August 20th, 2022 by Jon
We slept in again this morning, which for us is about 7:30 or 8:00. I actually managed to sleep all the way until then, which was pretty amazing. We took showers and chilled in the private living area before Theresa came in and showed us where we could get coffee. We eagerly followed her and soon had a warm beverage to hold and sip on. We sat down at their dining table and soon had a yogurt, granola, and fruit cup, followed by Eggs Florentine, homemade biscuits with jam, coffee cake, and chicken sausage. Everything was absolutely amazing. After eating, we took some time to explore the rest of the property, walking through the meadows above the cabins and finding so many wonderful nooks with Adirondack chairs and fire pits, as well as a few with hammocks.
We lay in those hammocks feeling very happy with life for a few hours, and I was able to do my fantasy football draft with my family league, which was great! We pulled ourselves out of the hammocks and headed back to the house, where we began the chores of packing up, filling water, checking maps, making sure everything was charged, and putting sunscreen on. We realized we had less fuel than we thought, and when we asked about swinging by the store on our way back to the trail, Rick showed me all the cans of fuel some guests had left recently. It was the exact kind we needed, and they were almost full!
Feeling so incredibly lucky, we said goodbye to Rick and thanked him for everything before getting in the car with Theresa and heading back to the trail. She dropped us off right by the bridge where we were picked up yesterday, gave her a big hug, and thanked her for everything. Soon, we headed up the trail. We hiked on a gentle ascent along the side of the ledge for a while and could hear the road down below us. We passed by lots of blackberry plants after a half-mile and took a long break to pick lots of them. They were perfectly ripe and an excellent snack. We continued hiking through the trees and really didn’t have many views. The trail was heavily shaded with trees, and we noticed more ferns on this side that weren’t on the Oregon side.
We hiked for a while, passing a number of day hikers headed back towards town, and got a number of people telling us good luck. I guess with PCT days going on, everyone around here knew about thru-hikers. We walked along a dirt road and hiked down to a pretty lake, where a number of hikers were taking a break. We walked by and made it to a small creek a little ways past that, and took a long lunch break. It was already 2:30, but we had a big breakfast, and it turned out to be a super nice place to chill, so we stayed there for a while.
When we finally left, we began the big climb up out of the gorge. It was a long, steady, 10-mile climb, and so we just put our heads down and did it. We climbed for 2 miles and came to a small stream, and found Rune and Bouge already set up there. They had gotten there at 2:00, called it a day, and enjoyed just chilling and taking a short day. We talked to them for a while before making plans to see each other in Trout Lake if we don’t see them on the trail sooner. We hiked another few miles up the hill, and I went on, powering ahead because I wanted to get to our planned site as early as I could, and I’ve been feeling pretty fast on the uphills lately. Singsong’s last words to me were, “Get me a good spot”.
I hiked fast and hard, shooting uphill. There were a few blown-down trees, and I passed 4 or 5 people at a creek. I smiled to myself afterward, hoping there would be space at a very small group of sites near some water. The trail went out onto a few rock fields, but otherwise mostly stayed in the thick forest, taking us further up into the mountains. I got to a sloped set of campsites with three tents there already. Everyone was super nice there and tried to help me figure out where to put our 2-person tent, but the options were limited. I set my stuff down at one of the sites and then ran up the trail to see if I could find anything else. Not 200 feet later, I found a perfect little spot in the woods about 40 feet off the trail. I set up our tent and my stuff, then grabbed my water bag and headed back to the tent area, where I told them the good news.
Singsong arrived soon after, and I took her water bag and told her where the tent was. She left to go set up her stuff, and I went to the water. It was straight down a loose, treacherous trail down the mountain. I had to hold on to trees as I went down, almost falling numerous times. I filled our water in a wonderfully cold stream before climbing back up. I needed handholds to pull myself up, which proved hard with the water. When I made it back up, I was panting hard. I stumbled back up to our campsite and filtered a liter of water so I could wrap the can of seltzer I packed out in the other liter that was in the bag.
We sat to cook dinner on a nearby log, and by the time everything was ready, my seltzer was actually quite cold. Dinner tonight was ramen for me with salmon, and dehydrated lasagna for Singsong from Mountain House. The seltzers pair beautifully with those things, of course. We climbed into our tent around 8:00 and fell asleep quickly. Tomorrow we have to finish this long climb, and then lots of big ups and downs to look forward to. Wilco is ahead of us somewhere because he left Cascade Locks this morning, but Stealth, Missile, and Biscuit are all behind us. They were still at the booths around 4:00, but said they wanted to at least get across the bridge tonight if they could. Hopefully, we will see them soon. If not, we will catch up in Trout Lake.
