kings mountain Hike 072918 - question for gurus

[mjanardh]

When the weather does not permit hiking the Hood, Gorge or WA forests, i settle for the Kings Mountain which is less than 30 mins drive for me. So headed to Kings and headed up, at ~2600 ft, there is a narrow trail going left and on a tree there is even a sign that reads "Kings Mtn Tr", you can almost miss this one. Although, I have been up Kings countless times, never paid attention to this and where this trail goes. I even loaded my GPS tracks in basecamp to see if it would show this trail on the topo, but none.

Any of you trail experts, can you shed some light if you happen to know about this trail? if the trail is decent, might try it as a variation to the usual.

NOTE:
1. This time of the year, from mid point on until the summit, the loose pebbles and rocks make it pretty hard to hike and a skid and fall is very likely.
2. Plenty of thimble and huckleberries for the picking

[DannyH]

It makes for a great loop of Kings Mountain. There is a field guide entry on the Kings Mountain Junior hike with solid directions on how to spot the trail as it takes off from the WRT.

https://www.oregonhikers.org/field_guid ... _Loop_Hike

That area is my go to as well for after work hikes that don’t require sitting in traffic.

[mjanardh]

thanks Danny. I have done other loops such as Elk-Kings loop, but was not aware of this variation. Will have to check this out.
-Mani

[adamschneider]

I just added "Junior" to OpenStreetMap:

[mjanardh]

thanks Adam, now have a better idea of this loop, will certainly check this out.
-Mani

[jamesdylangoldstein]

Have you done this loop? It's great.

https://www.oregonhikers.org/field_guid ... _Loop_Hike

[mjanardh]

Yes James. On one occasion, parked at Kings Mtn TH and took the WRT to Elk TH and did the Elk Summit and continued on to Kings, a long tedious hike. Another time, Parked one of our cars at Kings and drove with the other to Elk and continued on to Kings.
At places between Elk and Kings, its a bit sketchy and over grown, but it was a fun hike.
-Mani