Day 114, Hanging out in Cascade Locks

8/10
Daily mileage: 4
Mile 2155-2159

Managed to sleep in until almost 6. What an enjoyable way to wake up, looking at cherry trees and the sunrise hitting the Bridge of the Gods, good day already. Originally I wanted to hike 6-10 miles today but that quickly went out the window. The morning was full of errands and me stalling. Shrek was kind enough to drive Caveman and I over to Stevens across the river for groceries, it's bigger than the grocery store in Cascade Locks (and now I've officially been to Washington!). We found Big Slice and Eric on the way and they joined us on our grocery run. Then it was time to face the chaos and sort food. I'm making a few boxes for the rest of Washington hence the dragging of my heels, so much planning is not fun.
The morning disappeared and during one of our many trips to town (less than a 5 minute walk), we found Beaver Chief and added to the group of hikers at Shrek. He had picked a platypus full of huckleberries and had plans for making a crisp. Yet another reason I would not be making an early getaway. Hours flew by, boxes were packed and mailed. More food was eaten, the Olympics were watched and more time was wasted. Beaver Chief started the crisp, so I couldn't leave until that was finished and somehow it was already 5. But man was it worth it, that guy can cook a mean huckleberry crisp.





Finally hit the trail, leaving Shrek's behind and crossing the Bridge of the Gods into Washington.


The Columbia River








Then it was back on the real trail. The trail was full of blackberries and I'll admit it, those blackberries sure made it tough to go fast. It seems like I'll be sticking with caveman and the cousins for this first stretch. I'm concerned about the snow in a few days and would prefer to hit it with a group. So we camped on a fire road because it was almost dark. Only made 4 miles but I'm not worried. I've only heard that Washington gets crazy hard so I planned for 25 mile days for the whole state. No use pushing if the trail is really tough. We'll see, tomorrow it really begins.



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