Pacific Crest Trail : Detroit to Cascade Locks

Miles this section : 136
Miles completed : 2144

Back on the trail.

I like Detroit, and decide to take a day off here - I can do this now, having made it to the eclipse I'm just not in a hurry any more!  The state campground people create a hiker camping section for me, so I can have a shower, then into town for my normal fare of burrito, burger and of course beer.  It's still twenty-three road miles back to the trail, along a minor road though, so easy enough even with some four thousand feet of climb.  I meet a couple of other hikers on the road, good to know it is not just me walking it.  One of them, DK, is meeting her parents later, they were here for the eclipse, in the event they drive past me and stop to give me food - I'm never too proud to accept food these days.

Timothy Lake.

It is nice to be back on the trail, it's a bit of a green tunnel here though, with not much for views, I missed Mount Jefferson doing the detour it seems.  I'm feeling a bit down, tired, my pack seems heavy even though it isn't, all the long miles to get to the eclipse catching up with me I guess.  I walk past my namesake Timothy Lake, it's a big one, good to see - there really are a lot of lakes in Oregon.  Also mountains, a large and very pointy one is now visible to the north, that will be Mount Hood.  Funny to be doing short - well, twenty-four miles or so - days now, finishing at 6pm feels weird.

Mount Hood.

Here's something to cheer me up, food - the legendary Timberline Lodge lunch buffet, I sit and eat for two hours, salad, cheese, good ham, fresh bread, proper food!  There is meat and actual veggies, proper hearty chilli, oh and so many desserts.  A pity I then waste an hour trying to sort out my Canada entry form (a bureaucratic requirement I need to complete before entering Canada via the trail).  It seems to work, but the scanned pages never reach me?  It adds up to four hours at the lodge, still I manage twenty miles in the day, less than forty left of Oregon now.

The Columbia River, Cascade Locks on the
near side, Stevenson, Washington on the far side

Still, that twenty miles was less than planned, so now I have a long day, including half an hour of walking the wrong way, oops.  There's more smoke in the air, the trail is open, though I pass campsites that are shut.  Mount Hood disappears behind me, and I can see Mount Adams in Washington - over forty miles away - ahead from a high viewpoint, before the trail plunges downhill, way downhill into the Columbia River gorge - the river crossing, via the famous Bridge of the Gods, is at around three hundred feet - the lowest point of trail.  The nearby town is called Cascade Locks, it seems very nice, hiker camping is a mere three dollars, and I find a burrito for lunch, sorted.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.