Tenas Camp to Washington

Day7, Tenas Camp to Washington: 10.5 + .5 miles

We woke up and fairly quickly ate and packed: we had almost seven miles to Charburger and we wanted to be there! Down at this stretch of the trail there were quite a few day hikers and we were seeing groups of them that numbered more than all the people we’d normally see in one whole day. Stymied in our attempt at a letterbox near the trailhead we headed on to the Gorge trail, a pretty but loud (from the interstate) trail which is a 12.8 mile long trail from Bridal Veil to Ainsworth State Park. It is also the trail from Eagle Creek to Cascade Locks. A portion of the trail is paved for bicycles and splits at one point. We followed the paved portion to the northside of the freeway and were rewarded with comparative silence as we were well below the highway. Soon we reached the end of the trail, conveniently located at the Charburger parking lot. We went in and enjoyed the view of the river and the Bridge of the Gods while eating our huckleberry pie and hamburgers. Yum! Being right there we decided that we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to hike across to Washington. There we read a visitors kiosk and dreamed for the hot springs in Carson and learned about the landslide which had temporarily blocked the flow of the Columbia and became the Indian bridge of the gods! Heading back Karen spied a pioneer grave just beside the park and ride lot. We paid our respects and then headed back to Oregon.

We hiked back on the Gorge trail the whole way and at one point switched back up a hill and thought we were experiencing a PUD until we found a nice view of the remnants of the landslide. Back at Eagle Creek we ditched our packs with the camp host and went to find one last letterbox. On the return, I suddenly felt tired and done. I think my body knew this was the end and was shutting down. So I found a nice grassy area and laid down awaiting for Keith to pick us up. The hike was done. We'd backpacked from Timberline Lodge to Washington, 56.5 miles with our packs plus another 11.4 without!