By the time long-distance hiker Derek Hu reached Washington’s Stevens Pass on the Pacific Crest Trail, the engineer from Taiwan had crossed 2,467 miles of mountains, snowfields, forests, and deserts, starting at the border with Mexico.

Smoke from the rapidly growing Little Giant Fire, just northeast of Stevens Pass, had led some hikers to abandon their quest to walk from Mexico to Canada along the West Coast’s mountainous spine.

“The Stevens Pass is very smoky,” Hu said. “Some of the hikers, they just get into the Stevens Pass and then they turn back because of all the smoky air.”

But Hu continued into the jagged North Cascades.

Like hundreds of Pacific Crest Trail through-hikers each year, he had a big goal in mind: reaching the Canadian border.

A wooden monument there marks the end of the long trail.

“Northern Terminus Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail — Established by Act of Congress on Oct. 2, 1968,” letters carved and painted into 12-inch by 12-inch Douglas-fir posts read. “Canada to Mexico 2650 Miles.”

Walking the entire trail is one of hiking’s greatest accomplishments. It takes about five months for those able to backpack 25 or 30 miles a day.

“In the beginning, I only can do 20 miles. I feel very exhausted,” Hu said. “But like 100 days later, you feel like, ‘Oh, 20 miles is a piece of cake.’”

The vast majority of through-hikers walk northbound — known as NOBOs in trail jargon — to complete the mountainous trail while encountering as little snow and ice as possible.

Northbound through-hiker Ian Irwin of Portland was about five days ahead of Hu on the trail. Irwin had started early, in March, on a six-month leave from his job as an emergency room nurse.

“In normal years you wouldn’t want to start that early because you’ll get to the High Sierra in California too early,” he said.

Much of the high trail would be buried in deep snow. But after a winter with exceptionally light snowfall throughout the western U.S., an early start was strategic.

“We knew that even being a month or two early on the PCT that we were racing the fire season, and we still didn’t make it,” Irwin said.

After walking all the way from Mexico, Irwin and his hiking partners were blocked by an emergency closure in the North Cascades, near Rainy Pass.

Just to the east, the Ptarmigan Fire was blowing up, and the U.S. Forest Service announced on July 29 that the last 43 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail were closed.

“It was definitely disappointing, but it felt okay that it was something that was outside of our control,” Irwin said. “It wasn’t like we were quitting or giving up or anything. It was just, this year, this is where the end of the trail’s going to be.”

Irwin and five fellow hikers decided not to let the closure end their five-month hike on a sour note.

A friend drove up to the trailhead with power tools and scrap lumber.

Together, they built a hand-lettered monument to mark the temporary end of the Pacific Crest Trail.

The faux monument mimics the style of the actual monument at the border, with little U.S. and Canadian flags and a trail register for hikers to sign.

“Northern Terminus Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail — Established by 2026 NOBOs on 7/29,” letters written with permanent marker read. “Rainy Pass to Mexico 2650 Miles.”

Once again, hikers who started more than 2,600 miles away can celebrate their monumental accomplishment with a selfie in front of a monument.

Some blocked hikers have found alternate ways to reach Canada from Rainy Pass, though fires are making alternates dangerous as well.

The nonprofit Pacific Crest Trail Association does not recommend any alternative routes for finishing the big hike.

“Unfortunately, the PCT is kind of pinned between a couple of fires,” Sam Webster with the trail association said. “Even the reroutes that we were looking at putting into effect, they also would put you pinned between a couple of fires.”

Just west of the Pacific Crest Trail, the Hozomeen Trail heads up to Canada along Ross Lake, but not before entering the 18,000-acre Border 2 Fire.

“People are tenacious, especially through-hikers, and so I’m sure people are finding their way there. But there is a big chunk of the border that’s just quite simply not safe to be in that area,” Webster said.

Another route involves walking west on the shoulder of the North Cascades Highway, including two tunnels, for about 60 miles.

Through-hiker Katie Melsky said she and a hiking companion found themselves jumping off the road frequently to avoid big vehicles.

“We did have to plaster ourselves to the tunnel wall with our headlamps on at one point in order to avoid a truck,” Melsky posted on Facebook after reaching Canada near Mount Baker.

Irwin said he feels lucky to have made it as far as he did before fire season kicked into high gear.

“The point of the hike was to hike the PCT, not to reach the border or like re-hit an arbitrary mileage, number,” Irwin said.

Trail advocates say completing the hike from Mexico to Canada is getting harder as a warming climate makes fire seasons longer and more intense.

“It’s becoming increasingly rare for someone to be able to accomplish that because of these significant wildfire events that are becoming more and more common,” Webster said.

On Tuesday, officials closed a stretch of the Pacific Crest Trail north of Snoqualmie Pass due to the Three Queens Fire near the Kachess Lake reservoir.

Since 2021, fires have closed 200 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail in Washington, according to the trail association.

As of Friday, the Ptarmigan Fire had burned 24,500 acres in the Okanagan-Wenatchee National Forest’s Pasayten Wilderness and another 1,200 acres north of the border. Statewide, wildfires have burned 773,000 acres, twice the 10-year average for the date, according to Northwest Interagency Coordination Center, which provides logistical support to wildland firefighters in the region.

Months remain in the 2026 fire season.

When Derek Hu reached the scrap-lumber monument, northbound hikers from three continents had already signed its trail register.

In front of the new monument, Hu choked up as he read the message the monument builders had left for their fellow hikers.

“For all our hard-working friends, we see your strength,” Hu read out loud in a video he recorded at the monument.

Hu sniffled, then repeated its acknowledgment of the hikers’ toil.

“Hard work, everyone,” Hu said in Mandarin.

Hu said he doesn’t plan to pursue an alternate route to Canada, for now. Mostly, he said, he is grateful for the effort Irwin and others made to build a monument where hikers can celebrate instead of going home deflated.

“Today is a pretty good ending,” Hu said. “Reaching the end or not is actually not a big deal.”

Hu said all the people he met on the journey were his most precious gifts.

“I’m very grateful I have seen all the good friends, all the good memories, and all the good views,” Hu said.

Mandarin translation by Pin-An Shih.

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News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/08/18/pacific-crest-trail-homemade-temporary-monument-marks-end-wildfire/