Just lookin’ for an excuse…
My Washington hike was over, and mentally, I was ready for the over 400 miles hike through Oregon. In fact, I was anxiously looking forward to it.
Hell is a trail going up and down and strewn with loose rocks and stones. That trail is the last ten miles to Bridge of the Gods and Cascade Locks, Oregon.
I had mistakenly tied my right shoe too tight to help traverse descending trails. Now that bad decision was coming back to haunt me and add to foot problems.
Some northbound hikers told Halloween and me about an alternate route for the PCT. We both decided to go ahead and try it.
The highlight of the day were the lakes that I passed. It’s really cool to see pristine lakes in the wilderness. I pushed on for my first 21 mile day.
Goodbye Trout Lake. This is the last time I’ll ever see it. It’s hard to imagine the circumstances that would return me to this neat, little mountain town.
Should I cross Adams Creek? IMy OCD was compelling me to finish the last 9 miles, so I could say I hiked every mile of the trail in Washington.
The plan is to hike all the way to Forest service road FS 5603. That’s the trailhead where we were stopped last year because of the fire.
Today, it’s onward from Yakima, WA to Trout Lake, WA. I had hitchhiked to Yakima since it is on the way to Trout Lake, so here I am and here I go.
I’ve written briefly about the trail conditions. The PCTA goes into much more detail in the below text from their “Trail Closures” app.