Cascade Locks to ~Trout Lake.

Miles 2,150 – 2,239.

Days 105 – 108.

At Cascade Locks, the Pacific Crest Trail crosses the Columbia River on the Bridge of the Gods and enters Washington, the final state on the PCT. From there the trail meanders mostly through wooded areas, with moss, ferns, and mushrooms filling the understory. Occasionally at clearings on the ridges, hikers get spectacular views of Mt St Helens to the northwest, Mt Adams to the northeast, and Mt Hood to the south.

Day 105

Last night, I slept in the hotel room in Hood River, OR again, after the second day of the PCT Days festival. Two friends also staying at the hotel missed the last bus back from Cascade Locks. They ended up camping there since they couldn’t get a hitch back to the hotel late in the evening. So the room was a little emptier.

After I packed up and thoroughly took advantage of the hotel’s breakfast buffet, I headed out. I hitched back to Cascade Locks. By the early afternoon, we were walking across the Columbia River on the Bridge of the Gods.

While in town, the locals I hitched with proudly informed me that the Columbia River is the second-largest river in the United States. The Bridge of the Gods is quite a large car bridge, without a pedestrian lane. Thru-hikers must share the bridge with traffic to walk into Washington on the Pacific Crest Trail.

Once I crossed the bridge, I arrived in the third and final state of my thru-hike. I still have about 500 miles left to hike before I reach the Canadian border and the end of the PCT.

The first 20 or so miles in Washington were similar to northern Oregon: a green tunnel of conifers with lots of moss and vegetation in the understory. No crazy difficult climbs yet. I hear that, unlike Oregon, Washington actually has some significant elevation gain and loss, including mountain passes.

I made camp near a small creek in a deep, rocky ravine in a valley bottom. I felt too tired to set up my tarp, so I cowboy camped, rationalizing that if it started to rain, I’d feel the drops hitting my face and pitch then.

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Day 106

I made it through a rain-free, condensation-free, insect-free night of cowboy camping. Something that’s a rare occurrence since leaving California.

While I usually write before bed, I didn’t last night. Instead, I did my writing this morning before I got out of camp. It was nice for a change. I’ve enjoyed my leisurely wake-ups on the trail, especially now that the weather is relatively cool, finally. Or at least, not uncomfortably hot most days.

As I hiked this morning, on soft, forested trails, one of my trekking poles suddenly and randomly broke. I guess I’m walking with one pole for the rest of the way to Canada. Fortunately for me, my tarp sets up with just one pole.

I stopped for a lunch break at a large creek. Even though it wasn’t hot, I took a quick dip in the cool water. Not long after lunch, I crossed a dirt road and found a sign for trail magic, pointing towards a nearby car campsite. I realized that I haven’t seen any trail magic since the Sisters, OR area. It was a great surprise! The trail angel, Scrounger, who provided the trail magic hiked the PCT way back in 1977! I enjoyed talking to him and hearing about how his experience on this trail back then was both similar and different from my own, 48 years later.

In the afternoon, I tackled a 3,600-foot climb up to a ridge. Fortunately, it didn’t feel too bad thanks to the cool temperatures and shady trees along the trail. From the top, I had some great views looking back at Mt Hood. That giant volcano will be visible for a while yet, I imagine!

My campsite for the night was near a small spring. This is the only water source for several miles in either direction, so it was quite crowded with backpackers. There were maybe 15 or so other tents already set up there when I arrived in the evening, around 8 pm.

The trail has felt quite crowded recently. A large number of thru-hikers stopped in Cascade Locks for the Trail Days weekend, then all hiked out the day after the festival. Furthermore, quite a few people used trail days as an opportunity to skip forward on the trail (e.g., to flip-flop or section hike the trail). So I’m certainly not lacking company at lunch spots and campsites recently. I fell asleep cowboy camping a short distance away from the rest of the tents. Many of them would likely be rustling around in the early morning while I’d still be sleeping in.

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Day 107

Boy did I sleep in. I really outdid myself this time. I started hiking at 11 am today. The longer I’m on this trail the less I care what time I start hiking.

It’s said the early bird gets the worm. Yet today I was rewarded for my a.m. laziness. Within the first hour of hiking, I reached a road crossing with trail magic! I dropped my pack and settled in for hot dogs and beans. While I ate, I chatted with Patchouli and HighWater, two hikers I haven’t seen since the Sierras. It’s been great to see quite a few hikers I didn’t know if I’d ever see again, thanks to trail days and folks’ various flip-flopping strategies for hiking the trail.

Since I slept in, I decided to hike fast and get as many miles done in the evening as possible, before bedtime. However, around 7 pm I found myself at yet another dirt road crossing with yet another trail magic sign. Happily, I stopped and enjoyed a fruit shortcake dessert as the sun got lower in the sky.

It was getting chilly, so I hiked another mile or so in my puffy jacket, before finding a small flat spot to cowboy camp just off the side of the trail.

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Day 108

For the first time in a while, I actually got up early! I hit the trail at 7 am. I only had 13 miles to hike to reach a forest service road, where hikers can catch a shuttle to the town of Trout Lake. The shuttles ran at 8:30 am, 12:30 pm, and 5:30 pm. I hoped to catch the 12:30 shuttle.

I hiked purposefully all morning and arrived at the road crossing at 11 am. This was quite fortunate, since it turned out that the shuttle picked up at 11:30 am today, rather than 12:30 pm. I marveled at my good luck.

The shuttle turned out to be five local cars and pickup trucks. They drove to the crossing in a big convoy. Ten or so returning hikers hopped out of cars and truck beds. A dozen others and I were headed to town.

I arrived in Trout Lake and quickly found my way to the area behind the general store. This seemed to be the designated spot for hikers to loiter in this town. The town itself was very small with little more than a post office, general store, cafe, and gas station.

After resupplying at the general store and charging my devices, I headed to the cafe for a meal with Swish and SnakeEyes. The little cafe was totally slammed, with only 3 people working, and two dozen or so patrons (mostly hikers). Consequently, our food took some time to come out, and I ended up missing the 2 pm shuttle back to the trail.

Not wanting to wait around for the 5 pm shuttle, Swish and I tried our luck at hitching out of the tiny town. It was about 20 miles or so back to the trail on a low-traffic forest service road.

After unsuccessfully trying to hitch for about half an hour, a van finally pulled over and offered us a ride, despite not recognizing the name of the trailhead. We hopped in. But a few miles into the drive, we realized that the driver had taken a right at a fork where we needed to go left. The driver pulled over and let us out in the middle of nowhere. Feeling frustrated, we walked the mile or so back to the fork and stuck our thumbs out once again.

After what felt like an hour had gone by with only 3 cars passing, I began feeling a bit hopeless. But then, a woman going the opposite direction pulled over. She recognized us as two stranded PCT hikers and offered to take us back to the trail, even though that meant turning around and going back the way she came. I was so thankful.

Thanks to my hitching debacle, I got back on the trail later than I expected. I still managed to hike about 6 miles before making camp – mostly uphill through a burn area. As a silver lining, there were some pretty great views of Mt Adams through the dead forest.