Today was a spectacular day of hiking! The scenery was stunning from wildflowers to waterfalls, views of Mt Rainier and hiking the Knifes Edge next to Old Snowy Mtn.

A view back towards Mt. Adams on horizon.

My model for the day, Hot Fudge, checking out the peaks in the Goat Rocks Wilderness area.

The trail crosses directly in from of this waterfall (on boulders at bottom of pic).

Stunning !

Darth Vada trekking across a remaining snow field.

We came across some folks on horses out for the day. The horses didn’t mind the snow at all.

Horses have to drink too.

They offered us some Washington apples 🍎…yum!

The first view of Mt. Rainier.

Old Snowy Mtn in the background.

Hiking the knifes edge.

Panorama of the Knifes Edge and Old Snowy Mtn.

Not sure why the last three days have all ended at 26mi…a marathon a day keeps the Dr. away ?

Washington finally started living up to its reputation today…Incredible views of Mt Adams and miles of meadows and wildflowers.

Mt. Adams is a very impressive glacier covered peak just south of Mt Rainier. Unfortunately, the haze is still obscuring the views.

Even more impressive than the colors was the wonderful smell (way better than me).

Lots of creeks and cascades coming down the mountain.

Another view of Mt. Adams.
Nothing to add…
That glacier melt water was rather silty…not great for the filter.

An epic Washington meadow.

Climbing the 12,000′ Mt Adams is a full on mountaineering endeavor similar to climbing Mt. Rainier…not part of this adventure 🙂

This turned into a popular campsite because it’s the last water and easy camping before the Goat Rocks Wilderness area.

I got into camp at 5:30pm which is one of the earlier days I’ve had. It wasn’t quite as relaxing as I might have liked because the bugs were doing their thing. Luckily, DEET did its job so I wasn’t forced to spend the whole evening in my tent. I made a couple minor repairs, cleaned my legs and feet in the creek, wrote in my journal and finished the blog. I even had time to read some of the NYT on my phone 🙂

This was about as easy as 26 miles of hiking gets. The trail was mostly through the pines and very soft under foot with a few minor climbs. The mosquitos weren’t terrible but just bad enough to force a decent pace. I got to the lonely road crossing about 20 miles up trail at 1:15 and had a ride 5 minutes later for the 14 mile down the mountain to town. Holly and Todd from Hood River had spent the weekend in the mountains and were headed home (sorry, no pic).

Deer Lake where I broke camp in the morning.

An old school PCT marker.

Now, these signs never get old !

No one was there when I stopped for a mid morning break but there was a help yourself taco bar and cold drinks in the cooler.

Just as I reached the road crossing 10 miles later there was more trail magic…compliments of the local Monastery (love the monks !)

I’m bummed I didn’t take more pics from town and my hitches. The truth is you just can’t capture in a picture how sublime a huckleberry milkshake is on a 96 degree day!

I had originally planned to stay overnight in this tiny little town of Trout Lake (FYI, no lake that i saw ?) but it was just too hot at these lower elevations. After spending several hours relaxing and drinking cold sodas I caught a ride back up the mountain to the trail where it was 2000′ higher and much more comfortable.

After 5.5mi of easy evening hiking there was a fantastic campsite right below Mt Adams.

I had to climb a small bluff above camp to get this shot. I should have lots of views of Adams tomorrow.

This is the view of camp from the bluff… three
little tents.

The sunset was a bit obscured by the trees but still enjoyable.

I definitely made the right decision not staying in town. It was way more comfortable temp-wise on the trail. It could actually get a little chilly tonight !

Lastly, a big milestone today…finally, I’m at less than 1000 miles to finish (meaning I’ve hiked over 1660 miles)!

The warm evening last night turned into a pleasantly cool morning. The first miles of the day were smooth sailing then the climbing kicked in with a 3000′ ascent. The good news was that the trail took a relaxing 9 miles to reach the top. All in today, there was 7000′ of climbing and yesterday’s total was 7700′. Between the moderate grades and the shade of the trees the climbs aren’t too bad even in this hot weather but the humidity is a sudden change to get used to.

Some spooky looking trees in the forest.

Lots of lush grasses especially near the many ponds.

The trail finally popped out of the forest near the top of the climb and apparently the haze had cleared. There was a great view to the south of Mt Hood.

Looking back toward the Columbia River Gorge.

Later in the day was the first good view of Mt Adams. The trail goes right by it in the next couple days.

Considering all the climbing, I’m surprised I’ve made as many miles as I’ve done the last couple days . As a little extra incentive, I decided to hitch into the trail town of Trout Lake tomorrow. Even though I don’t need to resupply I’ve heard it’s a town that’s super friendly to hikers.

As much as I wanted to sleep in and relax at the hotel a little longer it was supposed to be in the upper 90’s in town and I wanted to make sure I beat the worst of the heat for the big climb out of the gorge.

Approaching the Bridge of the Gods at 6am. Notice the large PCT sign lit up on light post.

Not much room for hikers…and you can see the water a 50′ below through the metal grated road deck.

View from Bridge.

Slightly less hazy this AM.

Hello Washington !

I bumped into an acquaintance hiking southbound. This is Badger from Golden, CO who has a very popular hiker oriented blog/website originally known as Appalachian Trials (originally a book by the same name) and is now called The Trek. I’ve written some guest posts for the site.

Washington is very lush…today reminded me a lot of the AT with kinder grades. The humidity (a first on the PCT) definitely gave it an east coast feel.

Still kind of hazy for the occasional views.

The bridge over Trout Creek.
Began and ended the day with a bridge.
I Setup camp just above the creek. It was still in the 80’s when I arrived in camp at 6:45 and it’s been cooling down very slowly.

I had a short day into the town of Cascade Locks. It was supposed to be smokin’ hot so I had booked a room at the Best Western (A/C).

All the haze made for a brilliant sunrise.

The trail dropped about 3500′ in 7 miles. Unfortunately, the views down to the Columbia River were obscured by all the haze.

Tomorrow the trail goes across The Bridge of the Gods into Washington. I got breakfast next door at the popular Bridgedale Restaurant with a gorgeous view of the river.

Since I couldn’t check in until 1pm I hung out a local trail angels house, “Shreks Place” and was able to do laundry 🙂

A very special guest drove up from Portland to visit for the afternoon…my great friend from college, Juliet and her husband Aaron (know by his grade school students as “AA-Ron”)
Another view of the bridge from one of the canal locks.

The famous Oregon Blackberries are starting to come into season.
Absolutely, delicious !
The obscured view toward Washington.
A new pair of shoes to start a new state:-)

Unfortunately, much of today’s views were obscured by haze and smoke being blown in from surrounding areas. It was supposed to be 105 degrees in the nearby town of Cascade Locks (4000′ lower), so I as feeling lucky that the temps were as comfortable as they were…helped by elevation, the thick forest canopy and even that layer of haze.

This is Ramona Falls. The vegetation has definitely made changes recently. There have been ferns and cedar trees and an overall feeling of a greener understory.

There was an early morning log crossing over some swift moving water. It had an old decaying rope lashed onto the upper log which actually provided a little psychological assistance as the lower log got fairly narrow by the end.

Breeze thinks he’s onto to the next big thing in backpack accessories…”Trail Nuts”.
I think it just looks like he blew out his shorts and has some sort of weird condition.

Normally, this would have been a spectacular view of Mt. Hood but today it is mostly obscured by haze.

Most of today’s views looked like this 😦

There was a double rotor helicopter making laps with a water bucket in an effort to put out an ongoing persistent fire nearby. Unfortunately, this fire prevented us from hiking a common alternate route through Eagle Creek and the famous Tunnel Falls.

Scooping water out of the lake.

This brief section of trail gave me traumatic AT flashbacks from the White Mountains. The PCT was kind enough to build an actual footpath through the giant rubble rather than making us scramble.

I’m camped with Monster for the the 5th night in a row. Tomorrow he’s going to visit some friends in Portland for a couple days. It is definitely one of the warmer nights I’ve had…In using my sleeping bag in “quilt” mode for the first time.

Another great day with an easy 24 miles.

There were six llamas sharing last nights camp spot with us.

Mt. Hood as the sun rises.

And a little later this morning.

This photo makes me laugh. First, we all have the same pack and they’re lined up against the outhouse. We were super excited to have an outhouse a little ways down trail this morning.

As we got closer to Mt Hood the wildflowers started popping.

The lone ski run getting the ski camps back to the bottom of the mountain.

I think they call it a day around 11am (when I arrived). The snow gets too soft and they need to maintain for a summers worth of campers.

Timberline is a fantastic example of Parkitecture built by the CCC in 1937. It was also used in the movie The Shining.

The Lodge is very Hiker friendly and many of us parked are butts on these couches for a good part of the day while charging batteries and using free wifi.

After a 4+hour siesta there were 10 more miles of hiking. Most of it was pretty easy until we got to an area of giant blow-downs. These logs are about 4′ in diameter and could Bering the trail length-wise.

The scale of the Mt. Hood area is awesome. Notice the waterfall at the bottom? That is prob about 150′ tall.

One last obstacle was crossing the chocolate-brown Sandy River. The log and a couple rock hops kept me dry.

Home for the night with Monster and Breeze.

It was a long day, but easy miles. There were only a couple small climbs in between long stretches of flat-ish pine needle cruising. I had 15 miles done by 11am when I took a 1.5hr siesta in the cool shade of some tall pines. The truth is, a lot of today’s hiking was kind of boring, so at least least the miles were fast. I burned through a bunch of podcasts, listened to music and started the Keith RICHARDS autobiography, Life (read by Johnny Depp).

These incredible flowers seem to like the burned areas. The rest of the day would be buried in the trees which was worked out ok because it was getting really hot out in the sun. I heard Portland is supposed to be in the 100’s for several days !

This was the best sign of the day and a perfect rest stop at 3:30 after 24 miles.
Our hosts, Connie and Dozer (the 190lb English Mastiff).

A Hiker Heaven spread, plus cold sodas !

It was a pleasant evening stroll around the very popular Timothy Lake.

I had only seen a handful of other hikers today (mostly at the trail magic). When I showed up at my campsite for the night there were 10 other folks there…luckily I knew a bunch of them (Monster, the Swiss Couple and Breeze).

For those of you keeping track, one year ago today I finished the AT. By the time I’m finished with the PCT in mid Sept. I will have hiked 5000+ miles in 18 months.