The Fall equinox this year not only signals the change of seasons, but for us the change of setting and lifestyle as we wind up our time on trail and prepare to move back indoors for the winter.

The first four months of our trek on the PCT felt like perpetual summer. We had incredible weather with just a few exceptions (including the July heatwave and a couple instances of rain) from May through August.

Then rain came to northern Oregon in the first days of September, and at the same time the days were getting noticeably shorter. Our rhythm of going to bed when the sun was going down and getting up shortly after sunrise meant we were shifting from the 15 hours of active daylight that we had at the end of June to about 12 by mid-September.

As the foliage turns orange and red, mushrooms pop up all over, and pumpkin spice is in the air (or maybe that last one is just in my imagination), we know our perpetual summer has come to an end.

These past few days on trail have been crisp with cold nights, and we even had the surprise of waking up to snow on the morning of September 20!

I have asked myself whether, if it weren’t for this change in weather, we would just keep walking indefinitely. Luckily that’s one question I don’t have to answer.