Washington!

Day 112

20.2 miles

Camped near a seasonal creek

The first day in Washington! This morning we set out from the campground by the river in the town of Cascade Locks. It is such a beautiful place with super nice camping on grass with a potta potty. We walked by the coffee shop on the way to the bridge and stopped for a latte before leaving. It was a great start to the morning! Then we headed to the Bridge of the Gods which spans the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington. It is a huge bridge with a metal grate as the bottom road so it is a bit terrifying to walk across. There is also no walking lane so we were glad we waited until early morning on a Sunday with little traffic to walk across.

This is the first time I have ever been to Washington and I am so excited for it!

This is also the first state border crossing we have gotten to walk across on the PCT!

On the far side of the river, we paused to take some pictures with the Bridge of the Gods sign. While we were there, a man driving passed pulled over to talk to us. He said he was a geology teacher and he gave us a bit of info about this area. According to his story, this is called the bridge of the gods because about 5 or 600 years ago there was a massive landslide which caused a natural bridge over the river damming the water but creating some cascading waterfalls where it is now Cascade Locks. The Native Americans named it bridge of the gods at that time. He said it is the most studied landslide in the Pacific Northwest.

The rest of the day was spent climbing a few thousand feet up along the ridge of this old supposed landslide. The first few miles we were feverishly dodging poison oak which sometimes was hanging over the trail. Cascade Locks is the lowest point on the PCT and there is always poison oak at the lower elevations.

After a long day of climbing we were happy to settle into camp near a babbling brook and meet some more hikers along this section!