A college buddy of mine who lives in Portland was coming up to Wahtum Lake where I was camped and joining Bob Rob and I for the descent to the Columbia River and the Oregon-Washington border. Matt arrived around 8:30 and by the time I got my new shoes ready to go and had taken all my overnight gear out of my pack and into the car it was 9:00 am.
The hike down to Eagle Creek was quite gradual. In fact, it only dropped about 3500' over the course of about 12 miles or so. When we finally got to Eagle Creek, the canyon we were in was one of the steepest I've been in on the entire trip. There was even a stretch dubbed the Vertigo Mile. The trail here was literally carved out of a sheer rock wall and had a handrail for those who needed it. Before long we approached and passed Tunnel Falls (see previous entry and photo). It was one of the coolest images I've ever seen: A sheer rock wall with a path carved out of it, entering the side of the wall just before the waterfall and exiting the other side. It was definitely the highlight of the day and one of the highlights of the trip!
We arrived at the end of the trail at 3:30 pm. With the end of the day came the end of Oregon as well. Now I've got about 508 miles to go before I get to Canada. It left us plenty of time to make a stop at Burgerville on the way to Matt's house in Portland. The perfect way to end Oregon!
Tonight I ate, and ate, and ate. It was fantastic. I also cleaned myself up, did laundry, and finished my resupply shopping. Tomorrow morning Matt and I are headed to REI in Portland--the site where I bought most of my gear for this trip. I'm hoping to bump into the guys who got me outfitted for the trip. Then in the afternoon I want to head back out to the trail so that I can get about 10 miles in before the end of the day. That would leave me about 500 miles to complete in 23 days. Now THAT is weird to think about!
No comments:
Post a Comment