An Unexpected Proposal

We started out this 8 day stretch from Cascade Locks to White Pass by walking across the Bridge of the Gods.  This bridge is a half mile long and connects Oregon and Washington by going over the Columbia River Gorge. 

For the first 5 days we had quite the group - Katie's sister, her sister's boyfriend, friend, and dog as well as Sleeping Dragon.  It was fun as always always having people join us for a bit. We picked lots of berries, they picked lots of mushrooms and Katie managed to get poison oak again. It rained each night a little while we were all tucked away in out tents, but finally our luck ran out and we had to hike in the rain for a full day.

On the fifth day the 5 of us waited at a road for Katie's Aunt Jeanie and Second Cousin Carol to pick up our section-hiking friends and resupply us with 3 more days of food.  We had our own private trail angels as they brought us fresh fruit and beer!

It was during our break here that Katie met her future husband who had been obsessing over her cursive hand writing for over 4 months (it is very nice I must admit). He had been seeing her sign-ins at various PCT registers and was hoping she wasn't 70 years old or a man. When introductions were made, he exclaimed "You are Midnight Chocolate! I love your hand writing and want to marry you!" After the brief awkward moment, she replied back that she was available and that it could be arranged.

After the gang left us and the marriage proposal was over, we were back on trail. It felt good to back in the groove of hiking with just Katie; time to finish what we started 4+ months ago. We went around Mt Adams and through the Goat Rocks area - a place many thru hikers call their favorite section on the PCT.

The last 2 days of the trail have been gorgeous and mostly above treeline as we went through Goat Rocks. It makes me realize why I love Colorado so much as we got to hike "in" the mountains instead of around them.

Now we sit at the Kracker Barrel Convenient Store at White Pass going through our resupply box, doing laundry and taking some time off our feet. We got another fun care package from friends in MT complete with a great note, chocolate and a mini-American flag to wave as we cross the border into Canada in a few weeks.

Two random notes to add...

Despite how tired I am and how sore my feet are at the end of the day, my favorite time to hike is between 6pm - 8pm. It cools down and seems more calm, quiet and  peaceful.  The lighting helps set the mood with the sun shining through the trees as it begins to set for the night. I know the hard day of hiking is coming to a close and I can reward myself by taking my shoes off for the night, blowing up my NeoAir mattress to lie down on as I eat one last snack before bed. I have become so comfortable sleeping in the tent breathing in the fresh air even despite the constraints of my mummy sleeping bag. I don't know what I am going to do once I have a whole queen-size bed to myself!

I completed my goal of doing 1,000 push-ups. I sure hope completing this trail is more exciting than completing my push-up goal. Now maybe I will move on to doing sit-ups...or just hike instead.

Trail stats after 138 days and 2,003 miles:
# showers: 30
# loads of laundry: 20
# pairs of shoes: 5
# of days hiking in rain: 6
# bears: 5
# snakes: 24
# nights not in a tent: 20
# pushups: 1,000

Here are some pics and descriptions from top to bottom:
-Katie with Mt Adams in back
-Me heading up to Cispus Pass in Goat Rocks
-Heading down knife ridge from Old Snowy
-The trail ahead to Elk Pass
-Hogsback Ridge and our trail (Mt Rainier in backdrop)
-Katie digging through the hiker box -me in my "laundry outfit" (have to wear my rain gear as it is the only non-smelly clothing not in the wash)