I woke early this morning from a sharp pain on my thigh. I thought maybe I rolled weird and pulled my hair out in that area but it hurt worse than that. I tried to sleep but the pain pulsated. I pulled my leg out and found a large welt on my leg. I had been bitten or stung. I took my blankets off and looked around and found nothing. This means somehow an insect crawled into my tent, into my sleeping bag, into my liner and stung me. Somehow I fell back asleep despite the fear of this insect crawling on my face.

I woke back up to a misty morning. We made coffee and took it slow. It was cold and I didn’t want to get out of my tent. Soon, the tent was hit by an orange glow. The sun was out! I was so excited after a miserable day yesterday. I peeked out and saw an amazing sight. Rays of sunshine peeked around a tree and through the fog. It was gorgeous. We left camp around 8:30. An improvement from yesterday.

The trail had loads of blow downs, which we knew about. They slowed us because we constantly had to climb up and over and up and over. And sometimes we’d have to go way off trail, bushwhack, then come back to the trail. The sun was out and we were happy it was warm and the air was cool. We smelt smoke and looked back at Mt. Hood and sadly could not see it at all from smoke approaching us. We couldn’t see Mt. Adams or Mt. St. Helens. Smoke was in every direction but around us.

We stopped for lunch and I dried out my tent. I saw a bug crawling and walked over to my tent. Sure enough there was a Yellowjacket inside my tent which was zipped shut. This seems like the culprit for the mid night sting. I felt relieved it wasn’t something worse.

From here we split off the PCT for the famous Eagle Creek Trail down to Cascade Locks. It was supposed to be a very beautiful trail with waterfalls and all sorts of views. It started extremely steep, losing 2k feet in 2 miles. Both our knees were feeling it. We finally joined a mellow trail and it gently wound us down. We saw lots of little waterfalls and creeks. This trail had a massive fire near it in 2017 and we could see the effects of it all. It was burned for miles and miles. Eventually we made it to Eagle Creek and followed along it. Suddenly the trail is on extremely steep cliffs and cables to hold as you walk by. I was terrified. I am very scared of heights. I had to have Robin lead, keep a steady pace, but not too fast. I didn’t really like it. I couldn’t look down or to the side. Just forward.

We made it to the famous Tunnel falls where you get to walk through a tunnel behind a gorgeous green waterfall. Again it was scary but beautiful. We stayed on this trail for several miles and looked into a deep gorge below. Eventually we made it to the parking lot. We met an older gentlemen who offered us a ride to town. We happily accepted. I was proud of Robin for doing a big day and only taking one short break. I am now in Cascade Locks, the border of Oregon and Washington. I have just 505 miles left and hope to be done in just under a month. I’ll be in town for the next few days for PCT Days.