Washington
Canadian border
to Oregon border 500 miles
White
Pass to Cascade Locks Oregon
7th July White Pass The
next stage in our trek involved a long section of 147 miles to the
Oregon border on the Columbia River at a small town called Cascade
Locks. This meant carrying 7 days food initially so we braced ourselves
for heavy rucksacks! Our mail arrived at 11am and after a bit of sorting
and reposting we hiked out past the ski slopes and upwards towards
Goat Rocks Wilderness - covering a healthy 15 miles. We settled down
high up on the mountainside at a point our guidebook described as
a 'bleak alpine campsites' at 6,320 feet to, ironically, one
of the finest camps we had experienced so far with lovely views to
Mt Rainier!
We
were off hiking at 7am the next morning 
along
the jaggy crest of Goat Rocks amidst magnificent scenery- we felt
like we were afloat that day! Martina spotted around 40 mountain goats
below us in a snowy coire bowl and we sat and watched them
for a while- Martina was ecstatic at having seen these elusive creatures.
Continuing onwards we rounded the snow slopes of Old Snowy Mountain
into a beautiful alpine cirque before descending green meadows to
forest. The Goat Rocks area was fantastic but short lived. From here
it got hotter and the mozzies reappeared so we solved this problem
the best way we could- we kept on hiking! We eventually made it to
a small creek down at 4,690 feet after 25.5 miles at 19.45pm- a long
day.
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Gallery
photos from Goat Rocks Washington
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Brian
on the crest in Goat Rocks
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Mt
Rainier from Goat Rocks
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Descending
meadows from Goat Rocks
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Martina
on the windy ridge
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10th
July There was some thunder
and rain as we awoke and our tent was still besieged by mozzies so
we scrambled our gear together and departed each with our own personal
black cloud hanging above our heads. Our next goal was to traverse
round the side of volcanic Mt Adams but first we had to travel for
a couple of hours through fairly dull new growth forest. On the way
we stopped to drink water straight from Lava Springs at the foot of
an old lava flow and admired the meadows and flowers at the foot of
the glaciers dropping from Mt Adams.
Although
we were well into July, the season up here was definitely still spring
and we had to negotiate many swollen streams and melting snow
patches
on our route round the mountain. The PCT descended back into forest
after the delightful section past Mt Adams and we were relieved to
be able to camp without our friends the mosquitoes that night after
making 23.3 miles that day. The forest was our companion for the next
two days, however the trees are mostly old growth with 'gothic like'
hanging mosses and lichens and provide a pleasant backdrop to our
hike. The trail is littered with fallen trees from the winter storms
and these keep us occupied scrambling over, under, along and through
a spaghetti like barrier of branches.
We
put in two more 25 mile days of forest hiking before camping near
Wind River next to a lovely golden meadow
-
with Oregon and the Columbia River
gorge
only 34 miles away and within our sights. We passed two other PCT
hikers Alexis and John who skipped some of the earlier snow sections
but have an enjoyable chat with them - other than that there is no
one else around. Two stiff climbs near Table Mountain await us before
we reached Oregon and we stopped between them to cook some rice for
lunch for some extra energy. At our camp 8.5 miles short of Oregon
we were quite exhausted 6 days out from town and after averaging 25
miles per day for the last 5 of those days. We both dreamt of
good food, showers and a clean bed tomorrow at Cascade Locks.
Our
trail descended easily down to the Columbia River at 200 feet above
sea level here, the lowest elevation on our trail. That could only
mean one thing- our next hiking would be uphill!!
To
cross the river we walked over the road bridge ' Bridge of Gods' with
an air of triumph and a skip to our steps. We had traversed Washington,
our first complete state and had done so through adverse heavy snow
conditions where many others had turned back and we felt justifiably
proud of ourselves. A doubt still lingering though was that despite
taking medication, Martina still had Giardia symptoms and that wasn't
good at all. Strangely enough, the bridge had a toll booth on the
Oregon side and I laughed when the woman attendant asked for a fee
for us to walk across the bridge- when I told her we had hiked from
Canada to get here she gracefully let us through for free!
Next Oregon ........
