We had a very chilly morning of hiking, took a sun break in the afternoon, and hiked towards three more volcanoes. This picture is from a second break on the ridge before descending to Eagle creek. If you look carefully, you can see Mt St Helens to my left, Mt Rainier in the middle, and Mt Adams to the right. All while Mt Hood is beind me. I hope none of them decides.to erupt this week.
We got up at 6:30, ate breakfast, made some cold coffee, and were off at 7:15. The night was cold, but not windy so it was not that bad. The morning still had a brisk chill in the air. I started hiking with my rain jacket on for warmth. My gloves stayed on until nearly 2 PM. We had to stop for water about thirty.minutes into the morning hike and the water felt even colder with the chill in the air.
We could hear logging in the distance and could tell they were using helicopters in the operation but we could never actually see them. We got many good views of Mt Hood looking backwards. There was more.climbing in the morning but nothing ridiculous. We snacked all morning but we were both hungry most.of the morning so we stopped shortly after 11:00 for lunch. I ate my tuna wraps and Kevin age his sausage and cheese wraps. We were still cold so we moved.on pretty quickly.
Around 1 PM we hit a rock field in the sun, so we stopped and layed out on the rocks like snakes to soak up some sun and warm up. We rested there close to an hour and both of us probably dozed off at one point or another. We both got nice and toasty. Just thirty.minutes later we hit another clearing with rocks and juniper ground cover. Kevin was able to get an AT&T signal so we stayed there about a half an hour while he checked email and such.
We had a fantastic view of the three mountains to the north of us. All of these volcanoes look alike except for Mt St Helens, which is missing the top thousand feet or so. I was not sure if the one in the middle was Ranier or not, but the maps cleared up any doubt. But Adams is the closest.one and the one I will visit next.
After leaving that.clearing, the trail started descending, so this is the last brand view for a few days. We decided to go ahead and take the Eagle creek alternate trail into Cascade Locks. It is supposed to be alot more scenic than the official PCT. But the first two miles are supposed to be a doozie of a descent. And the rumors are true. The first two miles are quite steep but not as rocky as the rumors had indicated.
We got down to the creek level in under an hour and the trail got much easier then. There are lots of creeks to see, and some sort of waterfall about every thirty minutes. The forest is pretty thick but the mosquitoes are not.
We picked our campsite and made camp.quickly.and immediately cooked dinner. We both ate quite a bit today and dinner was no exception. Even though we did not do big miles today, we are both getting a little stiff from the ramp up. We both turned in before dark and plan to get up at 6:30 again to try to make the last 10 miles into Cascade Lock’s for lunch. Kevin will be meeting a friend to.or foe for more day hiking and I will probably resupply and head out before dark. I doubt I will be able to complete the climb out of the Columbia gorge tomorrow, but I should be able to put a decent size dent in it. I just hope I am not too sore tomorrow. I need to make tracks as best I can to about snowfall in Washington.
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