I hiked today! Cast Creek trail 6/2/20

[Aimless]

After obeying the stay-at-home order conscientiously since mid-March, I went out to hike today. I deliberately chose a trail that isn't very popular. It has no views for the first 5 miles. It climbs from about 2150 ft. up to 4500 ft. along with a few annoying elevation losses that you have to hike back up again. It's all forested. The trail ends by butting into the Zigzag Mt trail and stopping, at an undistinguished spot where one ridgetop meets another. Even the cell phone coverage is quite poor.

But, personally, I like it. In part because I really like the mid-elevation forest and I prefer mostly empty trails. Today I saw no one else on this trail. There were some trees down from last winter, but only one was a big enough mess to be difficult to cope with and even that one wasn't very bad. It was quiet. The temps were about perfect for hiking, at around 55 degrees. I saw no snow at all until I reached the 4500 ft. mark and it was only a small patch off trail. I had a good day out.

No photos today, because I don't bother any more on trails that I hike at least once a year. Sometimes twice.

[retired jerry]

Good hike and report

I think it's quite scenic where Cast Creek trail ends, or at least a little before that, nice views of Mount Hood and East Zigzag

No snow on East Zigzag?

[Jesse]

We hiked the Burnt Lake trail to East Zigzag yesterday. No snow until the lake, the shaded south side of the lake still has some big snowdrifts but the sunny side is mostly melted out. The trail from Burnt Lake to Zigzag Mtn Trail was about 60-70% snow covered but passable if you follow footprints across the big drifts. Once we got to the summit ridge of the Zigzag mountains there were only a few patches of snow, and the summit of East Zigzag was clear.

[retired jerry]

thanks, sounds like it's time for a trip there. Maybe a bit early if you don't like those drifts