Day 126, August 21: Cascade Locks/Mile 2148 to 2168

• Start: Cascade Locks - Mile 2147.8

• End: Mile 2167.9

• Miles: 20.1

• Ascent: 4734 | Descent: 3553

My friends and I packed up and made it out of our hotel by checkout. I did not feel ready to hike after the revelry and fun of Trail Days but I was excited to hike out and be with my friends and to not be alone.

The seven of us - me, Squirrel Daddy, Liz, Tikka, Cathole/Kevin, Gus/Scrooge and Frankie/Chip Trick - made our way to the PCT monument in town so we could take a group picture. Sadly, Liz and Tikka were officially calling their hike at Cascade Locks and would be getting off trail to return to the real world. I was sad to see them go but excited for them (and slightly jealous) to be real humans and not hiker trash. We took our “tramily” photos and said our goodbyes to them.

To hike out of Cascade Locks, we had to cross the famous “Bridge of the Gods” which crosses from Oregon to Washington over the Columbia River. I was so excited to actually walk over a state line since I missed the California/Oregon border, and excited to walk over such a famous monument. Fun fact- the Bridge of the Gods is where the famous Cheryl Strayed of “Wild” ended her 1995 hike of the PCT.

We hooted and hollered our way across the bridge as trucks and cars zoomed by, and we took lots of photos to commemorate the moment. Kevin was stoked on making it into Washington as he grew up in the Seattle area, and his mom sent him a welcome home text. So sweet!

We had a big climb to tackle going out of Cascade Locks, and though it was hard, my mood had shifted and I was enjoying being back on trail. I picked handfuls of blackberries on my way up.

After our second break to filter water and eat some snacks, we realized we probably wouldn’t make our original campsite for the day. We changed our plan then to stop at an earlier campsite listed on FarOut, but when we arrived, we found it absolutely packed with hikers. As we had feared, a huge “bubble” had formed coming out of Trail Days, and we were smack dab in the middle of it. It would probably be a battle royale for campsites for the next few weeks.

We continued hiking on for a half mile or so and found another great camp spot with plenty of soft spots for our whole group, and empty except for one other hiker. We had a family dinner and retired to our tents.