Today is the last day of the trip. I figured biking to my parents house via the mountains that I love so much would be a nice way to "officially" end the trip and this website. Today ended up being the longest bike ride of the trip, although I only had about half the weight

Got on the road about 6am. Never before have I seen so many "no trespassing" signs. I probably saw more in 20 miles of this road than I did in all of the Southern Hemisphere.

It was a warm sunny day of a morning. I got to Morton around 9:30am, got a sandwhich for lunch and moved on. Eventually I found myself doing the slow climb up to White Pass. I reached the top around 5pm and went to the little store. I saw two backpacks outside...PCT hikers! Sure enough, when I walked in there was a couple going through a couple boxes they had mailed to themselves. I went to get some food, all they had left were burritoes, the girl let me have all three for free. I talked to the PCT couple, they were hiking Washington. I asked if they'd used the planning program on the net and they said they had. I told them I was "Craig". (check out pctplanner.com) They got all excited and the girl, Summer, said "wow, we got to meet the legendary Craig". That was kind of cool. We talked a long while about the trail and I soon parted so they could finish packing.

I stopped at Dog lake a couple miles down the road. Dad, Grandpa and I had always gone fishing here when I was a little kid. I think the last time was probalby about 1987 if I remember right. I'd thought about this lake a lot on the bike trip, even down to the two submerged logs in the lake that we'd tie the boat up too....now I was standing in the lake. Went by the nearby waterfalls and soon I was flying down the road at 40mph. As I was riding around Rimrock lake I remembered that I had to go though the tunnel. When I reached the tunnel there weren't any cars coming, so I was alright. Riding along I kept having all kinds of memories from the past along that road.

I reached Naches around 8pm. Went to my Grandma's old house, my Aunt was actually housesitting that night so it was good to see her. I went up and saw my old high school, it wasn't even half as underwhelming as I expected the experience to be. I left Naches around 9pm as it was getting dark. It was dark when I turned up the hill to my parents house. I noticed the garage doors were open, and Dad was in the garage doing something. The wind was blowing pretty good, so he didn't hear me moving the gravel about with my bike tires. He turned around right as I said "hi Dad!". He was scared at first cause he wasn't expecting anyone to be there, then happy cause it was me. We talked awhile then my Dad being my Dad, brought out a cigar and a beer. We went down on the lower deck. I smoked the cigar as he went to get my mom. He coaxed her outside saying it was nice (although the wind was blowing like crazy). Mom had been looking down so when she looked up she screamed, mostly cause she wasn't expecting anyone to be standing there...then scared again when she realized it was me. We talked on the deck for awhile and went inside. Annabelle Ciccone (our dog) was really happy to see me. Today I rode nearly 140 miles, although only about half the weight as normal, it was the biggest day of the trip.

I dunno how to end this site on without it ending up being a letdown or like the final episode of Seinfeld (which I think was the only episode I ever watched). I really don't have any positive life affirmations or anything, sorry. But thanks for looking and reading!

Hmm, put on that Green Day "Time of Your Life" song and get a box of tissues and think that this site has came to an end for now.