Today is four months on the trail...

Woke up to the sound of my friend Linette putting dog food in a metal bowl for their dog Denali. This of course put Freddie in MUST GET OUT OF TENT NOW! mode.

We made breakfast and said goodbyes to folks who were going back to Portland and/or the other camp down in Cascade Locks.

My friend Jez, MCQ, Karen, Gabe and his son Ethan all hiked with me down to Cascade Locks. I wasn't too concerned about hiking this part of the trail and missing Eagle Creek. Today was Saturday so I knew EC would be a complete zoo of people. I would want to hike this section of the PCT eventually so I might as well do it now.

We moved pretty good throughout the day. It was nice to have familiar faces to talk to. Ethan trucked right along, not much slower than me at all. He just needed a few more rest breaks. I didn't realize how little I take rest breaks until I was hiking with other people.

Around mile 2145 we saw two people walking southbound who looked like thru-hikers. These guys were an exception, they both had instruments. Their names were Rusty and Mark and they were hiking the PCT southbound.

I asked them if I could get video of them playing for us. They said the mandolin was out of tune and their tuner was up ahead in a box. My friend Jez said "well..I have a mandolin tuner on my iPhone". So they tuned up and played a little two song show for us. I was so glad we had gone out this way otherwise we would have missed them. It was one of my more memorable PCT encounters.

Eventually my friend Linette met us on the trail, then soon after Cora met me.

We all got to walk down the little hill right before Bridge of the Gods. This spot has always been a bet special to me in that it was the first part of the PCT I saw when my friend Curtiss and I set out to hike across Washington in August 1994.

A few of us walked across the bridge. I got to cross for free since I was the only PCT hiker. Some hikers actually insist on paying the 50 cent toll just out of novelty value. I wanted to touch Washington just so I could be officially done with Oregon, even though I was going back to camp for a few nights in Cascade Locks.

My friends had a good time walking across the bridge..it was something they probably wouldn't have done otherwise.

Got to the other side and Jez took a few photos of me in front of the "Welcome to Washington" sign. Back in my original home state.

We went and got ice cream cones at the Eastwind drive in. (Trivia...this is where Cheryl Strayed ended her "Wild" book...I read the last page to see where she ended her hike).

Cora suggested I get a milkshake but I really wanted an ice cream cone. And yes...it made a disaster of my face.

Got to the campground and saw a few more new familiar faces, Kyle, Lela, Greg, Eric, Stephanie, and Greg Fuller.

I packed up my stuff for the next few days. I was originally going to resupply at Trout Lake but decided against it. I'm carrying 7 days of food for the next 145 miles. In 1994 Curtiss and I each carried 10 days worth of food (and took 10 days too).

Had a good night overall seeing folks. It was so nice of them to come out and see me. I really didn't want to go to Portland at all. It is just too familiar and would feel like the trip was over, or at least it would break the continuity of this trip.

Our RV neighbor in campsite #11 said that I could use his power to charge up my stuff. He even set out a little table for me to put my iPod/phone/etc on while it charged. How nice of him.

Cora had made pulled pork and we had that for dinner, it was great. There was all kinds of food around but I didn't have my hunger like I should have.

I was getting ready to go to bed and then a train came by. The train tracks are really close to the campground. Greg yelled "TRAIN!" and went running out to get video of it. I followed along and got video too since I felt like I was missing out on something.