Sunday August 4, 23.2mi/37.3km

Northport (390.2/1355ft) to Taylor Lake (413.4/2185ft) (WA)

I packed up and said goodbye to Jami and Alison; Josh and Ryan were still sleeping. Sorry guys! On my way out of town, I hit the Mustang Grill for breakfast.

I ordered a ton of food, starting with first breakfast…

And then second breakfast.

An hour later, I left and began my daily miles. Crossing the Columbia River was fun, and even way upstream from Portland it’s still huge!

It was only 9:30am and already starting to get hot. I got out my umbrella (“chrome dome”) and that helped some. I also occasionally stepped into the stream that the trail was following.

The entire day was on a dirt road, which was actually kind of nice since there were no cars. But, there was also minimal shade.

I stopped for lunch at the 400-mile marker. Rollin along…

The were no big climbs or ridgewalks today, but still nice scenery.

Throughout the day, I had been seeing cows alongside the road. These cows were in the road, and only begrudgingly moved when I shooed them away.

I accidentally overshot my planned camp spot, since I was busy counting cows. Oops! I don’t walk backwards, so I continued on the dirt road.

Two miles later, I found a camp spot hidden in the pine trees, so it was shaded and safe from cows. Perfect!