Can PCT hikers still walk into Canada?

No. Since January 27, 2025 the Canada Border Services Agency no longer issues the permit that allowed PCT hikers to enter Canada on the trail. The PCTA advises hikers to turn around at the Northern Terminus and enter Canada at a port of entry instead.

How far is Harts Pass from the northern terminus of the PCT?

Harts Pass is 30.5 trail miles south of Monument 78, making the round trip from Harts Pass to the monument and back 61 miles.

How much food do I need from Stehekin to finish the PCT?

Plan for 91.9 miles: 61.4 miles from Stehekin to Monument 78, plus the 30.5 miles back to Harts Pass. There is no resupply between Stehekin and the border.

When is the Harts Pass road open?

Forest Road 5400 is typically accessible July through September. It is a narrow gravel road out of Mazama with steep drop-offs, closed to trailers from June 1 to December 31, and it can close early with snow or fire.

PCT Planning · Washington

Harts Pass: how northbound hikers finish the PCT and get out

Canada closed the trail crossing in 2025. The monument is still the finish, but it is no longer the end of the walking: the only way out is 30.5 miles back south to Harts Pass.

Most plans still treat Monument 78 as the last mile of the PCT. It is the last mile north. There is no road at the border, and since January 2025 hikers can no longer walk into Canada — the Canada Border Services Agency stopped issuing the permit that allowed it. The PCTA's guidance is plain: turn around at the Northern Terminus.

That turnaround is the part people underplan. It changes the last food carry, the last few days of the schedule, and how you get home.

30.5 miMonument 78 back to Harts Pass

61.0 miHarts Pass round trip

~6,200 ftHarts Pass elevation

Jul–Septypical road season

The mileage nobody budgets for

Your last resupply going north is Stehekin. From there the map says 61.4 miles to the monument, and that is the number most hikers pack for. It is the wrong number now, because after the monument you walk back.

Leg	Miles
Stehekin → Monument 78	61.4
Monument 78 → Harts Pass (walking back)	30.5
Food you actually carry out of Stehekin	91.9

At 20 miles a day that is the difference between a four-day carry and a six-day one, at the point in the trail where a hiker is most tempted to go light. This is also the last stretch where a resupply mistake has no recovery: there is no store, no mail drop and no hitch between Stehekin and the border.

If you are finishing in late September or October, check the Harts Pass road before you rely on it. Snow closes it without ceremony, and a closed road turns a 30.5-mile walk out into a much longer one.

What Harts Pass actually is

It is a gap in the North Cascades at about 6,200 feet with a small Forest Service campground, a vault toilet and nothing else. No store, no water spigot, no cell service to speak of. You reach it on Forest Road 5400 out of Mazama, and the last 13 miles are narrow gravel with steep drop-offs and no guardrail in places. Trailers are prohibited on it from June 1 to December 31, and most rental car agreements quietly are too.

Season: typically open July through September. It is one of the last roads in Washington to melt out and one of the first to close.
Camping: Harts Pass Campground is $10 a night with vault toilets and no potable water. Meadows Campground sits a little further along the spur road.
Before you go: check the Okanogan-Wenatchee alerts page. Fire closures are common here in late summer, and as of the 2026 season the campground is closed by the Ptarmigan Fire.

Getting out of Harts Pass

You are a couple of hours of mountain road from Mazama and there is no bus. Your options, in order of reliability:

Book a shuttle. Hike Cascades runs Mazama ↔ Harts Pass daily in season, with reservations required well ahead. Budget it into the plan rather than hoping.
Arrange a ride. If someone is meeting you at the finish, this is the place to do it. Give them the road warnings above first.
Hitch. It works, but the traffic is day hikers and hunters, not commuters, and it dries up early in the day and late in the season.

From Mazama, onward travel runs down the Methow Valley to Winthrop and Twisp, then to Wenatchee or Seattle. Highway 20 itself closes for the winter, usually in November, which redirects everything east.

Southbound hikers start here too

A SOBO thru-hike begins with the same 30.5 miles, in reverse. You get dropped at Harts Pass, walk north to the monument, tag it, then turn south and start the trail proper. Day one is a 61-mile out-and-back before mile zero of your plan exists, and your first food carry has to cover it.

A short planning checklist

Pack from Stehekin for 91.9 miles, not 61.4.
Add the walk back into your finish date. It is one to two days depending on your pace.
Book the shuttle, or confirm your ride, before your last resupply.
Check the road and fire status a week out, and again before you leave Stehekin.
Do not plan to cross into Canada on foot. Enter at a port of entry if you are going.

Let the plan do this math

ThruSmith builds the Harts Pass turnaround into a northbound plan automatically: the last carry reads 91.9 miles, the finish date includes the walk back, and your mail drop send-by dates move with it. Free to plan.

Open the planner

Sources and last checked: September 2026.

Pacific Crest Trail Association — Travel across the U.S./Canada border no longer allowed on the PCT
Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest — Harts Pass Campground and current alerts
Mileages from the PCTA Centerline and Mile Marker dataset, as used in ThruSmith.

Conditions change. Confirm road status, fire closures and shuttle schedules yourself before you rely on them.