A dramatic and scary end to Nor Cal on the PCT: It’s interesting... I don’t have many photos from this section but it will likely be the part of trail most seared into my memory. I guess that’s what happens when you find yourself self-evacuating in the middle of the night from a fire that would rapidly become the biggest of the season. Around 5:30pm we saw a plume of smoke in the distance. We were lucky enough to have a pocket of service so we called the non-emergency police line and were told that we were seeing the McKinney fire- newly started. It was close by but across the river. We were told our intended camp should be safe but to stay informed in case conditions changed so we set up our tents and made dinners. Then around 8:30pm came the wind and the thunder... concerned by the conditions (the heat wave, the wind, the lightning) we used our SOS device to ask for more info. This time we were told to evacuate the area. After an already full day of hiking we packed our camp back up and got on our headlamps to hike through the night an unknown distance to safety. With the help of our families and the incredible trail angel community we were able to arrange an evacuation pick up at a forestry road junction an addition 9+ miles up the trail. We hiked until 2:30am as the winds whipped around us, ash raining from the sky, smoke burning our eyes, and darkness besides the light of our headlamps and the occasional glimpse of red glow in the distance or flash of lightning in the sky. We woke up sleeping hikers along the way and our group of 6 grew to 17 by the time we reached the crossing. We loaded all 17 people into a pickup truck and slowly (and uncomfortably) made our way away from danger. By the time the sun rose I had been awake for over 24hrs and hiked the biggest day of my life- 33.2 miles and 9,000 ft. of ascent... There’s so much more I can say but I think the most important is this. We are safe and I’m so fucking proud of us for making smart decisions out there. I am overwhelmingly grateful to the trail angel community and all the emergency and fire personnel. And, once again, I am humbled by the reminder everything can change in an instant.