Day 147 Bridge of the Gods to Washington

9.0 miles
From Cascade Locks (mile 2150, elevation 184)
To follow camp on Cedar Mountain Trail (mile 2158.4, elevation 1990)
Upload 2522
Descend 701

My goal for the day was to get back on the track fairly early. But my hotel room was comfortable and I still had plenty of things I wanted to do in the city. So I didn’t get back on the road so early.

• I cleaned out my backpacking rig. I had been using my sleeping bag more like a quilt (unzipping and just putting it over me) for most of the hike, so the mat was collecting dirt. I took it into the shower and used some soap and water to get a lot of the dirt off of it.
• Last night I bought some materials to repair my hoodie. I applied a couple of iron-on patches to cover the holes.
• I put tape/patch on the small tear in my waterproof pants.
• After mixing peanut butter and Nutella, I took inventory of all my food and put it in my Ursack.
• Finally, I walked to the little drive-in and got a cheeseburger and a chocolate cherry milkshake for lunch.

I probably didn’t leave the hotel until around 1:00 pm, which still left me enough time to do a half day of hiking.

Cascade Locks Bridge of the Gods

The trail leaves Cascade Locks across the Bridge of the Gods into Washington state. Crossing it was a bit disconcerting. The bridge deck was metal mesh with openings large enough to make it appear that items that could fit in a pocket, like my cell phone, could also fall through the openings into the Columbia River. The bridge is also narrow, with no explicit pedestrian lane. So I purposely kept small items stowed away the whole way.

Because it’s hard to take photos with my real camera while I’m on the road, almost all of the photos on my blog were taken with my phone. I often took almost identical photos with both so I could easily upload views to the blog. But, since I didn’t want my phone to end up in the Columbia River and I kept my camera on a strap around my neck, I only used my camera while I was on the metal platform of the Bridge of the Gods.

Looking west down the Columbia River Gorge as I began walking across the bridge.

Looking towards the bridge deck

The bridge is also a toll bridge, with the tollbooth on the Oregon side. When I crossed at noon, the tollbooth caused a traffic jam heading into Oregon that extended about 2/3 of the way across the bridge. Since pedestrians are supposed to walk on the left (facing traffic), I passed stopped cars as I crossed the bridge. Some of the drivers even rolled down their windows to cheer or shout words of encouragement.

The cars backed up toward the tollbooth. I took this while crossing the street so I could walk on the left side.

Even after passing the last of the stopped cars, I was impressed by how careful the other cars were. A large truck approached and instead of passing me as it went, it stopped to let me pass. I know this didn’t ultimately slow him down; once I passed it, it just caught up with the cars behind it. But it was still nice to know that the driver noticed me and took some steps to increase my safety.

The bridge was really narrow. The truck approaching in the photo is the one that stopped for me.

Looking east mid-span

Almost crossing the bridge. looking west

Cascade Locks, with an elevation of less than 200 feet, is the lowest point on the PCT. That means Washington starts off with some hikes. I walked and climbed until around 5:30, covering a reasonable amount of miles, but still got a good night’s rest.

Looking back towards the Columbia River Gorge during the afternoon

my campsite

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