Mile 2113 to 2144.6

Today, we woke up and had one thing on our minds, Cascade Locks. It is a small community on the Columbia River and is home to the Bridge of the Gods, which connects Oregon and Washington.

With that on our mind, we walked all day and didn’t take many breaks. We did have lunch near a lake about 16 miles in and we startled a firefighter in full kit as we came up to the lake. Apparently, they are using water from the lake to fight the Eagle Creek Fire and helicopters are flying in on the regular.

The rest of the day was fairly easy and we had an epic 4,000 feet of elevation loss as we came into the Columbia River Gorge.

The views of the river were wonderful, and it was great to see such a large body of water again.

We came into town and headed for Shrek’s Swap, which is the name of the home of a trail angel in Cascade Locks. Behind the house is a recreation of Shrek’s home from the animated movie. There were a bunch of new faces there and we were surprised to see so many hikers. Perhaps we caught up to a bubble.