Day 120 - Wednesday, August 25

Tenting at the Eagle Creek Trail Junction (mile 2128.6). Walked 27.4 miles today.

Well I had a restless night of sleep, trying and failing to not touch my tent walls which were soaked with condensation. I failed at this, and as a result, my sleeping bag got pretty wet.

Frank and I set off, first up a big climb and then a long downhill stretch, but with occasional views including one of Hood's glaciers and the meltwater which formed three huge waterfalls as it flowed down the mountain.

We continued down and eventually crossed the Sandy River which was one of the bigger crossings we've had recently.

After another mile, Frank and I took different paths. She took the PCT and I took a side trail that will go to Ramona Falls. The trails will meet again in 2 miles and it's only 0.1 miles longer for me. The falls were really cool and I spent a few minutes by them before hiking on.

A short downhill and river crossing led to a steep, long ascent, our last major climb of Oregon.

We got to the top and after a couple miles of downhill, arrived at Lolo Pass where we sat at a picnic table for lunch. Upon finishing lunch, we set off. I went ahead of Frank here, planning to meet her at the spring in 8 miles. I hiked through several gentle ups and downs and finally reached an area where there was major damage from last year's Labor Day wind storm. Trees were uprooted all over the place, but luckily, trail crews had been working hard and had cleared the trail of a lot of the logs.

Finally, I reached a spot that hadn't been cleared yet. It was slow going through this area. Some trees were only 2 inches in diameter and easy to pass by, while others were 2 feet in diameter and were difficult to navigate around (or over...or under...). Finally I reached the spring and chatted with a southbounder who said there were definitely more trees down up ahead.

I filled up on water and set out my sleeping bag to dry. Frank turned up and like me, was frustrated at the pace and all the logs we had to climb over. We hiked on and there were definitely more trees down, but luckily we were past the worst of it at this point. We finally reached a section that had obviously been recently cleared. The downed trees section had lasted 4.9 miles and we went over 128 trees or large branches.

We hiked on, at a faster pace now, and got some distant views of the Columbia Gorge and Washington on the other side of the river.

We got to camp and found a treat: our second picnic table of the day. Also, sitting at that table was J-PRO, Clockwork, Bougie, and Heather. We ate dinner and caught up with them (and got to hear the story of J-PRO's encounter with a mountain lion at Crater Lake) until it got dark and then set up the tent in one of the only remaining rock-free spots.