I was told to go take a hike...: Finishing off Oregon! That's right, I have one more state left.

It has been a week since I left Sisters, OR and the it also was the last 7 days that I would spend in Oregon on the PCT. I spent about 24 hours in Sisters, enjoyed eating at their bakery (I went 3 times while I was there), walking around their little downtown, and getting some great fruit from a random fruit stand in town. Essentially, it was the break I needed to give me the energy and resolve to finish my trek.

Once I got back to the PCT at a place called Santiam Pass, I had about a week to go until I crossed the Washington/Oregon boarder. After this pass, you go around a mountain called 3-Finger Jack. It is really rugged on top and you get views to the east and south as you hike around it. I was able to see the Sisters (a series of 3 mountains that I went by about 4 days earlier) and the other peaks and buttes around.

After getting around 3-Fingered Jack, you get near Mt. Jefferson, one of the volcanic Cascade mountains, and in the two days that I went around this mountain, there were tons of wild huckleberry bushes. For those who aren't familiar with Oregon, huckleberries are a local delicacy that people flock up to the higher elevations in the mountains to gather. They look similar to a blueberry but are more of a black or really dark blue color. Everyone who know how much I love fruit, and especially berries, knows that I was in heaven. One morning I had a lot of trouble hiking because I was stopping to eat berries about every 10 minutes. I was glad I did because these two days were the best for them.

After Mt. Jefferson, you come out of the wilderness and go by some lakes and places that are more accessible to day trippers and weekend warriors. Because it was Labor Day weekend, I began to see a lot more non-PCT people about hiking, being on the lakes, picking huckleberries, and just taking advantage of their long weekend.

I then went around Mt. Hood which was pretty cool also. All of the Cascade mountains have been neat to see but I think, Mt. Hood has been the biggest and most dramatic so far. This could be because I hiked through a lot of gullies and got to see the mountain from these perspectives which make it seem huge and me really small.

On Mt. Hood is the Timberline Ski Lodge (and yes people were still skiing when I was there) and a fantastic breakfast buffet. Along with about 7 other hikers, I sat at this buffet on Sunday morning for about 3 hours as I ate as much breakfast as I could hold. Eggs. Pancakes. Belgium waffles. All types of fruit and pastries. Sausage. It was heaven!

After I got done the the buffet and around Mt. Hood, I near the Washington/Oregon border and took an alternate route to get there. I took the Eagle Creek trail and this is one of the highlights of my trip. It goes by at least half a dozen waterfalls, and you actually go through one because they blasted a hole in the rock so you could do this, and it is just really beautiful. It was a perfect way to end Oregon and walking on the Bridge of the Gods into Washington and over the Columbia River Gorge was the perfect was to start that state.

Right now, I'm enjoying a day off at a friend's sister's house who lives near the Oregon/Washington border and will taking off again tomorrow or on Friday. The weather will decide because it is suppose to rain tomorrow so I may just wait another day so I won't have to be stuck in it.