The Right Words are Simple : Timberline and Tunnel Falls

The young man who picked me up was super nice. He didn't even know I was a PCT Hiker but he picked me up anyways because "You looked like you could really use a ride". True statement, bro. As is customary with all hitches I apologized for the way I smelled, to which he responded, "Actually, it's not as bad as I thought it was going to be." I gave him $10 for gas and he drove me all the way up to the Timberline Lodge, where my friends had reserved the last available bunk in the last available room for me. Friends are awesome! Also, just to show how magical Trail Magic really is, that last room was given up by an individual who decided he didn't really need to stay at the lodge more than us very stranded hikers, and so he gave up his room to us. It was about an hour and a half before the room was ready though, and I was still wet and freezing. By this point my exhaustion combined with mild hypothermia resulted in me being pretty disoriented. I apparently just kind of sat in a corner while my friends tried to get me to move over to the fire burning in the center of the main hall. Tried being the key word here haha. After a hot shower and some food I was doing much better.

Timberline Lodge was amazing. Expensive, but amazing. They had three floors which included two bars, a restaurant, an outdoor heated pool and hot tub, a sauna, and a games room with a ping-pong table, table shuffle board and movie screen. Needless to say I ended up staying three nights. The first night I shared a room with about 20 other hikers and watched Lord of the Rings on the big screen. Luckily the next two nights were spent shared with only 5 of us (Snake Charmer, Doc, Karaoke, Slack and myself). That second night, after Slack and I kicked Wisdom's and Snake Charmer's butts in table shuffleboard, we watched the movie 'Room 1408', shared some beers, played some music, and generally had a good time.

The First Night. From Left to Right: Wisdom (aka Sal-Put), Sacred Cow, Kaboose, Rush, ??, Slack, Reverend Blisster

Doc, Snake Charmer, Slack

The amazing breakfast buffet. Take note of all the homemade whipped cream.

??, Dust Bunny, ??, ??, Slack, Danger Poon, Cracker Jack, Snake Charmer, Me, ??, Doc, Karaoake

Sept. 1, 2014 our gang of four finally departed Timberline. And what a glorious day to do so! For the past three days it had been grey, rainy, windy and freezing. But not this day. So with rested feet and full bellies we began our trek towards the Oregon/Washington border. There were so many blueberries that I kept stopping to eat them. Again, glorious day. After 10 miles we came across a river that had no distinct crossing point. After wandering around for a bit we finally found some small logs next to a cairn that someone had make a crosswalk with. Awesome!.....except then we couldn't find the trail again on the other side. After some serious bush-waking and GPS usage, we found our way.

At this point in the trail an alternate route was available for Ramona Falls and we took it. Worth it! About a mile past it we found a sweet campsite with a make-shift tarp shelter someone had left. So we claimed it, built a fire, shared some laughs and went to bed.

Ramona Falls

My tarp!

The next morning we discovered that we had to cross a pretty serious log elevated over twenty feet across the river we camped next to. In fact, there were actually two logs, one of which had a rope attached to it that you had to grab onto while you scooted your feet along the one underneath it. Luckily the rope held and we all made it across. The next few miles were practically vertical and so I fell behind the rest of the group. Then I ran into Dust Bunny, who I had met but didn't really know at this point, and so I stopped and ate a snack with her at a very unexpected but welcomed picnic table. We then proceeded to walk together for the next 7 miles and talked about carrot cake almost the entire time. I was super excited just to have found someone who had the same pace as me. I'm always the tortoise among hares. We then stopped to eat lunch, which unfortunately included no carrot cake. However, where we stopped was very cold and windy so I finished quickly and kept trekking without her and eventually caught up with my crew.

Finally we approached the trail head for the Eagle Creek alternate. No one warned us it was going to be insane. It was almost two miles of vertical decline! But eventually we made it down and found a sweet place to camp. Since I was behind everyone, Snake Charmer laid his bright yellow frisbee in the trail to signal me that they had taken a side trail to a campsite (take note future hikers!). Dust bunny also joined us that night and we all sang some songs, ate dinner, shared snacks and went to sleep.

The next morning we all took it slow and stuck together. We only had about 10 miles to walk before reaching town and also wanted to see the famed Tunnel Falls together. As we walked Dust Bunny taught us a whole bunch of new trees and plants I didn't know and told us about the area, which she knew all about because she lives there! And then finally we reached Tunnel Falls, so named because they blasted a tunnel behind it so you can walk through.

Tunnel Falls

Snake Charmer, Karaoke, Doc

Me standing in the Tunnel of Tunnel Falls

After ooing and ahing at the falls and walking through the tunnel no less than five times we made our way towards Cascade Locks. As we walked I ran into an old friend, Pilgrim, and we also made a new friend who ended up being a trail maintenance volunteer and gave us a ride 2 miles early into town! Yay!