Through-hikers on the Pacific Crest Trail can finish the walk properly this year. The 50-mile stretch between Hart's Pass and the Canadian border — the trail's iconic northern terminus at Monument 78 — reopened on September 9 after being closed since July 31 because of the Ptarmigan fire.
The closure landed at the worst possible moment for northbound hikers. Last year, the average finish date for NOBO through-hikers was September 12, according to a Halfway Anywhere survey, so the fire effectively slammed the door just as most walkers arrived at their final miles. Those caught out improvised: some built a homemade monument at Rainy Pass, just south of the closure zone, while others detoured west to a lesser-known obelisk on the Canadian border in the Mount Baker Wilderness. Reed "Steezy" Patricelli of Portland was told the terminus would never open, rerouted east to Monument 90 on the border, and finished on September 6 — three days before the reopening. His consolation prize on the detour: sightings of three black bears and a dozen mountain goats.
Others got luckier. Nicola "Sunflower" Whitbread, a northbound hiker from England, learned of the reopening while still in northern Oregon and will now complete the trail exactly as she'd pictured for the past decade. The Pacific Crest Trail Association welcomed the news, crediting the Methow Valley Ranger District of Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest and firefighting crews for keeping hikers and nearby communities safe.
One caveat if you're heading that way this month: the PCTA has stressed that lands east and west of the trail corridor remain closed while firefighting operations continue. Stick to the trail itself and check current closures before setting out from Hart's Pass. And with the season winding down, anyone planning a late finish should factor in shorter days and the first hints of autumn in the North Cascades — early snow is always a possibility at higher elevations in late September.
For anyone dreaming of the PCT rather than hiking it right now, the reopening is a reminder of how fire-prone the trail's final stretch has become in recent summers. If a Washington section hike or a future through-hike is on your list, building flexibility into your itinerary — and having a backup finishing route or alternate terminus in mind — is now just part of the planning. The trail will still be there; the finish line you get might occasionally be a different monument than the one on the map.