Wow- a lot has happened since our last blog post! Hermes is back on trail, we had my family visit, and now we are hiking in Washington with under 400 miles left to go! I’ll try and keep the post relatively short (we have tons of photos to share).
When Hermes hitched up to Cascade Locks from Timberline, I did the 48 miles from Timberline to Cascade Locks solo. It was the first time I had done any overnight solo hiking, and it was a really good experience. I had two big river crossings, a big climb and a gorgeous side trail down Eagle Creek with amazing waterfalls to do. I got a ride back to the trail from Portland with the trail angel/past thru hiker Sidhartha- thanks again! I hiked off that afternoon and did my first two river crossings and the climb all in that first day. By the time I got to camp that night I had done 19 miles. This left me just under 30 miles to get to Cascade Locks and I figured I would shoot to arrive the next day- a whole half day earlier than I had predicted.
Views of Mt Hood!
Mt Hood
Mt Hood even closer
Can’t get enough of these epic mountain views
Ramona Falls
Crossing Muddy Creek… quite the adventure making it safely to the other side
Evening view of Mt Hood
With Hermes waiting for me in Cascade Locks, I decided to take a video of the early morning sunrise and then push miles to make it that evening. I started hiking shortly after 6am and headed off towards the Eagle Creek Trail. Eagle Creek is a side trail that leads into Cascade Locks and has amazing waterfalls all along it, including one that you walk behind through a tunnel. Before I knew it, I had reached the bottom of Eagle Creek and had a 3 mile road walk into Cascade Locks, it was 3pm. I had done almost 30 miles by the time I arrived at Shrek’s (a trail angel) and it was 4pm and I was so happy to see Hermes! We had two more days to rest and relax until my family would join us for three days of hiking. We were hoping that Hermes would rest up and be ready to hike a few low mile days with my family and then hop back on trail injury free.
Morning sunrise
Mt Hood
Foggy morning
First of many waterfalls along the Eagle Creek trail
Small waterfall with a cave
Trail on Eagle Creek
Another huge waterfall
Second view of the same waterfall
Front view of the same fall
This is the huge waterfall that a tunnel goes behind
Tunnel ahead!
In the tunnel
Made it out the other side!
My second night in Cascade Locks- my family arrived! My mom and Maxx (my brother) showed up with a car full of treats and surprises including an epic vegan birthday cake!! Thank you Mom!! We had a feast the night they arrived and then packed up to hike out the next morning. Shrek dropped us off at the trail head where we would head south for 33 miles over 3 days and end up back in Cascade Locks. Having my mom and Maxx join was a blast! Our first day out we faced down a hornets nest in the trail, had some climbing and finally ended our day after 13 miles! I was really impressed that my mom was able to keep up and she and Maxx added a lot of fun to our hike. As we headed South we ran into other thru hikers that we hadn’t seen for quite a while, including Miss Maggie, Uncle Famous and Ain’t Nothin Wrong With That! We also remembered to pack out a piece of vegan cake for VP (Vegan Paul) the only other vegan I have met on trail.
Amazing Birthday Cake!!
Yumm!
Maxx and my Mom!
Hermes, me, Maxx and my Mom hitting the trail!
My Mom loved the forest and huge trees we camped near our first night out
Uncle Famous, Iant and Miss Maggie- we hadn’t seen them since mile 700!
Mom and Maxx
Rabbit Stick!
Hermes and I
Getting a little stretch
Views
Family photo!
507.2 miles to Canada!
My Mom couldn’t get enough photos!
Washington!
Crossing the Bridge of the Gods
Bridge Crossing
Three days after their arrival, my Mom and Maxx finished their 33 mile section of hiking. They did an awesome job! We headed out back to the trail to camp with them one last night before they took off. They also left us with a bunch of trail magic to share with other hikers. We had been hoping that Hermes would be ready to go after these three low mile days, but unfortunately he wasn’t quite healed. We said goodbye to my mom and Maxx and decided to do an on trail zero and hand out some trial magic. Hermes went and set up camp while I slack packed/ran the three miles of trail I needed to cover to actually “be” where we were camping. We spent the day sharing beers, OJ, bars and fruit with all of the thru hikers that came through and ran into more old friends including Robin Hood!
Enjoying a coconut water after my slack pack/run!
Sharing some trail magic
After our on trail zero we headed out to hike! Unfortunately, after about a half an hour of hiking Hermes realized he wasn’t ready to go. We decided he would hitch to Trout Lake and I would hike the next 50 miles solo and meet him there. It was a huge disappointment for him to miss another section of trail but we both realized it would be better for him to get more rest and to have him back on trial for the upcoming Goat Rocks Wilderness. I hiked out and caught up with Carrot, Egg, Burrito Grande and Robin Hood and managed to get 30 miles for the day. We all camped together that night and then pushed onward to Trout Lake where I would meet Hermes…and hopefully he would get back on trail!
I passed 2200 miles! Only 460 left to go from there!
Mmm lake water…
Burrito Grande collecting “Shtein Piltz” for dinner
Robin Hood picking wild strawberries…we all felt like bears
Goodall collecting strawberries for breakfast
When I arrived at the road for Trout Lake, Hermes was there sitting next to a big barrel of trail magic from the Zen Buddhist Center in Trout Lake…and he was ready to hike!!! He was feeling better and we decided we would head out the next morning. We had some amazing hiking ahead- Mt Adams into the Goat Rock’s Wilderness.
Mt Adams ahead!
So reminiscent of the Sierra
Huge Views
Oh Hey!
Hermes takes awesome flower photos
Ice cold snow melt water
Mt Adams
River crossings are my least favorite
This is the Washington I was expecting!
Foggy morning start
Hiking around Adams reminded us both so much of the Sierra- it was full of snowy views, a giant mountain and gorgeous water and meadows. We headed off into Goat Rocks the next day where the highly anticipated Knife’s Edge lay waiting for us. We also wondered if we would actually see any mountain goats…
Here’s a video of us walking on the Knife’s Edge and another of a family of goats we saw later that day!
We made it to Goat Rocks!
Goat Rocks ahead!
Views of Mt Adams behind us
Goat Rocks is gorgeous
Loving the view
Hermes on trail with no pain!!
Wildflowers
More epic views
Meadows
These remind me of truffala trees
Mountain Meadows
All of the white dots are a huge family of mountain goats!!!
Our house for the night
Mt Adams
Hiking!
Mountain Meadows
Knife’s Edge Ahead!
Snow crossing
Climbing up towards the Knife’s Edge
Huge Views
The Ridge ahead is where we walk along the Knife’s edge
Another, scarier, snow crossing
You can see the trail stretching across the ridge for miles
Hermes and I ready to start the trek across!
Hermes!
Going down
Mount Rainer!!
Glaciers
Hermes is awesome
Rainer and some yoga
Goat Rocks is Epic!!
Wow…so many big views
Huge Glaciers
Goat Rocks
More views
Mountain Spring
Mount Rainer
Shoe Lake
Evening Sky
The trail through Washington
More mountain goats!!
It’s breathtaking there
Hiking
Meadows
The trail stretching back behind us
Rainer!
We made it into White’s Pass this morning with plans to pick up our packages and head off. We were so surprised and thrilled to have not one but two care packages! When we arrived we heard talk of a huge storm and the weather forecast predicted flash floods, mudslides, thunderstorms, and quarter sized hail. Needless to say, we took our friend Blur up on his offer to pick us up and take us to Packwood to spend the afternoon staying dry and hanging out with him and Goodall. We plan to head back to the trail tomorrow and keep on ticking off miles- we have under 400 miles left to go and I can’t believe we are getting so close to the end…
What an AMAZING Surprise care package from Kath and Andrew- thanks so much you two!! So full of treats and such a great surprise!
Thank you Ellen for your amazing and delicious vegan cookies!!!!
Becky and Luke Hike the PCT 