Daily miles – 17
Total miles – 2128
Latest start to the day today. We are not doing as many daily miles with Mountain Man’s Mom in this section, so we got rolling a bit later than usual. It was nice.
Much of the day was spent on a ridge walking away from Mt Hood. We did get views of Hood throughout the day as the ridge allowed. Toward the end of the day we were getting views of Mt St Helens, Mt Rainier, and Mt Adams.
Berries were in abundance along the trail – Huckleberry, Blueberry, Salmon Berry, and Thimble Berry bushes all had berries of decent size and fairly regular. The Huckleberries and Thimble Berries are the best right now and produce the sweetest fruit. The Blueberries are tricky as they can look like they are ripe, but most are not sweet yet.
In the middle of the afternoon, we started down the Eagle Creek Alternate. This trail is taken by almost all PCT hikers as it goes by Tunnel Falls, which we will hike tomorrow. The alternate’s first mile is very steep, but the trail seemed to mellow out a bit after we dropped the first 1500 feet or so.
Hi Guys, Sorry I missed you over the weekend. I’m headed up to goat rocks in 10 days but I’m sure you’ll all be long gone by then. I hope your fabulous weather holds and the berries ripen with nary a bear in sight. Seems like the smoke is better this year to so hoping the clear sky holds for you too.
Hi David, we just went through Goat Rocks Wilderness yesterday. Weather held enough for us to get through, though it was a cool wet night and morning that followed. The berries have been excellent in the last 100 miles! We even saw 5 goats while on the knife edge 🙂 Have a great trip up there!