Week 4: Cascade Locks to Whites Pass; 500 miles and one state down!
Cascade Locks is a cute little one-road town nestled in the Columbia River Gorge. Since we only had 8 miles to go from our tent site to town, we arrived early in the morning and found a park to relax at after dropping our bags at the hotel.
Bridge of the Gods, the state line border between Oregon and Washington.
We waited until the Cascade Locks Ale House opened to pick up our resupply packages that were waiting for us. My mom and the Dela-Moore's also surprised me with some goodies from home which I devoured - thanks guys! The Ale House was incredibly hiker-friendly, with stacked hiker boxes and the cutest trail angel Jules making sure everything ran smoothly. The boys ordered Hiker Trash burgers, which was a bacon cheeseburger with pepperoni pizzas for buns. Go figure.
Our mini claim to fame - me, Radio and Chef/Burning Man enjoying burgers at the Ale House! Best resupply stop ever. Jules is the best!
After eating our burgers, we decided to camp out in the lobby of our hotel to see if we could stink the place up enough to warrant an early check in, a trick we picked up from Tic Tac. It worked, and soon we were in our room and showered. The hotel soap and shampoo was not going to cut it for the weeks worth of hiker grime I was coated in, so I raided the small grocery store's hygiene section feeling a little like that scene in Gone Girl where Amy brings her own sheets to her runaway motel. It was beyond worth it to have some actual body lotion!
We went back into town and did some grocery shopping and picked up Priority Mail boxes to send all of our resupply boxes to Washington. There will be fewer towns on trail in Washington than Oregon, and our first stretch will be 148 miles without a stop - so that means we are carrying a weeks worth of heavy food - not so excited about that.
Once we packed up the four boxes we were sending to Washington, we went back to the post office and sent those off. I was exhausted at this point and ready to fall asleep at 5pm. Vinny sent off Burning Man as he planned to spend a week in Portland and hopefully meet back up with us in Washington.
The next day was our true zero day and we had lunch at the Thunder Island Brewery, which was delicious and had an amazing view of the river. I felt so spoiled!
Views and brews at Thunder Island Brewery.
Saying goodbye to Scratch at Timberline!
We took care of a few other errands and I got a text from Hannah that she would be in town tonight. We met up with her and her lovely parents at the brewery again and had some fish tacos. They are the sweetest people, and I'm so glad I got to meet friends like Hannah "Scratch" out on the trail.
Here in Cascade Locks we started to run into a few people who automatically assume we are thru hikers, and I finally feel like that describes me with one state and almost 500 miles under my belt. We spoke to this nice gentleman for about an hour at the riverside restaurant, who ended up being a writer in LA, and have been approached by people starting the trail. It's really a unique community and I feel so at home on the trail - I'm enjoying the experience even more than I thought I would when I started out.
Cashier: Sir, have you ever ordered a large before?
Radio: I'm sure I can handle it.
Result: Biggest. Soft serve. Ever. 10/10 would go large again.
Saying goodbye to Tacocat! What an awesome dude.
Wednesday morning we woke up and finished packing our bags. We hit the trail today after we wait for our REI packages at the Ale House and drop off some of our extra supplies into the hiker donation box. I'm excited to "officially" check Oregon off the list!
Feeling a bit like Reese Witherspoon here!
We grabbed our new shoes and new socks - so luxurious - and enjoyed another lunch at the Ale House. We set off for the Bridge of the Gods to cross the state border. The bridge was pretty terrifying - there's no pedestrian area so we were having to avoid cars and it was SUPER windy. Check out this selfie for proof:
We had a steep and hot climb out of the gorge and did a little over 9 miles - we planned to do more but the climbing on a full belly wasn't working out as planned, and there was a section of the PCT closed up ahead due to logging so we didn't want to get caught up in that. We camped under some power lines and settled into the tent when I heard something drop on us - a bird "did it's business" over our tent! Really gross, but I wiped it off with a rock and some leaves... never thought that would happen!
The next day was 20 miles through mostly ugly, private land including some logging areas. The most exciting part of the day was that I saw two snakes on the trail. We camped next to a nice bridge over a river and fell asleep practically by 6 pm.
Ugly, boring logging land.
We had an early rise the next day as an 11-mile climb awaited us. We ended up climbing over 6,000 feet of elevation and doing 28 miles. Today Vinny also saw a skunk hiding under a log! I'm glad we didn't get sprayed. After all of that climbing we were run ragged, we could barely enjoy the first hints of views Washington provided at the end of our day.
(Notice how I have NO PHOTOS from this section? Not a coincidence. Literally nothing worth taking my phone out for. There's some really pretty photos below, but don't think for a second we didn't earn them.)
We had 24 miles to go the next day, which would put us right at the highway crossing where one would hitch into Trout Lake, a small hiker-friendly town about 11 miles from the trail that was not on our original resupply schedule. However, since this was our longest stretch between resupplies (148 miles) I realized that I hadn't packed enough food. We were missing about a night or two of hot food for dinner that we might have accidentally donated to a hiker box. While we would have been far from starving, I had been consuming a lot more calories per day than when I first started the trail, plus, the terrain was getting more difficult and our mileage goals longer. I have already lost a fair bit of weight for my frame, and therefore I've been super diligent about eating as much as possible (this results in at least one beer per meal in town - more delicious calories). So, the scarcity of food on this stretch was starting to really freak me out. Not enough to warrant a hitch into Trout, but enough to seriously hope for some trail magic bagels and have Vinny text Sean (our friend who is a seriously skilled baker) for some goodies sent to our next resupply.
Huckleberries - perfect hiking snack, and these were ripe early in the season!
Since we kept passing roads and trail heads, and it was a Saturday, I thought our odds for trail magic were good, but no such luck. We stopped for lunch in the shade of trailhead parking lot, when Kevin and Samantha, an older couple we had met at Timberline Lodge, joined us. We chatted and shortly a woman pulled up in an SUV and asked if we were enjoying the huckleberries. "Huh?" we responded. Apparently we were sitting right in the middle of a field of ripe huckleberries! The woman got out of her car, in a hot pink cami, short shorts, and a tiny pistol dangling off her hip, and started to show us how to pick and identify huckleberries. We soon were devouring sweet handfuls of the berries and I was ecstatic. We also learned there were raspberries and blueberries on the trail as well. Kevin thanked her for showing us some true "trail magic" and off we went. At the next creek I found my own raspberry bush and had a few red and white ones, not as sweet yet as the huckleberries but I was happy for the extra food. We got to know Kevin and Samantha more, and they seemed like a really cool couple - a retired prosecutor and social worker who live in San Luis Obispo. They had started in Campo, skipped the Sierras, and were going to flip back to Whitney to finish.
At the end of our day, coming up on the highway to Trout, we found a trash bin labeled "Trail Magic". Stoked, we opened it to find... a plastic trash bag crumpled up at the bottom of the bin. Defeated, we walked the few yards to the highway where Kevin and Samantha were sitting. They asked if we enjoyed the trail magic and we answered sarcastically, yeah it was real great... Kevin looked confused, and eventually we realized there WAS food inside the trash bag! Apples, cookies, and even Capri Sun!
Since we met up with our new friends, we decided to hitch in to Trout Lake with them. We flagged down a hippie in a tie dye shirt and long grey beard, who unfortunately was going the wrong way, but offered us bananas, bran muffins, and delicious plums from his yard. A bit later, another SUV came by and lowered their windows showing a full car and apologized for not giving us a ride as they drove on. Not 10 minutes later, they came BACK, and said, what the hell, we can fold back two extra seats. We literally squeezed our way into the car (I got a pretty serious arm cramp from being cooped up in the back) for the short ride to town, and they even gave us some of their snack food from the car. So sweet of them to give us a ride!
Once in Trout, Vinny picked us up some bars and goodies from the general store to beef up our food for the next couple days. Then we hit the restaurant for some burgers - I got a delicious breaded chicken patty with a slice of pineapple and Swiss cheese - and immediately another trail angel ran us back to trail. We did all of that in under an hour, and set back up our tents with a few other hikers we'd been bumping into the past couple days.
We woke up the next day wanting to make it an easy 20 miles. It's crazy that now, that distance is almost considered a rest day when it's our pace goal.
TRUE STORY behind this photo. During lunch, I was talking to this butterfly flying around me, (as one does bored on the trail with only Radio around to talk to) and jokingly said to it "I KNOW you just want to rest your wings and take a nice land on me!" Two seconds later... it did.
Mt Adams Wilderness. I was loving the wildflowers everywhere!
A few miles out of our campsite, we entered the Mt Adams Wilderness and were greeted with breathtaking views - finally. I was just thinking that I hadn't taken my camera out at all in Washington when we entered the wilderness with its beautiful views of Mt Adams, gorgeous creeks, waterfalls, wildflowers in every color. I felt like I was back in a Disney movie with cute little birds and butterflies crossing my path. It definitely helped the spirits.
Mesmerizing milky creek in Mt Adams Wilderness.
We are running into more and more SOBOS, and had a few miles where we had service on top of the mountain. It's crazy that we are crossing paths with people who have covered less miles than us and have been out on the trail about the same time - starting to feel like an equal out here!
Whirlpool spa time!
We had lunch by a gorgeous brook and laid out, ate Cheddar Sourcream Ruffles and Famous Amos cookies and soaked our feet in the "glacial spa" - a whirlpool of ice water. I loved today, and it really helped me feel more connected to Vinny being out here and taking it slow together. It was definitely a day to remind us why we are doing this crazy trek in the first place.
We weren't exactly speeding along, stopping for pictures and breaks frequently. We even passed by a nice looking lake and jumped in - it felt amazing to swim and stretch out my arms and back muscles in the water. Such a perfect day.
Care for a dip?
Our tent site ended up being by a lava field and another nice creek and we had dinner and settled in.
Goat Rocks Wildnerness, also known as, the Swiss Alps of the Pacific Northwest.
Our first looks at Goat Rocks.
Loving the trail!
The next day we entered the Goat Rocks Wilderness! I was really excited for this part before the trail as I've seen some beautiful pictures. Unfortunately the first 15 miles or so were not that pretty. We woke up early and kept a great pace and did 20 miles before 2 pm when we had lunch at a gorgeous lake - once it finally got pretty. Since we only had about 5 more miles to go, we took a nice long lunch and I went swimming (again!). The next five miles after lunch were absolutely breathtaking.
Worth waking up at 5am for.
Waking up from our tent site perched above a meadow and overlooking several creeks and waterfalls, we started an early morning climb in Goat Rocks. We took the PCT alternate trail known as Knifes Edge and it was stunning, 7,770 ft up. This was a perfect start to the morning and really got our blood pumping.
View from Old Snowy alternate.
Knifes Edge. We had great service here, like 5 bars. Views were not bad either.
We continued the trail along the ridge line and enjoyed views to distract our burning quads. Once we descended from the ridge we ended up in yet another beautiful meadow. If I could imagine heaven, this is what it would look like. But with more dogs.
I was on such a high from the Technicolor sponsored wonderland we were in I didn't realize how quickly it went by, and soon we were in another ugly valley with bugs and dead trees galore. Goat Rocks had a few other redeeming views, but this hard day was going downhill. It was crazy how emotional I got when I realized we had sped through some of what I found to be the most beautiful part of the trail, and the "down" I felt being back in ugly forest was palpable. I never knew my surroundings could have such an impact on my mood.
After 22 miles, we reached Whites Pass, and a tiny gas station store which held our resupply box. We happily ran into Kevin and Samantha again (they may be retired but kick ass at hiking - they passed us on our slow 20-miler, and we hadn't seen them since) and met their friends who were helping them with their resupply.
We may not have packed any hot food for dinner in this box, but at least we have Honey Stingers for DAYS!
We re-packed our food and were underwhelmed with the selection at the store... I ended up eating a banana muffin and a Lunchable while Vinny paid $8 for a ham and Swiss sandwich. In our zombie-like state, we had to hit the trail again while the store was closing, and found a campground across the street at the trailhead at a lake. It was a car camping spot, but we were way too tired to continue on further on the trail so we paid our $10 and set up next to an RV on a lake. Today had a lot of highs and lows, literally and figuratively, as compared to the days on the trail we have had so far. Just 100 more miles to Snoqualmie...