Pam and I headed down to Cascade Locks to PCT days. It was held on Thunder Island in Cascade Locks Oregon. Thunder Island is only open for camping when PCT has this event so it's pretty cool that way.
While we were there we decided to hike out the Eagle Creek trail to some waterfalls. There are many on this east trail to enjoy. The trail is rocky, but easy with little elevation gain. We had brought along 2 folks we met at PCT days who are both planning a PCT through hike. Willow owns a restaurant near Camano Island and Dan who works in his family's rare rock business in McCall Idaho.
We headed up under Pam's easy hike pace and pretty quickly decided to go beyond the original 4 mile turnaround we had planned to hike through to Tunnel Falls - about 6 1/2 miles out. We ran into some through hikers heading north that told us to go past Tunnel to a more special view and we can't pass on local information so off we went.
Tunnel Falls has a tunnel behind it that you walk through. There is a lot of "chicken wire" along this trail since it drops off dramatically in places. They have cable installed on the inside of the trail for people who may want to use it.
We slammed back down the hill with Dan in tow. He was wearing some shoes with pliable soles and the rocky trail was taking it's toll on his feet.
We made it back to PCT days in time for a shower and some late lunch before the drawing for gear. They had a raffle for over $7000 worth of gear! We bought $45 worth of tickets and ended up with $450 or more in gear!
The vendors there were varied, but many had lighter weight options in tents and packs. We saw a 2+ person tent that weighed under 3 pounds. There were demonstrations and talks on varied subjects and Friday night they screened "Mile -Mile and a Half" which is a documentary on backpacking the John Muir Trail in California.
We will likely attend again next year if we can. We both enjoyed it immensely.
Be very well and more soon....
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