Day 8: It’s Govy (mile 2087.5-Timberline Lodge)

Heard our neighbors pack up and get out early but I needed more rest and managed to sleep until 7:30. A pit toilet and laundry day was the motivator this morning and we were hiking in no time. Jake went ahead and we met up at the frog lake parking lot. On the way there were some of the closest views of mt hood we have had. I met another hiker, Susie, who’s headed south and we chatted for a while. Eventually I made it to where Jake was waiting and we started trying to hitch to Government Camp. We got a ride pretty quickly from a woman who was very excited to hear about what we were doing but could only take us part of the way. She dropped us by the side of the highway and we debated just walking the rest of the way but I got nervous about walking on such a fast road so we stuck our thumbs out again and got another hitch into town from a nice guy named Christopher.

Once in Govy we walked directly to the laundromat, got changed real quick in the room while the other person was a lookout, and went to find a burger after the laundry was started. We found those burgers and a big salad at Charlie’s Mountain House, Char Bar, the locals hangout. They had a huge wall of outlets so we could easily charge our devices and check in with family. We stayed here eating and catching up with real life until our laundry was done. The plan was to stay in town until the 4pm bus could take us up to Timberline for the night so we had plenty of time to hang.

A small resupply was all I needed from the “grocery” which was good, I was so full I couldn’t think straight about what I needed/wanted to eat for lunch the next two days. Once we got our shopping done we walked all the way to the end of town (maybe a mile) to the brewery & spent the rest of the afternoon there drinking, snacking, and planning. We grabbed dinner to go and hopped on the bus for the short ride up to the lodge. A bunch of hikers were already camped up the mountain behind the lodge so we joined them and just spent the evening chatting and enjoying being in the shadow of Mt. Hood.