This post originally appeared on The Trek, which you can read here .

If you want to see more from my 2025 PCT thru hike, make sure to check out my Instagram (@annamckinney22) and TikTok (@magicinthemountains) for daily vlogs!

*these posts are coming straight from trail, I apologize in advance for typos!*

Day 128: August 13, 2025

Location: Northern Oregon
Start: Lolo Pass – 2117.3
End: Tentsite – 2138.3
Miles: 21.0
Ascent: 2722 | Descent: 5465
Sleep: Tent

Almost into Washington! Our plan is to get into Cascade Locks tomorrow, so we knew we didn’t have to do a ton of miles today. We slept in and took our time packing up, we weren’t on trail until almost 8am. We had some uphill to do first thing in the morning, but the grade was gentle and the ascent went by quickly. We passed a lot of other hikers, saw some sobos, and some section hikers. I felt like the trail was crowded all day with everyone converging on Cascade Locks for Trail Days.

We stopped at a spring for water where we ran into Rainbow and his crew. We were around them in the Sierra so it felt like a blast from the past to catch up with them. It seems like reunions will continue taking place as we get closer to town and especially at trail days.

We rode the ridge line for the next several mile and were mostly in the shade. The time and the miles went by quickly. Before long we were out of the trees and walking along an exposed ridge. Just before rounding the corner we got an expensive view into Washington! We could see 3 volcanoes at once: Rainier, Adams, and Saint Helen. It was epic! Knowing that Mount Hood was just behind us along with Jefferson and the Sisters was also pretty crazy. We certainly don’t have mountains like that back home.

Around 1pm we made it to the Eagle Creek junction where we ran into Lauren the section hiker. Her boyfriend had driven up to meet her along with their dogs and he brought donuts for the hikers she was around. Delicate Flower, Aww Man, Lost and Found, No Name, and Rainbow’s whole crew rolled up and there was a party in the parking lot! Everyone it seems has either skipped up or pulled big miles to make it to trail days.

After eating lunch Truffles and I headed down the Eagle Creek alternate. I can’t believe the actual PCT doesn’t take this trail because it’s home to one of the most iconic stops: Tunnel Falls. The descent leaving the PCT was brutal and steep for several miles. It left my knees aching and thankful I had my poles. Eventually it leveled out and we began walking alongside Eagle Creek.

There were multiple sections of trail where stone had been cleared away and carved out in order to establish the trail. The creek flowed into several tall and powerful waterfalls as it streamed down the mountain. There were tons of good swimming holes that we passed along the way as well. We saw so many tents set up along the river at the fee decent campsites we saw, it made me nervous about finding a site.

We continued down the trail stopping to marvel at all the water features. Eventually we rounded a corner and there was Tunnel Falls. This was a spot I’d seen countless photographs of, but of course the pictures didn’t do it justice. The falls itself is so fall and the amount of greenery on the canyon walls frames the falls so that it looks like something out of a fairytale. The small tunnel cut into the rock that leads behind the falls looks like it should be homes to elves or the secret passageway to another world. We stopped to gawk and take plenty of photos before taking our time passing through the tunnel.

We only had a few more miles to do before reaching our desired campsite. We followed the creek down further through the canyon. We got to the campsite we had planned to stay at and it was already packed… discouraged we hiked on, hopeful to find another site to squeeze into.

We crossed a bridge over the creek that had a small rocky beach down below. We spotted a single campsite on the beach and decided that would be home for the evening. We set up around 5pm and had plenty of time to enjoy the water. After setting up the tent I stripped down to my underwear to go for a dip. I didn’t swim so much as just dunk myself in, but it felt good to wash the dirt off my legs and feet. We made dinner and took our time eating and enjoying the sounds of the creek.

As we were relaxing, we saw another hiker walk across the bridge overlooking our campsite. They came down to the rocky beach and it turned out to be Footzilla! We hadn’t seen him since hiking several days either him in the Sierra, but we had talked about him often because of his infectious personality. Turns out he’d been really struggling since we last saw him and he was debating on getting off trail at Cascade Locks. We were shocked to hear that, especially because he’d been so enthusiastic when we last saw him at VVR. He said the PCT just wasn’t what he expected it to be and he was trying to decide if he still wanted to be out here or not. We did our best to encourage him and told him we also thought about quitting all the time, especially when we were on the AT. Thru hiking isn’t glamorous or even all the fun the majority of the time. It’s easy to wish for the comforts of home or just to be literally anywhere else when times get hard. I hope he’s able to dig deep and continue to hike on, especially since we’re so close to the end.

We talked for a long time before he said he needed to hike on to try and find a campsite. We promised to link up again at trail days, so hopefully we’ll see him again and things will be going better for him. Truffles and I spent a while processing our conversation with Footzilla and talking through different times we wanted to quit. Our perspective is different since this isn’t our first long trail, I’ve never really wanted to quit out here just because I know what it’s like to miss thru hiking after it’s finished. On the AT, though, I wanted to quit almost every single day and even asked my parents to pick me up once (they didn’t).

We were kind of bummed out after our conversation and were slow to pack up our dinner stuff. We got in the tent and went to setting up our sleep stuff. We talked a while longer about how excited we were for trail days and to be reunited with our tramily. Overall the day was good just with a weird ending. Hoping trail days is a good reset for Footzilla and that we’re all able to have a good time and enjoy the final stretch of the trail!

Day 129: August 14, 2025

Location: Southern Washington
Start: Tentsite – 2138.3
End: Cascade Locks – 2150.0
Miles: 11.7
Ascent: 1002 | Descent: 1069
Sleep: Tent

We woke up early to hike into town. Our campsite hadn’t been great but I slept okay and was excited to get into town. It was an easy hike, all downhill above the creek with lots of waterfalls and swimming holes. We several other backpackers heading towards town, and we saw more day hikers the closer we got to the trailhead.

As we were hiking, we picked up a section hiker named Olive and hiked with her most of the way into town. She was from southern Oregon near Medford and was a hairstylist with her own studio in her home. She’s been section hiking for years and was finishing Oregon on this trip! She was very chatty and told us all about her kids and grandkids as we hiked.

We made it to the trailhead and started the road walk into town past the fish hatchery. It was several miles long and all paved along a bike path. We went through a tunnel under the highway and came out with views of the Columbia River. The bike path took us straight into town where Olive’s husband was waiting for her and we parted ways.

Truffles and I along the sidewalk through town to Thirsty coffee shop to meet Pinky and Hangman. Finally reunited after several months! They had gotten back on trail in Bend and hiked into Cascade Locks the day before. We reconnected over coffee and lemon pound cake before Truffles and I caught the bus to Hood River to hit the Walmart and resupply.

Pinky and Hangman had done the town chores the day before, and we found Pimento at Walmart. The gang truly is all back together! While we were sorting our resupply outside Walmart, a couple walked up to us to offer us a ride to trail days. We explained we still had town chores to do, but chatted with them for a while. They were Heidi and Billy and there were there with Astral to work the festival. They were super friendly and we talked for a while before they went in to shop.

After resupplying the 3 of us went to the laundry mat across the street to do laundry. Afterwards we walked to LILO’s Hawaiian BBQ for lunch. We caught the bus back to Cascade Locks and reconnected with Pinky and Hangman at Thunder Island Brewery.

We got a round of drinks and then was asked by Sooty Bottom if we would help the owner of the brewery set up for the hiker event that night. We spent the next several hours “helping” by moving some furniture and setting up fencing and got 3 free beer tokens out of it! In the middle of “helping” we also got to meet Jolly and his wife as they arrived early to set up for the event. We were all wearing our Jolly Gear shirts and he and Emma both were so fun to talk to and friendly.

After we finished setting up, we went back inside to finish our drinks and ran into Heidi again. We hung out with her for a while and she invited us to camp with her and Billy in the vender area for free! We had expected to pay $50 per person to camp all weekend at the island, so this was a very welcomed invitation.

As the Pre Funk Party began at the brewery, we walked down to the island to set up our tents. All the PCT hikers were camped on the island, and the venders camping area was across the water on a quiet stretch of land that even had its own bathroom! We got set up and hung out for a while before going back to the brewery for the party.

We saw so many friendly faces like Shaman, Jonas, No Name, The Trek crew, Neiev, Barbara, and more. We hung out until it around 10 and walked back to camp for bed. Excited to see what tomorrow brings!

Day 130: August 15, 2025

Location: Southern Washington
Start: Cascade Locks – 2150.0
End: Cascade Locks – 2150.0
Miles: 0.0
Sleep: Tent

Trail Days! In true festival fashion, it poured rain all night. Thankfully our tent held up well and all our stuff stayed dry. This was only the second time it’s rained during the night in our trip, so I was happy to see our tent was still solid. I hope this isn’t a foreshadowing of what Washington will be like.

By the time we got up the rain was more of a light drizzle. We had all set alarms to get up early for breakfast. Shep, one of our favorite trail angels from the AT, was putting on a hiker feed along with a local church. We stood in line in the rain but were fed such yummy food with so much love! There were generous helpings of eggs, pancakes, and sausages along with hot coffee.

We ate our breakfast standing around the tents and then decided to go to the coffee shop for more caffeine. Trail days was originally supposed to open at 10am, but because of the rain it got pushed back to noon. We got drinks at Thristy coffee shop and hung out there until Thunder Island Brewery opened at 11am for lunch. We walked across the street and got lunch and drinks while hoping the rain would subside.

By the time we came out of the brewery, the rain had cleared off. It was still dreary out, but it wasn’t actively sprinkling. I had volunteered to work at The Trek’s booth, so once we were done eating I headed into the festival to start my shift.

I’ve been writing for The Trek since 2021 and blogged for them on the AZT and PCT. I was excited to get to hang out with the crew and interact with other hikers. Jess and I would be manning the booth together, and Zach and Chaunce would be there on Friday to run some of the contests. My job was to help sell merch and hype up the big raffle that was taking place on Saturday.

My shift went by quickly since there were people constantly at the booth. It was fun to see my trail friends and see their look of surprise to find me working a booth. It’s amazing how many current hikers were at trial days and how people came from all over the trail to get to Cascade Locks.

The big draw to The Trek’s booth was the rotisserie chicken eating contest. It was pretty entertaining to watch and brought in a large crowd. There was also an egg toss competition later in the afternoon. I was amazed by all the vender’s creative ideas to get people to check out their booths.

When my shift was over I found my friends and walked around the booths. I ended up running into a girl who I went to college with, Joy! We didn’t recognize each other at first since we hadn’t seen each other in years. She was at trail days with her company, RecPak, and it was so fun to reconnect with her and learn more about their business.

Joy ended up scoring Truffles and I tickets to go on the “networking boat cruise” for venders. Since I worked at a booth, I was able to get on with my plus one. The cruise was apparently for vendors to connect with others in the outdoor industry. The cruise wasn’t until 5:30pm, so Truffles and I went to get food from a food truck with the rest of our friends before heading down to the boat dock to board.

The boat for the cruise was a huge old fashioned steamboat. We boarded the Columbia Gorge Steamwheeler and were on our way. We definitely felt out of place, but it didn’t take long before we struck up conversations with different people. Everyone we talked to was excited to talk to current hikers, and we chatted with one of the festival medical volunteers for a while long with folks from MSR and Ombraz. We ran into the team from The Trek and hung out with them for a while as well.

The cruise lasted about 2 hours and we had a great time. When the boat docked and we unloaded, Truffles and I decided to go into town to check out the barcade. When we arrived the place was super packed but we got a round of drinks and ran into our friends Barbara, Luke, and 007. We danced and sang along to the DJ for a bit before the tiny bar got overwhelmingly crowded and we decided to leave. We walked back to the tents and. Got ready for bed. What a full first day of trail days!

Day 131: August 16, 2025

Location: Southern Washington
Start: Cascade Locks – 2150.0
End: Cascade Locks – 2150.0
Miles: 0.0
Sleep: Tent

Our office welcome to Washington was nonstop rain all night. The tent held up fine, but it made me nervous for what’s to come in Washington. Thankfully as we were getting up the rain stopped and the sun was trying to make an appearance. Since we were camped with the vendors, we had access to the small shower/bath house. Yesterday a guy arrived to act as security for the shower and charged people $5 a shower, but I got up early enough that the shower man hadn’t shown up yet so I took a free shower. Camping on the island would have cost each of us $50 for the 3 nights, so we saved a ton of money by being able to camp with Heidi and Billy!

When our tramily was awake, we all ventured out for breakfast. We walked across town to the Bridgeside restaurant. The restaurant was full but we got our food within a reasonable time. I was excited to have hot coffee and really enjoyed my chicken fried steak.

I was volunteering for a second day at The Trek’s booth, but I had some time to kill before my shift started. All of the different booths had raffles and give aways going on all weekend, and we just happened to walk by the Astral booth when they were beginning trivia. Billy was manning trivia, and Heidi convinced us all to play. It was PCT themed trivia and some of us did better than others. I ended up winning the whole thing and got to get a free Astral item of my choice! I looked at the shoes but didn’t love them, and promised to come back at the end of the day to pick something else.

I headed over to The Trek’s booth to begin my shift. Time flew by as I sold merch and hyped up the raffle taking place later in the afternoon. I chatted with so many hikers and other people who stopped visit the booth. About halfway through the day I took a break and went to find Truffles. He and k left the festival and walked into town to get a snack. We ended up at the East Wind Drive In to get ice cream. The drive in had a walk up counter that had a super long long, but it moved quickly and we were able to order a banana split and blackberry milkshake. The drive in is famous because it was featured in one of the last scenes the movie Wild. Our ice cream was delicious and hit the spot on a hot day.

I made it back to The Trek’s booth in time to help with the raffle. Jaba/The Real Hiking Viking was MCing the raffle. The Trek gave our several thousands of dollars worth of prizes and there weee tons of winners. When the raffle wrapped up my shift was over and I went back to the Astral booth to figure out what item k wanted for winning trivia. I ended up getting to talk to Phillip, the creator and owner of Astrals, and we figured out that we both lived in WNC for several years. We connected over our love of Asheville and I ended up ordering a pair of pants.

I wandered around to find my tramily and spotted them sitting at the picnic tables preparing for the big raffle. Truffles ended up volunteering for a last minute shift with the festival organizers and was paid in raffle tickets. He got 20 tickets and we thought for sure we’d win something since there were so many prizes. Our whole group had tickets and we sat through the whole raffle, but alas none of us won anything.

Truffles volunteer shift ended up being from 6-9pm directing traffic in and out of the festival grounds. Once we saw where he was stationed, the rest of us went back to the tents to hang out for a while. When Truffle’s shift was over we all walked over to the food trucks and got the same Mexican food we’d had the night before. It was so good we might as well eat it twice!

We took our food to eat at the picnic tables near the DJ so that we could watch the dancing. We ran into Sam, the medical volunteer we’d met the night before on the cruise. Sam hung out with us while we finished our meal and tagged along with us to the barcade. They bar was hosting karaoke, but when we arrived there was already a line to get in. Remembering how cramped and crowded it was the night before, we decided to head back towards our tents instead. On the walk over we ran into Heidi and all walked over to the water to watch a firework show taking place across the river. It was awesome to see the fireworks reflecting off the water under the stars. What a good ending to trail days!

Day 132: August 17, 2025

Location: Southern Washington
Start: Cascade Locks – 2168.0
End: Tentsite – 2185.3
Miles: 17.3
Sleep: Tent

Welcome to Washington officially! The Columbia River separates Oregon and Washington, and Cascade Locks is on the Oregon side of the river. We packed up and said goodbye to Heidi to Billy around 8:30am and headed to the small grocery store in town to get some morning caffeine.

As we were leaving town we saw a ton of hikers trying to hitch back to trail. People got off from all over trail in order to come to trail days, and now there is a mass exodus to try and get back to where they were. It made me very grateful that we got our timing right and were able to walk into Cascade Locks for trail days.

Walking out of town we stopped to take photos at the unofficial monument in the middle of town. We then headed out of town to head across the famous Bridge of the Gods. Hitting this milestone felt like such a big deal because we only have 1 state left! It’s amazing to compare hiking across 3 states to the 14 states we trekked through on the AT. Border crossings happened almost weekly in New England, but out here it feels like we really have a reason to celebrate crossing a state line. We only have about 500 miles to go at this point!

The Bridge of the Gods is a toll bridge spanning the Columbia River. Cars have to pay, but pedestrians get to cross for free. For as many pedestrians as there are, I can’t believe there isn’t a sidewalk or anything on the bridge. There really isn’t even a shoulder, so you just hug the side of the bridge when cars pass. I’m sure the motorist hate seeing all the hikers, especially because everyone is gawking and taking pictures and not paying attention to traffic. We may or may not have fallen into that category…

We stopped a couple of times to take pictures, but the good photo opp was on the far side of the bridge in Washington. That’s where the big famous “Bridge of the Gods” sign is that people stop traffic to get. We tried to time our photo so that we didn’t jump out in front of too many cars, but again what a spectacular hikers must be.

On the far side of the bridge we ran into D&D who were excited to share their road walk plan with us. The hike out of Cascade Locks was supposed to be a long and steep climb, but Mr. D spotted a road on the map that would cut out almost 20 miles of trial with minimal elevation gain. The road walk would also let you pass through a couple of towns and stop for lunch at a brewery, so we were sold!

Initially the road walk wasn’t bad. There was plenty of traffic, but the should was a decent size and we were able to make good time into the town of Stevenson, WA. The shoulder eventually turned to side walk and we walked through town. We passed Red Bluff Taphouse as they were opening and decided to go in for a round of drinks. A road walk is always better as a booze cruise we rationalized.

After our drinks we headed out of town on the shoulder or the road. Our next stop was the town of Carson, but the road between Stevenson and Carson was very narrow and curvy. Turns out the road walk might not have been such a good idea! The shoulder was basically nonexistent and multiple cars honked at us as they drove by. It definitely felt sketchy and we were on the road for about 10 miles.

Finally we made it into Carson and stopped at Backwoods Brewing for lunch. We met D&D there and ordered pizza and drinks. It was all delicious and made the scary road walk worth it! We hung out as long as we could before mustering the resolve to push on.

We continued on the road out of town, but this road walk was easy and breeezey. The shoulder was wide and there wasn’t a ton of traffic. Even without to many cars going by, 4 different vehicles pulled over to offer us rides. We politely declined since we weren’t sure how far we wanted to go and kept walking. One car pulled over and told us we were welcome to check out their garden if we walked by their house later.

Eventually we turned off the main road and continued along an old country road. We saw no cars here and were able to admire all the cut farmhouses we passed along the way. We were heading towards a forest service road that would connect back to the PCT. The road took us by the home of Colleen, the driver who told us to check out her garden. Colleen was waiting for us to walk by and offered us vegetables from her garden when we passed her house. She filled up our water bottles and gave us a big bag full with fresh squash, tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, garlic, and more from her garden. She was so excited to see us because she said she used to see a lot of hikers taking the road walk. She loved hearing about where they were from and their stories and said she even used to let people camp on her yard! She took a photo of all of us to send to her granddaughter and then sent us on our way.

We walked another few miles in the road before it turned into the paved forest service road. We continued on heading towards the Panther Creek campground. The miles passed by quickly and soon we turned off the forest service road and were back on the PCT! We didn’t have far to go to each our desired campsite for the night.

There were several tentsites tucked in the trees around the bridge at Panther Creek. This area was so vibrantly green, it felt like we were in a rainforest! There were tall trees covered with moss everywhere; and towering ferns lined both sides of the trail. It looked like Jurassic Park and I half expected a dinosaur to jump out while we cooked dinner.

We pitched our tents and set to making dinner. Truffles sautéed Colleen’s veggies in his pot and we had ramen stir fry. It was delicious! All our tents were tucked into separate alcoves in the forest, so after dinner we all returned to our separate campsites for bed. We only hiked about 17 miles on the road, but we did 35 trail miles today. Back to a regular day of hiking tomorrow.