July 31.
Yeah fuck it let’s go to Oregon.
Woke up after cowboy camping at the creme. BK went ahead since he’s 17 and doesn’t know any better. There were two big climbs that day, one up Trout Creek and one up past Rock Creek, both long hot and dry. Then a long downhill all the way to Cascade Locks.
Not much to the climbs other than just cranking the music and podcasts to get through them. Lots of forests. Met BK at Rock Creek and we decided to just head to Cascade Locks and the campground because fuck it why not.
He went ahead again and I pushed up the last serious climb in Washington. Made it TK the other side and then the pain began. The top of my left to started bothering me, probably from the flattened insoles and all the downhill and my ass was on fire from chafing. I kept stopping to lube it, narrowly missing being seen by some incoming nobos, but it still hurt like hell. Probably from the long downhill.
My chafing was pretty bad as was the pain above my toe so I finally relented and took an ibuprofen.
Came onto a long open section that looked like there was road work going on it. Turned the corner and got my first view of Mt Hood and the Columbia River. Oregon. It was so close but so far.
At a little spring I caught up to BK who was there with Salty and Potter! They had been a few miles ahead of us after all. We all hiked the last few miles together, all deciding that we were close enough to Cascade Locks to literally run down there. Potter and Salty started running the downhills so of course BK and I had no choice but to run down too. With little food and water it was nice to run though my feet didn’t appreciate it.
We talked and joked and sang and were playfully racist. At one little lake we passed a woman camping and a few minutes later Salty saw that it Anish! We totally missed out chance to talk to her. Another trail celebrity I completely missed.
We kept run hiking and came across a big patch of blackberries. We picked a ton and ate them all. So excited for all the berries coming up.
We hit the 500 mile mark and I sang I would walk 500 miles as I had hoped to do at that point. It was beautiful.
We kept hiking and finally made it to the point where the trail parallels the highway. Not too far from where we crossed the highway Taylor caught up! He had been chasing me since Stevens Pass and his double zero and finally caught up to me right before we reached Oregon. We pulled some 35 mile days to catch up. It was great seeing and hiking with someone from my original group.
We finally made it to the Bridge of the Gods! Reverse Wild complete! We walked across the bridge which was beautiful but somewhat sketchy as there’s no pedestrian lane. We had to walk on the lane with cars going around us.
We made it to Cascade Locks, took pics, and just celebrated not having to walk downhill anymore.
Salty, Potter, and BK decided to get a hotel room together while Taylor and I just stayed at the campground. We got some snacks at the store and went to campground.
The PCT hiker overflow space was a big lawn next to the Port office building right next to the river. It was beautiful from what I could see but incredibly windy. It was still warm though so we decided to cowboy camp. Unfortunately after I set up my stuff I went to the bathroom and I didn’t secure my pillow down well enough and it blew away. I looked around for it for a while but it was late and I didn’t want to disturb the other hikers who were set up so I gave up and used my food bag as a pillow. I was so sad and stressed about losing it that I couldn’t fall asleep. The wind didn’t help nor did the fact that I decided to set up right in the middle of the lawn windiest spot. After I finally fell asleep I was woken up by the loudest goddamn train. The campground was also right next to the train tracks and holy fuck it was so loud. I felt like I was on the train tracks. It was so loud and jarring that I couldn’t fall back asleep readily. But still, doesn’t take away from the fact that I am done with Washington and moving on to another state.
Plants Outside 