WE DID IT!!!!!

7/27/2014 WE finished!!!!!

The last day! We woke up very late, due to our tent fly and the roar of the creek next to us…8:15!
Cooked hot chocolate, and packed up all our soaked gear. Because EVERYTHING is wet except our pj's, I decide to wear my pj's and long sleeve warmth top, and connor puts on her wet long sleeve top and her wet running shorts.

but…..miraculously there is sun!!!!!! so fitting for our last day hike from Tunnel Falls into Cascade Locks….just 8 miles!!!! whoop whoop!

we set off, and immediately notice that there are many many day-hikers on the trail, all dressed in cute little tank tops and bright colored shoes, and ALL of them smell like LAUNDRY DETERGENT!!!! So strange…. they walk by, and we can actually smell them. Downy, Bounce, Tide, lovely smells. we wonder what we smell like !!!!

Also, we notice that we are in a completely different world than they are. and that we must look completely alien to them, with our big packs, hiking poles, long pants, long sleeves, hats and hiking boots. And it is so humorous to us that they have no realization that we are hiking the PCT (we are on the popular Tunnel Falls Alternate route, which is off of the PCT). These people do not even know what the PCT is. They each pass us and pretty sure they each say to their hiking partners (fairly sure there is a smirk that goes along with this), "wow, did you see how much stuff those 2 girls are carrying? talk about overpacking! they even have hiking poles!"

and of course we look at them and their bright colored tank tops and cute designer attire (there was even a girl wearing her easter sundress--all white with daises!)and think they are from another planet, albeit a nice smelling one!

So we hike and hike and hike…. for some reason, this last 8 miles seems to take forever! We stop and chitchat, we ask people where to eat in Cascade locks, we saunter along. Finally we get to a parking lot, which means we only have 3 miles left.
We find cars and cars and cars, a trash can (yaaaay!!!! we love dumping our little bags of trash!), a huge sign with all the rules, a Water fountain!!!! and a boot scrubber. "Please use boot scrubber on your way into and out of the trail, to rid your boots of invasive seeds". No bathroom, but a boot scrubber!

we continued along the parking lot road, past multitudes of OSU and Uof O stickers…..osu, osu, u of o, u of o…….so strange to be in a state with 2 main universities……. and we see a bathroom! so of course we have to use it! very odd. "Cart out your own trash", but with a paper towel dispenser that has instructions. "hold firmly with both hands and pull. If you use only one hand, paper towel will tear". wow. we are really back in civilization. paper towels and instructions.
and a banana slug on the sink. a real one. probably not too happy, so I pick him up and put him outside on a leaf, where he promptly curls up and plays dead. maybe he did like it better on the sink.

delving further into civilization, we walk with a outward bound-type counselor group who tries to tell us where the trail is…. last day and we can't find the trail. so funny to us. at last, we find it on our own, and hike on a bike trail (so anti-climactic) towards cascade locks. the maps say we will take the paved bike trail for 4 miles, into town, but soon we are back on the single track pct, eating black berries, and whisking away cobwebs (is there anyone else on the trail? i guess not!)

We encounter a homeless guy smoking a cigarette,and he offers to share his milwalkie beer with us, but then suggests we probably won't like this brand…..
a couple more miles….then we are at the toll plaza for the bridge of the gods!

we made it!!!! it's 1pm, and we walk slowly through the town, past the motels and the fast food restaurants… we choose a 2 story ale-house that doesn't look fast food, order lunch, and call Dianne Tapfer, who drives from hood river, collects us and we head back into civilization.


A wonderful end to an amazing journey…. sunny day, smiles on our faces, happy to see our friend Dianne, and ultimately our families, but also quite sad to be done. We look longingly across the river into Washington, and imagine ourselves continuing into the next state, with its ups and downs and jagged peaks…… maybe next year! :)

Through the rain and muck

7/27/2014 After crossing the Sandy river, with its thigh-high white water, we were a bit shell-shocked, a bit cold and a bit lost. We had to both pull out our gps (iphone Half Mile and Guthook apps) to try to find the trail in the pouring rain and mist. no luck. Then we happened upon some little stone cairns that other hikers had built, to show the way. These are little stacked stone towers that people use to mark the trail occasionally. and in this case, they led us right to the trail.

But by this time, Our phones were soaked, as much as we tried to keep them out of the rain. We both put them in our bra's, our only dry part of our bodies, and hoped that they would dry out. We continued and took the Ramona Falls Alternate, which boosted our spirits. It was one of the most beautiful sections of the entire trail, gorgeous, lush and the falls were lovely. Of course our phone cameras were both completely fogged, but we took misty pics anyway.

then, the Muddy River Crossing…. 2 logs stacked on top of each other, with a rope to help shuffle sideways across. Such a funny river crossing, we couldn't help but to laugh. ….and also to comment….. here there is the Sandy River, absolutely dangerous, and with no aid whatsoever (except for submerged logs, which might help in august), and at the Ramona Falls creek, which is like crossing a large mud puddle, there is a beautiful lacquered bridge! And at the Muddy River, which could be rock-hopped across, there is a rope and Logs! Makes no sense. There should be ropes at the Sandy, at least!!! anyway, something to ponder. separates the mountain women from the girls, thats for sure!

After these 3 water features :), it was smooth sailing. this section, although still with its occasional 1000 ft inclines, is the flattest of the entire trail. We enjoyed just hiking along, and swashbuckling through the berry bushes and overgrown trail. The weather was still pretty bad, and soon we came upon 4 men and their scout troop of 16 and 17 year olds. They were freezing cold and were using their Delorme device to call in for an emergency pickup of the boys, who were huddled in their emergency blankets and tents, shivering. My guess is that the boys had not anticipated being cold and hadn't packed the right gear.

The men were quite impressed with us, which made us feel really good, but we felt obligated to admit our misuse of "PCT rule #2, which is, "if you send something home, you will need it". We explained how we sent our warmth layers home, and then needed to purchase $200 of vests and rain gear at the Timberline store….. and we sheepishly admitted that we had sent our fuel in the box that Dianne took with her-yikes! (earlier on the trail, I had asked connor, "did you keep a fuel?" she said, "no, did you?" arrrghhhhh, another bar lowered below Cheryl Strayed and her book "Wild"! Sending home fuel. absolutely our worst maneuver yet.

But, as trail magic would have it, one of the men gave us his jet boil fuel---since they were being rescued, they would no longer need it. We were saved from a cold dinner of power bars. (lest you think we would have starved, we wouldn't have. throughout the trip we have had way more power bars than we could EVER eat!) So, wet and cold, we set up camp early, cooked in our tent (verrrry carefully), hung our clothes (why? good question. even in our tent, they seemed wetter in the morning), stripped down, put on our only dry clothes, and snuggled in our sleeping bags. We got an idea from the shivering scout troop and cut up our emergency blanket and stuffed it into our sleeping bags---immediate warmth!!!! whoo hoooo!!!!

and went to sleep at 8. and woke up at 8. and put on our wet clothes and hiked another day in the rain and went down the incredibly steep and rocky Indian Creek Trail Alternate to tunnel falls and saw the beautiful tunnel falls---very very very cool! and couldn't take pictures since our phone cameras were still water-logged and camped by the river, and woke up at 8 and on the trail by 10:15…. (last day and a new late time!!!) Last day, last day last day!!!!!!