Day 122 - Friday, August 27

Tenting off an old, unused jeep road (mile 2155.2). Walked 7.5 miles today.

I woke up early and worked on journaling some before Frank finally got up and did some journaling of her own. We watched some news/weather and about 10:30, packed our bags. We caught the bus back to Cascade Locks and (after Frank backtracked 0.1 miles to make sure she didn't skip any trail) we walked to the Bridge of the Gods.

This has got to be one of the best names for a bridge ever. It got it's name from a landslide that occurred about 500 years ago and dammed up the Columbia River - basically creating a bridge from one side to the other. The river eventually eroded the dam.

I like to think that only those who are deemed worthy by the Gods (I.e. those who have walked from Mexico) are allowed to cross.

A more appropriate reason for the name is that you have to pray to the Gods as you walk across it. You see, there's no sidewalk and you have to walk in the traffic lane on a steel grid deck...it's a little unnerving.

We started across (after waiting for a semi truck) and saw several southbound hikers heading our way. We reached the state line at about the same time and Frank and I called out "Welcome to Oregon!" They shouted back "Welcome to Washington!"

We continued on and took a bunch of pictures as we crossed.

This will be our lowest point in the trail at about 140 feet above sea level.

It also means that once we got into Washington, we had a big climb. It didn't start immediately, but after a few miles, we really began climbing. Frank's hamstring is hurting her today on the uphills (which is really inconvenient as that's all we have today). She had a hard fall yesterday on the descent into the Columbia River Gorge and thinks she did something to it then.

We had planned for about 13 miles today, but stopped for the night just 7 miles into Washington. We relaxed, stretched, and ate dinner. I unpacked my sleeping bag only to find that it hadn't dried completely from washing it yesterday. I hung it up in hopes that it would dry a little before bed tonight. It's not too cold, so I can just lay it over me for tonight and try to dry it out tomorrow morning in a sunny spot.