Thought it would be a nice thing to project ourselves to that end-of-hike celebratory ritual. What we do when we reach the car, be it hang up the trail shoes, grab a piece of foil-wrapped carrot cake, or as I suspect happens often, grab a sip of something cool and wet and trail-forbidden.

So I'm eliciting a response of what is your best memory of what you imbibed/did when you finished the trail, be it at the conclusion of a long, rainy weekend of backpacking, to making it to the end of the JMT. The best memory of that elation, at the moment you realized it was over, done, and just how good it felt, and what you did to celebrate that moment.

I've got several good ones, but I'll use this one since I got a pic:


End of a week-long North Cascades hike in Aug. 07, after finishing the anticlimatic mile-long trek back up to the car after the boat ride across Ross Lake.
Having a Pyramid Ale at 10 a.m., in deference to the peak by that name off camera to the right. (That's Alvaro, Tony & Debbie. The stinking ground squirrel on the right is kevonionia.) The guy we got to take the picture, a logger/park contract worker on holiday, a grizzly, affable guy, only agreed to take the picture if he could join us in a morning brew! I remember fantasizing this moment about noon the day before on the Little Beaver Creek trail.

Fess up! What was the moment? How did it feel? (Photos welcome.)