I took my first steps in Washington today, the final state on the trail. We drove out from Portland to Trout Lake, stopping to walk over Bridge of the Gods in Cascade Locks on the way.

The Bridge of the Gods crosses the Columbia River, which forms the border between Oregon and Washington. The entire structure is steel, including the driving surface which is steel grating. As I walk across, I can see the river far below me. The river is wide, and it takes about 5 minutes to walk across the bridge. Traffic runs heavy in both directions, which makes it a tight squeeze.

We don’t have much time left before the threat of snow in North Cascades becomes a real issue, so we skipped trail between Cascade Locks and Trout Lake, buying us 4-5 days.

In Trout Lake, we saw a large group of hikers hanging out at the general store and decide to join the party. We spend around an hour here, and at 4 pm a group of trail angels showed up to shuttle us all up to the trailhead.

The trail from here runs past Mt Adams and Goat Rocks Wilderness, said to be some of the most beautiful sections of the PCT. For tonight, we camped just a mile along the trail from where we dropped off. I’ve always preferred to walk just a little way from town, doing it this way just makes it easier to get away from town and avoid falling into the vortex. We found a nice flat site with plenty of space and took an early night to set up and relax before hitting the trail proper tomorrow.