0 Miles
Before heading up to Cascade Locks, we needed to do laundry. Got that done, repacked our bags, and then checked out of the room. Our ride was arranged for 11, then 11:45, then 11:30. She showed up at 11:45 with the tailgate open on her truck, but she had a cap so her stuff didn’t fly out the back. We already had weird vibes from her on the phone so this was no surprise. There were two other hikers joining us, so it was a full truck. The 3-hour drive from Bend to Cascade Locks was scary and entertaining, but we made it. We ran over rumble strips about every 10 minutes because she couldn’t focus on driving very long. Lots of weird stories from everyone, which made us silently play the “hiker or homeless?” game. We had already been in the car for a while before she made us all wear masks. She had an idea for an invention to filter smoke from the air, but apparently had never heard of bottled oxygen. Just all around strangeness and super glad to be out of that car. We quickly walked away from the group when we arrived in Cascade Locks and got checked into our room to dump our packs. The Gorges Brewing company had some good beer and food, and then we walked over to Thunder Island Brewing to see the Unicycling Unicorn. He’s known as Big Red on the trail so this was a great time for everyone that had been hiking near the MN Hikings all summer. We saw tons of hikers we knew and tons we didn’t. Trail Days seems to be a hiker reunion, both past and present, so the town is packed with hiker trash. We sat with Coach and Tidbits, but saw Bluegrass, Spin, 700, Scenic Route, Stoked, Right On Time, The Count, B.C., Studio 54, and Bearslayer. Many beers and a great unicycling/juggling/comedy show were worth the effort and detour from the trail. The market was still open when we left so we grabbed snacks and went back to the room.
PCT Hike 