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Sacajawea and Papoose Rock.

Day 11, Sept. 5, 2014

I got my wish. I bedded down in the open, using the tent rain fly as a cover to keep the condensation off my sleeping bag. I had a hard time keeping rain fly, sleeping bag and sleeping pad all together, but it was worth the effort. The moon was not quite full, but it was bright enough that a hiker who arrived late in camp and had dinner with us decided to do something he said he loves: Hike at night. He was gone when we woke up this morning.

The night started with moonlight shining on the few trees around us. Then I fell asleep and the next time I woke up – after sliding off the sleeping pad – the moon had set and the stars were out. And then, straight above me, in the center of my field of vision, it was like someone struck a kitchen match across the Earth’s atmosphere. A shooting star, wide and bright. There was another one later that night, but nothing as perfect as this flash of light.

The trail, at left, nearly cuts through the backyard.

Up, breakfast and off we went for the final 3.8 miles of the trail to Cascade Locks. A rocky path with lots of brush that nearly goes through someone’s backyard before it parallels Highway 14 and dumps you out on the road not far from the Bridge of the Gods.

I always liked this legend about where the name for the Bridge of Gods came from: “ . . . the sons of Old Coyote, Wy’east (Mount Hood) and Pahto (Mount Adams), were powerful braves both in love with a maiden (Mount St. Helens). Because they crossed the ‘Bridge of the Gods’ to fight over their love for her, Old Coyote collapsed the land bridge to keep his sons from fighting." 

Just a few more steps to go.

 After pictures on the windy bridge deck at the Oregon border, we were in the truck and off to Wind River Road where we covered the four-mile gap in record time. I had the push-from-behind pacer-pole routine down pat.

We had one last ride together back to the truck, and John asked how I thought it went, would I have done fewer miles each day. Yes, I said I would have. He said he would have done more, and we agreed that what we did was a good compromise that accomplished what both of us wanted: To hike the southern most part of the Pacific Crest Trail in Washington State.

John at the Oregon border in the middle of the bridge.

We are both missing the Chinook Pass to Stampede Pass portion of the trail and we are planning to hike it together next summer. And we both have a 2.2 mile gap at Hart’s Pass, which is where we have agreed to close the book on the PCT in Washington State together. 

John and John on a lunch break.