water conservation. When we explained that we were trying to catch a bus to Wenatchee, she offered to take 2 of us all the way there since she was already making the trip for 2 other hikers. Truffles offered to get off at the bus stop and wait for Pimento and Hangman, so Pinky and I went along with River.

River picked up the other hikers and it turned out to be Maddy (who we knew as Runway but now goes by Scooby) and Lucky. I hadn’t seen Maddy since their Sierra only was good to catch up. They were also trying to figure out what to do about the smoke and where to get back on trail at, so that’s what we talked about during the ride.

River dropped us off at the Quality Inn where I had booked a room for cheap. Pinky and I got checked in and had taken showers by the time the boys arrived after their bus ride. Pimento and Hangman had gotten a hitch easily from the diner into Leavenworth and rode the free bus over with Truffles. Our hotel room was a suit with 3 queen beds, so we all laid around and relaxed until we went out for dinner.

We went to a Hibachi restaurant near the hotel and it was delicious! We were seated with a couple in the area celebrating their anniversary and we all had a good time together. When we got back to the hotel we had to make some decisions about our next steps. We decided that we’d take the ferry and hike out from Stehekin. The only ferry is at 8:30am, but thankfully there is a bus leaving Wenatchee at 6:30am tomorrow morning. It’ll be an early morning but it will get us where we need to be! Hopefully the air quality will be better further up north…

Day 152: September 6, 2025

Location: Northern Washington
Start: Wenetchee – 2575.1
End: Stehekin – 2575.1
Miles: 0.0
Sleep: Tent

What a weird but productive day. We woke up early in order to catch the 6:30am bus. My alarm went off at 5:30am and we were all up and moving around the room within a few minutes. Thankfully there wasn’t much for us to do or pack up since we hadn’t been at the hotel long, so we were able to get out the door right at 6am.

The hotel began serving breakfast at 6am, and we were the first people to get food. They had the classic continental breakfast spread with waffles, bagged, cereal, yogurt, and juice. They even had a hot bar with sausage, eggs, and biscuits and gravy! I ate a waffle and made myself a breakfast bagel sandwich for the road.

The bus stop was right by the hotel so we left around 6:20am and made it the bus stop with plenty of time. The bus arrived just after 6:30am and we were off heading towards Chelan. The bus ride was about an hour long and went by quickly. Several other hikers got on and it was encouraging to see other folks who had the same idea as us to skip around the smoke.

We arrived in Chelan at the boat dock around 7:30am. Our ferry wasn’t until 8:30am and there wasn’t anything to do to kill the time except for sit around or stand in line for the bathroom. I chatted with SpanGo while we waited and he talked about how physically beat up he’s felt getting closer to the terminus. I’m definitely tired, but I don’t feel as worn down as some other hikers have expressed. Part of me thinks it’s because I was so beat up after the AT that anything in comparison feels great. I’m grateful I’m not in pain and feel really strong for the most part. I know I could keep hiking if I wanted to after touching the border, whereas on the AT it was all I could do to get to Katahdin.

We were finally able to load the boat around 8:15am and set off at 8:30am. The Lady Express would hold 150 people and there weren’t nearly that many people on board. It was still fairly crowded with hikers and tourists alike. We found seats in the upper deck so that we could see the view while we were on the water.

After a short while we set sail and began making our way through the smoke. I’m sure the ferry ride is awesome when the air quality is good because the sheer cliffs around the lake looked stunning. The smoke was so thick it was hard to see the shore lines, and the lake isn’t very wide across. The total length of the boat ride was about 2.5 hours and I spent most of it flipping through the on board news papers telling all about the history of the ferry company and about what life is like on Stehekin.

We arrived in Stehekin around 12:30pm and once we unloaded we made a bee line for the post office. We were lucky to arrive on a Saturday so that the post office was open and we were able to get our mail drop packages. We picked up our last resupply and went to sort through our goodies at some of the pic mic tables by the water front. This is our final resupply and one of our longest food carries- 6 days!

Once we had all our stuff organized and our food bags bursting at the seams, we walked back to “downtown” Stehekin. The town itself isn’t much more than a boat dock. When stepping off the ferry you’re facing the general store and restaurant and the national park visitor center is up the hill on the right. That’s pretty much all you can see, but the post office is just down the road and the famous Stehekin Pastry Company is several miles down the road. The restaurant and store is technically on a second story, and the main story that’s level with the dock houses picnic tables that serve as a hiker hang out spot. Again I’m sure the views are lovely when everything isn’t covered in smoke.

We walked to the visitor center where PCT hikers are allowed to camp for free on the hill behind the building. We set up our tents and then walked back down to the visitor center. The visitor center wasn’t actually open, but it’s the only place in town with free WiFi and there was no cell signal anywhere we could find. We sat on some benches and played on our phones for a bit before walking to the restaurant for lunch.

The Landing restaurant was simple but had a decent selection of food, especially considering that everything has to be ferried in! I got a salmon pesto gnocchi dish that was good and everyone else had party melts. With our belly’s full we went back to the visitor center to watch the TN football game on Truffles phone. There was just enough bandwidth to get a decent connection, and Truffles was happy to get to watch part of the game.

We didn’t do much the rest of the afternoon. We all went back and forth between loitering outside the visitor center and the general store. I liked sitting outside the store because there were comfy chairs and it made for good people watching. When the game was finished Truffles came to join me and we got drinks and sat outside the store reflecting on our hike so far.

We had all agreed to eat hiker box dinner so in the evening we made our way back to the campsite. Almost all the other hikers we’d met had sent themselves resupply boxes, and the hiker box had been overflowing with tons of good stuff. It was a nice change to cook fancy ramen for dinner instead of the regular old trip Ramen I had been eating. We cooked at the campsite on the picnic tables and Civilized ate with us. It looked like it could potentially rain over night, which would be great because it would help to lessen the smoke. We’ll batten down the hatches tonight and hope for rain!

Here are some other thoughts from the past few days:

We skipped from 2497 to 2575 in order to avoid the smoke. Getting off the bus in Chelan, we were heartbroken to see that the area was still blanketed in smoke. The air looked the same as it did around Leavenworth, Stevens Pass, and even where we got off trail at Cady Pass. It sucks because it makes me feel like we should have just stayed on trail and roughed it out since it’s no better up here. At the same time, though, the smoke is bad enough that I’m glad skipping enables us to have a few less days out in the smoke. Seeing how bad the smoke was in Chelan made me feel like it’s probably just as bad in Mazama and there’s no point to join further ahead. It’s going to be bad no matter where we are. The benefit to being where we are now is the fact that there aren’t any active fires directly around us. We’ve gotten ahead of the larger ones that were threatening the trail, and all the smoke we’re seeing is from a fire further west from us.

We only have 5 days until we touch the border and 6 days until we’re done. It hasn’t really sank in yet that we’re almost finished. I honestly feel pretty underwhelmed. I remember being so emotional on the AT and being so ready to be done because I was in so much pain. But I also didn’t want it to end because I was having so much fun and didn’t know when I’d be able to do anything like that again. I don’t feel as emotionally attached to this trail. On the AT I questioned every day if I would finish and getting to the end felt like this huge accomplishment like “holy shit I can’t believe I actually made it”. Out here I never doubted that I would finish (because I knew I’d already done this before?) and so maybe I didn’t want it as bad? It just doesn’t have the same feeling of accomplishment and I don’t feel as proud or ecstatic. I hope other first time thru hikers get all the same butterfly feelings as I did when I finished the AT. I feel bad saying I feel underwhelmed and not nearly as emotional as I thought I’d be. Maybe it will sink in and I’ll feel more nostalgic in a few days.

Day 153: September 7, 2025

Location: Northern Washington
Start: Stehekin – 2575.1
End: Tentsite – 2592.0
Miles: 16.9
Ascent: 4593 | Descent: 1809
Sleep: Tent

Today was a really good day! It rained overnight but thankfully the storm had passed by the time we got up around 6am. The storm drowned out most of the smoke, so it was actually clear for the first time in days! Seeing Stehekin unobscured by smoke was beautiful with the sheer rocky peaks dropping down into the lake. Everything also looked so green and vibrant after the rain, it was much needed and made a world of difference.

Our bus up to the trailhead wasn’t until 8am, so I got packed up and then headed down to the general store to hang out. I bought myself a hot coffee from the cafe and ate my oatmeal in an Adirondack chair overlooking the lake. It was such a calm and peaceful way to start the day. We had gotten all our chores done the day before, so we didn’t have to rush to do anything before getting on the bus.

Our bus left promptly at 8am and ends up being a highlight of my day! The road through Stehekin is 13 miles long and we got a full tour from the lovely Mister Steve. Maybe I enjoyed the bus ride so much because I hadn’t expected it to be narrated, but i absolutely loved all of Steve’s commentary about the town and its history. Again being able to see the scenery without the smoke was amazing!

We stopped at the famous Stehekin Pastry Company for 10 minutes so everyone could get a sweet treat. I could have spent hours there! The basket case looked decadent and it was hard to pick what to get. Truffles got a sticky bun and pesto/mushroom croissant and I got a homemade pop tart and cinnamon roll. The woman that took our order was a thru hiker and gave us one pastry for free because Truffles and her husband were wearing the same Jolly Gear shirt!

We took our goodies outside to enjoy before getting back in the bus. I ate my pop tart first and it was delicious! The second half of the bus ride was just as entertaining and informative. I think it would be so interesting to live in a small and isolated community like this.

Around 9am we arrived at the High Bridge trailhead where we were greeted by a couple dozen hikers looking to catch the bus into town. We talked briefly to Swish who said the last section was terrible because of the smoke and blowdowns and that we hadn’t missed anything by skipping ahead. We also talked to park ranger Stan for a while. We’d met him briefly yesterday while he was reorganizing the hiker box in town. He told us about an alternate we could take to Bridge Creek that would be the same amount of miles but less elevation and would put us out by a swimming hole. We thanked him and entered our final National Park, North Cascades.

Right off the bat the park was awesome because we crossed a bridge and could see a bunch of salmon spanning down in the waters below. How freaking cool! The alternate was just following the road for several miles and it was easy hiking along the river. We all hiked together and sang songs and chatted for a while before we hopped on a trail. We went back and forth between the trial and the road for a bit before coming out at a junction.

We veered off trial and followed Stan’s directions to an awesome swimming hole just past the bridge over Bridge Creek. There were several large pools and even a rock to jump off of! It took some convincing, but eventually our whole tramily took turns jumping off the rock into the frigid waters below. Pimento even stripped down to his birthday suit to jump on since he doesn’t have underwear. It was a hilarious and memorable moment, especially since we only have a few days left on trial. We want to try and do as many fun and spontaneous things that like that as we can with the time we have left on trail.

We hung out at the swimming hole long enough to decide to eat lunch there. It wasn’t sunny but thankfully it wasn’t cold out so it didn’t bother us that we were all soaking wet. After lunch we packed up and slowly started to get moving.

The hiking today was pretty underwhelming. We were mostly in tree cover all day but did get some small views of the jagged mountains that surrounded us. We were mainly following the river up through a gorge and crossed numerous bridges along the way. Mostly notable of the bridges was a small swimming bridge that spanned an area that was easy to rock hop across.

With 6 days of food my pack felt huge and uncomfortable. I know my pack weighed more in the Sierra but this is still probably one of the heaviest it’s ever been. Despite this, I was able to keep up and we still made good time as we hiked along. I listened to an audio book and podcasts to help pass the time, but mostly I was just ready to get to camp and eat some of the food in order to lighten my load.

We arrived at camp before 5:30pm and were all ready to eat. There was another couple already set up at the campsite, but they stayed in their tent and didn’t talk much. We set up our tents, made dinner, and played several rounds of Phase 10. It was chilly and we were all wearing all the clothes that we had. We called the game quits around 7pm so that we could all get inside our quilts to warm up. It’s likely in the 50s but it feels so cold since we haven’t had chilly weather like this in a while. It’s good sleeping weather and I know we’ll all rest well tonight!