Holy shit this was hard. Trying to get back in shape and lose some weight. I did 3.5 miles with like 2,500ft of elevation gain and then went back cause I was out of water and hurting… 3.5 hard uphill, 3.5 hard downhill. I took a lot of breaks. The trail was narrow and overgrown, usually with a steep drop off the side… quite a few places to roll an ankle too… Not many other people especially after the first couple miles.
It started at like 1500 ft and it says at 3.5 miles it’s 4,367 feet… it was just switchback after switchback going really high up this big mountain ridge then you get to the top and start walking the ridge still going up and up and up and up. Also most places up there seem to have little streams running down them but not this place, no water cept a couple little puddles the whole way… So after I had drank 3/4 of my 2 liters of water I turned around and headed back down which was difficult hiking too.
I didn’t make it to any of the epic views, in the trees all the way. This was a workout.
Not really any views til you get to mile 5 I guess after reading more after I got back home… I drove down jacked up gravel forest service I think road to get to the trailhead too that was probably about as gnarly as I’d want to take my corolla, didn’t bottom out tho.
I want to do this again though, after I’m back in better hiking condition, start earlier in the morning, take a lot more water and make it to Cast lake. Which is the first lake on the map. Probably 10 miles in and nowhere to camp til you make it there. I only made it to around the red dot today.
