Date: September 2, 2017
Miles: 19 miles (30.6km), from Cascade Locks to Rock Creek at mile 2,163.7.
Health: Feeling great. Love hiking with old friends again.

We wake up late as last night went kind of late. Cascade Locks is a cool little town and after about a month of not seeing almost no-one else outside of our small bubble, catching up with everyone was super fun.

As I’m laying inside my shelter and trying to collect my thoughts Fireant sends me a message saying they’re arriving in town soon. As I still have to do the resupply for the next six days, I need to start moving.

I quickly pack up all my gear and head back to the grocery store to once more do a resupply. Thanks to all the hikers in town doing their entire Washington resupply from this one small grocery store, the selection has gone way down from what it was yesterday. I scrape up what I can and hope it’s enough for the next six days.

My pack got heavy fast.

Everyone else is at the restaurant by the bridge having breakfast and I quickly make my way up there. The restaurant is full of hikers and friends but I’m most excited to see Dandelion, Fireant, and Roadrunner again! We all sit together and have breakfast while looking at the view of the Bridge of the Gods right outside the window.

Soon we’ll be in Washington!

Sam, Roadrunner, Fireant, and Dandelion.

After breakfast and charging all our electronics, everyone slowly starts to head out towards the bridge as everybody wants to get to the new state. We say goodbye to Cannonball and Storyteller as they’re staying in town for another night. LL leaves a little bit earlier as she and Indigo are having this thing where they are trying to hike solo for the first time since getting on the trail.

As Indigo stays back in the restaurant and LL has already left, I hike out with Dandelion, Fireant, Roadrunner, and Sam. We walk the short walk up on the bridge, hesitate for a bit, make sure everyone’s together, and then start making our way across. I’ve never been this happy to cross a bridge.

Thunder Island – where we spend the whole day yesterday.

It’s a strange and kind of dangerous to walk on the bridge as there’s no path for foot traffic. The bridge is quite narrow and we’re forced to walk between all the cars. Thankfully all drivers give us as much space as they can.

And then we’re in Washington – the last of the three states on the PCT.

We stop for a short photo session with the bridge and the Washington state sign and then find the small path where the trail continues again. Almost immediately Washington starts kicking our asses.

Columbia River Gorge is the lowest point of the PCT and to get back up on the crest, we have a 10 mile (16km) long climb ahead of us. To add insult to the injury, our packs are heavy with a six-day food carry and since there’s no water for the next 11 miles while climbing up in the midday heat, we have to carry quite a bit of water.

For the first few miles the trail stays under tree cover but it’s still over 95 degrees (35c). As we climb higher the forest opens up and crossing the open areas in the direct sun is quite brutal and I’m sweating buckets in the burning sun.

We finally reach the water source and after filling our bottles start climbing back up. We cross paths with some trail runners who are running a 50k competition. Soon we come to an aid station for the runners and the people running the station offer us trail magic. Getting to sit under a shade and drink ice cold drinks is quite heavenly in this heat. For some reason I thought Washington would be cold and rainy.

Once we reach the top of the climb Fireant and I turn to look back towards the river gorge and see a massive tower of smoke across the river. While there were a couple of small wildfires in that direction, this smoke is way bigger and looks brand new.

(We later learn this was the moment Eagle Creek fire started).

While doing another long climb I start feeling really bonked out. I instantly notice that my salt levels are low due to all the sweating. There’s not much I can do as I didn’t bring any electrolytes since I wasn’t expecting to sweat so much as I thought Washington was the coldest and rainiest state. Thankfully Fireant is close-by and saves me with some Mio Electrolytes. I chuck half a liter of the drink mix down and almost instantly start feeling better.

Sam’s feeling low on energy too and he stops to eat while we continue hiking. To pass the time we talk about Dandy and Fireant coming to Finland next summer and plan what we’d do there. How awesome would it be if that would happen!

The sad part about getting to Washington is that it feels like we can already start to see the end of the trail and the entire adventure. One can’t help but think what will happen once the trail ends. On the other hand we reach the goal we’ve spend the last five months walking towards, but at the same time, it means the end of an amazing adventure. And most significantly, saying goodbye to all the awesome people you’ve met along the trail.

But we have still plenty of miles to cover. Soon we reach a nice river and fill up our water bottles. The trail here is beautiful–lush and green–kind of like a rainforest. I feel like I’m walking in the forests of Endor.

We hike a little down along the river and find a gorgeous spot up on a small hill overlooking the trail. The ground is soft from all the pine needles and it’s a perfect spot for cowboy camping.

We set up camp and I try to keep an eye on the trail for Sam. I’ve left my hiking pole next to the trail so he could see it in case I don’t notice him. Usually, it doesn’t take him this long to eat so I go down and ask some of the other hikers if they’ve seen him and they say Sam went by about 45 minutes ago – dang! Hopefully he doesn’t go too far and we can catch him in the morning.

As we made it to camp a bit earlier, I take the extra time to wash my socks and shorts and take a small dip in the river downstream.

We go to bed early but I stay up late and just stare up towards the sky, looking at the beautiful night sky and the thousands of stars above us. It’s moments like these I love being out here. It’s good to be in Washington.