Aug 31st
Intersection with Timberline Trail(2122)-Cascade Locks(2155)
Today’s Mileage: 33mi
I woke up extra early this morning at 4:30am and started hiking by 5:30am. I was excited because I was headed home to Portland! Unfortunately, it was below 40 degrees, foggy, and rainy. I get cold very easily and my hands were so numb they wouldn’t work properly. I worried it was going to be like that the whole day and just kept telling myself I was headed HOME and to keep pushing. I really liked the fog and got some great NW fog pics!
After 5hrs, the rain finally stopped and the sun tried to peek through a bit. I got to sit on some rocks to eat and try to warm up, but needed to keep pushing because I was moving slow with cold rain.
I had passed Pounder’s tent early in the morning and told him I’d probably see him later on. I came upon another hiker named Cherry Picker and hiked with him a bit until he took a break. He tends to skip around (hence the name), so I hadn’t met him before. I was pushing to get to the Eagle Creek alternate route. I have been quite the purest on this trip and have pretty much stuck to the PCT, but Eagle Creek is so great and popular, that it is even on the main PCT brochure as part of the trail! It is one of my all time favorite hikes, and the first hike I did when visiting Portland, so I decided to take the alternate route. I knew that the trail connected to Wahtum Lake, so I just cruised down to the and didn’t even check my map…big mistake! Long story short, I ran into a southbounder who told me Cherry Picker was ahead of me and that I had taken a different connecting trial that added two miles onto my day. By the time I got to the connector trail, I saw Pounder’s footprints too! Sheesh! I did this to myself two days in a row! Adding two miles to an already 31mi, cold, wet, day was not what I needed. Jeez! Again, I just kept telling myself that a warm dry bed was waiting for me.
The Eagle Creek trail was great as usual, but I forgot about the jagged rocks and that hurt my feet at the end of a long day. Here are two of the popular falls along the trail.
I finally got to Cascade Locks to see my dad and Robin at 7pm. A long hike home, but well worth it! I even got to go Godfather’s Pizza, my fav pizza spot!
