We headed to Cascade Locks this morning with Manny and the General to get back on trail. The first stop was a quick meetup with the Daleys so David could drive us to Timberline Lodge to start hiking back to Cascade Locks. We got to Timberline right between the breakfast and lunch buffets, but not being in a big hurry we killed time until the lunch buffet started and then stuffed ourselves before starting to hike.
We got moving, slowly, after lunch before running into some unusual events. First up, we got word that there was a horse that had fallen off the trail and crews were trying to rescue it. We got more of the story as we got closer. The horse had fallen off trail going around a blowdown which was dicey at best for humans. I have no idea why someone tried to take a horse through it. It tumbled downhill probably 100 vertical feet but somehow was fine except for some scratches. The bigger problem was it was nowhere near the trail so firefighters were building a trail to it. We’re assuming everything went well but didn’t wait around.
Around the same time we heard a guy yelling for his dog which had run off. This wouldn’t have been too noteworthy except the guy was crossing an off-trail steep scree field and knocking boulders down as he went. This is one of the dumber things we’ve seen on trail in 5+ months. We saw the dog running up the trail alone a few minutes later, but it wasn’t stopping for anyone.
Outside of these oddities the hike was pleasant and we covered about 9 miles before stopping to camp. We ran into Shaman whom Manny had met previously, and he camped with us as well. There was still one last surprise to come. As I was emptying my pack at camp I reached in to find… a mermaid doll! Sequoia left one at Matt and Jessi’s house and I jokingly hooked it onto the back of Bat Boy’s pack and forgot about it. He apparently didn’t and snuck it into my pack. Luckily I have a well established trail name and this didn’t happen in week one, otherwise I might be writing to you as Little Mermaid or likely something worse.
Emge Adventures 
The beard is really coming along Andrew!
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