Up for the continental breakfast and heading for the bridge at 8am. Felt pretty cool to be walking across the bride and into the final state of Washington! (there were only 3 states.....but, it's the last one!!) Took a few pictures on the bridge and of the "Welcome to Washington" sign on the other side!! Lots of poison oak on the trail (because we are at about 500 feet elevation). We could see Mt. Hood back to the south and Mt. Adams ahead to the north. Extremely hot out, we were sweating like mad, lots of climbing to get up to 4,000 feet elevation and with lots of food in the pack, it felt like slow going. We took a break and everyone had one of Chelsea's "Magic Bars" delicious! Everyone loved them (they were heavy.....it lightened my pack to share them with everyone) Climbed even higher and we could see Mt. St. Helen's in the distance, wow! The top was just blown right off! Walked through some logging areas and were going to camp about 25 miles in, but.....(get this) We came across this man on the side of the trail with 3 suitcases, 1 duffle bag and 1 backpack eating random berries on the side of the trail talking all strange and looking like a lunatic. WOW! The luggage was all torn to pieces, one had a huge hole in the corner, and another the handles were broken off! Someone talked to him and he said it took him 14 days to get there from Cascade Locks (the town we just left that morning) Sooo, after that encounter, we decided not to camp 1/2 a mile away in case he got a burst of energy and caught up to us while we were sleeping.........so we hiked on another 5 miles and camped by a road and creek, it was a long day and we ended it by headlamp, but we felt safe for the night!!! Welcome to Washington state!!
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