PCT 107 – Tunnel Falls

Daily Miles: 12
Total Miles: 2145

This morning we felt transported to a tropical jungle.  With the large ferns, the moss-covered rocks and the trees dripping with moss, the forest took on a lush and full look.

It seemed like the whole day of walking was downhill.  The trail followed a river down past multiple campsites. Surely these must fill up in the summer weekend nights.  

We stopped multiple times in the morning to take photos, as the scenery was so beautiful.  After several hours, we came to Tunnel Falls, which we have been looking forward to.  It is a very tall waterfall, where the trail goes through a tunnel behind the falls…pretty spectacular!

The trail can be slippery when wet, so there is a line of cable bolted to the rock wall on the side of the trail which you can hold on to.  The trail has been blasted into a cliff wall, so there is a sheer drop on one side of the trail.  Things were pretty dry when we went through, but we did use the cables some when the trail got very narrow in spots.

Luckily we had the Tunnel Falls to ourselves when we went through.  As we continued down the trail, we started to see some day hikers.  Apparently, this trail is quite popular and we saw more and more hikers as we got closer to the trailhead.

When we got down to the trailhead, we ate a quick lunch at a picnic table (quite a luxury) and then walked down a bike path for several miles into the town of Cascade Locks – our final town in Oregon. 

When we got into town, we got a motel room and then headed for the ice cream stand.  Even though it had been cool and overcast for most of the day, we were still craving an ice cream.  Then we went to pick up our resupply packages.  Sadly for MountainMan, his resupply package was mis-delivered to a restaurant in town that was closed for the day so he had to end up buying food again.  For us, it felt a bit like Christmas. SweetPea had a new pair of shoes waiting, and we also picked up our new camp stove system.  We have been admiring MountainMan’s setup and ended up buying the same thing. It has a titanium pot, an alcohol stove and a caldera cone. We will start sharing a cooked meal in addition to the dinners we already have…basically a way to get some extra calories and a hot meal to boot. We’re excited to put it to use starting tomorrow.

Today was our last day of hiking with MountainMan’s mom, Carol.  We’ve had a good time getting to know her while hiking together the past three days.  We are both impressed with her positive attitude, even when the trail gets steep (up or down).  It’s not easy to join thru-hikers who are fully in the groove of long hiking days, but she did really good.  Hopefully our paths will cross again in the future.