Oct. 12: A Short Day for a Wet Night

The plan was for Meaghan to give me a ride back to the trail with a couple of stops on the way. She had to work that day too, so I was hoping I wouldn’t put her out more than a couple of hours.

After a tearful (not really) goodbye with Jordan, we drove to the nearby UPS Store to get my food packages sent. There was no line when I got there, soon after opening, but by the time I had gotten all my food boxed and addressed and paid for, there was a line halfway down the sidewalk outside (which means about five people once you account for the six feet of space between each person). Then I swung by the adjacent Trader Joe’s for breakfast. The only suitable pre-made food I could find was pumpkin donuts. I shared them with Meaghan, along with some of the peanut butter cups they sold at the register. I also bought a sandwich for that day’s lunch at Jimmy John’s.

Next, we drove the Columbia River Gorge on the Oregon side to Cascade Locks, where I left my bear can full of food and reserved a room for the following night at the Bridge of the Gods Motel. This arranged, we drove across aforementioned bridge, waited on the road work again, and finally reached the place I had been picked up. All these errands put together with the driving time ended up taking three hours. It was nearly lunchtime by the time I was back on the trail. Good thing Meaghan had rescheduled her meetings for the afternoon.

There isn’t much to say about the day’s hike really. I went down to and across the Wind River first thing, then followed the trail as it squeezed through a narrow corridor between private property and roads. After a few road crossings, I stopped on a random log in the woods to eat my sandwich. Then I started climbing a long steep hill. It wasn’t too taxing I was only carrying one day’s food.

It was dark as I arrived in the small campsite next to the creek at the bottom of the other side of the hill. I set up my tent and pulled everything inside with as much haste as I could muster in anticipation of the coming rain. It rained all night and I mostly stayed dry. I had an idea of leaving my towel on the outside of the inner tent above my head to catch any condensation dripping down, but that would turn out to be a bad idea. But the damp around me didn’t affect my sleep at all. I slept quite well.

Total distance: 12.5 miles