Finishing a 211-mile trek is only half the story — getting home is the other half. The final instalment of a John Muir Trail hiker's journal on The Trek captures that unglamorous but very real eighteenth day: an early start, a cross-country bus ride and a long-awaited return to Lake Tahoe.

The day begins at 5:00am in a hotel in Lone Pine, the small eastern Sierra town where the JMT's traditional exit point, Whitney Portal, drops hikers back into civilisation. First stop is the town's McDonald's for what the hiker bluntly calls bad coffee, before catching the 6:10am ESTA bus — the Eastern Sierra Transit Authority service that runs up US Route 395 and is a lifeline for thru-hikers shuffling between trailheads and towns.

The bus delivers them to the Mono Basin Visitor Center just north of Lee Vining, where a parked car has sat waiting since the hike began. It starts first try. From there it's a drive north to Bridgeport, where hunger finally wins and breakfast becomes the day's main event. Groceries, fuel, a drive back to the Lake Tahoe area, an enormous nap, a little more shopping, a slice of pie, and an early night round out the trip. Eighteen days after setting out (16 hiking days plus two rest days), the John Muir Trail is done.

For anyone plotting their own JMT adventure, the logistics here are the useful part. Lone Pine is where most northbound hikers finish, and the ESTA bus along the 395 corridor connects it with towns like Bishop, Mammoth Lakes, Lee Vining and Bridgeport — handy for resupply during the hike and for getting back to your car or a ride at the end. Factoring that transport into your plan, rather than treating the finish line as the finish, is a classic thru-hike lesson. So is the hiker's closing wisdom: build in a decompression day. The trail ends, but the drive home, the laundry and the cravings all still need handling.

It's a low-key end to a big journey, and that's exactly why it's worth reading. Long-distance hiking stories tend to dwell on summit views and gear lists, but the final-day details — bus timetables, parked-car nerves, the first restaurant meal — are what a would-be JMT hiker actually needs to think through. If you're weighing up the trail, this little epilogue is a reminder that the route is bookended by some of California's most likeable small towns, and that a slice of pie in Bridgeport can taste as good as anything on the mountain.