August 18th, 2022 by Jon
When we woke up, we expected to have a wet tent after a couple of short rainfalls we had overnight. But it actually ended up feeling very dry, and our tent was not even wet, even though we had a sprinkle of rain only an hour earlier. Super strange. The campsite was so packed with people that we felt bad cooking there. Instead, we packed our stuff and immediately began hiking down the very steep Indian Springs Trail. I should also explain that today we are mostly hiking the Eagle Creek Alternate, which will bring us by a couple of cool waterfalls we wanted to check out instead of staying on the PCT.
The trail dropped us down through thick pine forest, and it was already very hot. Perhaps the upper 70s at 6:00 am. We were sweating very quickly before reaching a wide, open, rocky part of the trail with a great view of the east and the sunlight still coming from behind the mountains. We decided to eat breakfast there since we could talk and make noise without disturbing people camped 5 feet away. We had great views of the surrounding hills and enjoyed a leisurely meal before continuing on. The next few miles impressively got even steeper and took us through a burned area. The trees were charred crisps, and the trail itself was covered in soot and ash. We both stumbled a few times on the way down, but thankfully, nothing serious.
We hiked along the side of a ledge for a while before switchbacking our way down to the bottom of the valley, and we looked down at Eagle Creek, which flowed about 100 feet below us. We walked along the river for a while before coming to a small feeder creek running across the trail, and stopped to take a break there on the rocks. We filled water and ate something before continuing. We walked along the riverbank for a while before the water fell about 200 feet, and we stayed high up on the trail cut into the rock. They actually had metal cables punched into the rock to hold onto, since the trail was about 3 feet wide and a complete drop-off.
After a few more impressive waterfalls, we finally came to the main attraction, Tunnel Falls. It’s a huge cascading waterfall with a 15-foot-long tunnel behind the waterfall that you can walk through. We had an amazing time going through it and taking pictures. What a cool phenomenon. We hiked some more before crossing a bridge to hike on the other side of the river, and took a small break to rest by the water’s edge before hiking the last section. We saw tons of day hikers on their way up as we flew down. Sometimes I get in the mood to go fast, and so I hiked those 4.2 miles in about an hour. I was practically running down the trail, and it was super fun.
We got to the end of the trail and took a break at a small bench next to the parking lot. We admired the food menu of a brewery we were headed to before setting out to finish the last few miles to get to town. We crossed a nearby campground and got on a paved biking and walking path that paralleled the highway along the Columbia River. We walked into town and headed for Gorges Beer Co. where we planned to meet some friends of ours, Ransom and Emily. When we got to the brewery, they were waiting outside for us! We went inside to grab some drinks and food before having the rest of our crew join us. Stealth had hiked and camped with us, and Wilco and Biscuit joined us yesterday. Rune and Bouge are in town too, but we will see them later.
We spent a long time there hanging out and catching up with friends, and it feels great to be so close to Washington again. After a long meal, we went across the street and got ice cream! Their medium soft serve was seriously 8 inches tall. I saw someone get a large one, and it was more than a foot tall. Absolutely amazing, why is this not the standard?!? We ate our ice cream before saying goodbye to our dear friends. After they left, we picked up our packages at the post office that we had mailed ourselves from Bend, so we wouldn’t have to shop at a store with 8 million other hikers who are all in town for PCT days.
After the store, we headed to the Best Western, checked into the hotel room we were splitting with Stealth and Biscuit, and enjoyed a bit of air-conditioned R&R, showers, and laundry. Once completed, we headed over to Thunder Island Brewing for some dinner and to partake in the PCT Days Pre-Funk event. It was basically just a dance festival with live music, and we got to see a bunch of friends from trail we hadn’t seen in a while. Finally, it was getting late, Singsong and I headed back to the hotel and had a drink on the back patio, enjoying the views. Tomorrow will be a zero day, and we’re looking forward to hitting up all the booths at PCT days and spending more time with friends.
