August 10, 2019 | Mile 2147.5–2177.1
📷 Instagram | Pizza in bed, crazy hitch, trail magic
Today I woke up and ate pizza on a motel bed. The TV was on and drying clothes and gear were everywhere. It was great.
We hitched a ride to the trail in the back of a pickup whose driver did not seem to care that there were passengers outside in the bed of his truck. I honestly was scared he had forgotten we were back there and was just going to accelerate or break super fast and launch us out of the back.
We got to trail at around 9:30am and started hiking. I had phone service for a couple hours on the hike up out of the Columbia River Gorge and so was able to talk to my parents for a while which was great!
The day passed in a blur after that for me. The hiking went through identical terrain the entire day — switchbacks surrounded by dense jungle-like forest. We ended the day camped next to a nice bridge and all enjoyed the trail magic that manifested itself next to the bridge as liter bottles of Coca-Cola.
HUGE root system on this fallen tree
We camped next to this nice bridge crossing Trout Creek