Canada Border Services Agency bans hikers from entering country via Pacific

Canada Border Services Agency bans hikers from entering country  via Pacific Crest  Trail
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The Canada Border Services Agency says it will no longer allow hikers to enter the country  via the popular Pacific Crest Trail that crosses the international  border between Washington state and British  Columbia.
A statement from the CBSA  released Monday says the agency is  ending its entry permit program for hikers and riders  who want to complete the final 13  kilometers of the  4,265-kilometer trail that stretches from Mexico to  Canada.
"This change will  make it easier to monitor compliance of trail users, enhance  border security, and  align with U.S. Customs and Border  Protection's ban on travelers entering the U.S. from Canada  via the  trail," the CBSA  said in its statement. The border agency says  American hikers who  want to  hike the final  stretch of the Pacific Crest Trail in Canada  must first go to a designated port of entry  to obtain permission to enter the  country.
The closest ports of entry are in Abbotsford,  British Columbia, and Osoyoos,  British Columbia, both  located about 100  kilometers from the  trailhead in E.C. Manning Provincial  Park.
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"This is disappointing news," Jack Haskell,  director of trail information for the Pacific Crest Trail Association,  wrote on the group's  website.
"That said, we can  understand their  views and that this policy is consistent with  U.S. policy, which does not allow entry into the United States via the  PCT."
A Pacific Crest Trail sign  points to Mexico and Canada on a barbed wire fence in the desert mountains of the  United States. (Shutterstock) (Shutterstock)
The Pacific Crest Trail was first proposed as a high-altitude recreational hiking  trail in the  1930s, but  was not officially recognized until 1968, when U.S. President Lyndon Johnson signed the National Trail Systems Act, which designated the Pacific Crest Trail and the Appalachian Trail  as America's first  National Scenic Byway, according to the U.S. Forest  Service.
The trail gained popularity  after the  release of Cheryl Strayed's 2012  memoir, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, which documented the  author's solo journey along the trail, and was later adapted into a film starring Reese  Witherspoon.

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