I’ve made it through Oregon and into the infamously beautiful Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area! This is another place near-and-dear to my heart as I used to drive a “bookmobile” up and down the Gorge with my Forest Service uniform selling guidebooks and Smokey-the-Bear trinkets to the tourists. I did have a lot of fun here in my 20’s… and I’m still having fun today! 

 My hiking friend, Frozen, and I made it to Cascade Locks!
 It is here where the beautiful Bridge of the Gods crosses the Columbia River from Oregon to Washington.
 Frozen and I celebrated the end of our journey together across Oregon and her last day on the trail. Unfortunately, she had to go home from here.
 But first we got some of the Cascade Locks famously huge soft-serve ice cream cones!

And we also had to cross the bridge together! 

Crossing the Bridge of the Gods is such an important landmark along the PCT and we all anticipate this iconic walk into Washington. Unfortunately, this year, due to fires around Mt Adams, some of the trail is closed north of here. Even though I was going to leave from Cascade Locks and skip up north around the fires, I still wanted to get the experience of walking into Washington across this famous bridge. 

 Crossing this iconic structure of steel brought up a flood of memories of hardship, and happiness, along my 2000 mile journey to get here. It was a very emotional crossing. I was so proud of myself for making it this far on the PCT!
 The final push on the PCT- Washington here I come!

PCT Trail Days

Every year during the third week of August, Cascade Locks hosts PCT Trail Days, a huge gear expo fair and celebration for PCT hikers.

 It was really fun to be part of the hiker’s tent city on Thunder Island in Cascade Locks.
 Look at all the tents on Thunder Island!
 The gear expo was fun, but the dance party hosted by Thunder Island Brewing was really memorable for me. The DJ ended the night by playing “I’m Gonna Be” by the Proclaimers which has the famous lyrics “I would walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 more…”. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sang those lyrics on trail. All of us hikers went crazy dancing and singing along. That was a moment to remember!

However, the best part of Trail days by far was the chance to meet up with old trail friends! 

 I hadn’t seen Hamburgler since the first days on the trail in the desert. I remember he was so nice to me, cheering me on when I was exhausted after hiking 12 whole miles! He’s an experienced Appalachian Trail hiker and usually clocks 30 each day! 
 Giggles is from Belgium and I met up with her around Tahoe where we giggled about how she got off trail to go on a date! 
 Sunny is from Australia and England and we met crossing Sonora Pass in a storm. She is one of the nicest people I have met on this trail- her name definitely fits her personality!
 Morgan is our personal trail Physical Therapist and helped me and hundreds of other hikers as she followed us up the trail.
 Turkey Vulture is from Tasmania and she is the one who coordinated a group of other hikers to sing Happy Birthday to me in April. It was so fun to see her again as she was just gifted a new pair of socks!
 Chopper from the Netherlands and I looked at each other and thought for a long time before remembering that we had met in a laundromat way back in Idyllwild. She was talking to a friend by phone in Dutch using English explicatives. We laughed about that then, agreeing that some things just don’t translate!
 Zoomie is very fast on the trail but I skipped ahead and caught up with her, too! She’s from Australia and we had a good time on our first days on trail enjoying trail magic together.
 Egg, from Alaska, and Rainbowfish, from Montana, met early on the journey and have been a good team together. They are also some of the sweetest and strongest women I have gotten to know. I first met up with them during the hottest days of the desert and we had a good laugh remembering that stretch of trail.
 This trail family basically adopted me through the last days of the desert and much of the Sierra. It was so nice to see Sir Loin, Snax, Willow, Lemon and Postman again!

My Homecoming

Then, after all the fanfare of Trail Days had passed, I took the next day to celebrate with my “roots” from Portland. Along this adventure, so many people have cheered me on and provided help along the way. Some have hosted me in their home while I organized my trip. Some are tracking my satellite beacon, some are dispatching boxes. Others have met me on trail, helped me resupply, baked me cookies and driven me to the airport and around fire closures. A few have even made a donation in my honor to a humanitarian organization helping immigrants at the Mexican border.

It has taken a community of my bestest peeps all along the west coast to get me physically and emotionally from Mexico to Canada on the PCT! I profoundly appreciate all of your support, and especially those who came out to Cascade Locks to celebrate my accomplishment thus far.

Huge shout outs to: Mark, Sue, Stephanie, Ken, Leo, Marta, Gayle, Kate, Laura, Oliver, Brenda, Kim, Fanny, Henry, Chuck, Karen, Dawn, Brent, Jae, Sylvia, Andrea, Mike, Brenda and Craig.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I really couldn’t have done all of this without you!