Horseshoe Ridge, Jul 18th

If my memory serves me well, the first time I did the Horseshoe ridge was on the way back from Cast Lake. I remember that back then, this trail impressed me with the views of the mountain and the open scenery to the different valleys around. In past hikes, I’ve combined this trail with the Cast Creek and the Lost Creek trails to create a semi-loop with a car shuttle. Since I didn’t want to deal with that and also wanted a somewhat shorter hike, we decided to just do the Horseshoe Ridge as an out and back. To that end, I planned on starting from the actual trailhead that is located on the road to Riley Camp, not the older access that you could reach on FR832. That actually was a good choice as the road, past the Cast Creek Trailhead, has been decommissioned and destroyed. Trying to hike that road would be an exercise in bushwhacking for no real reason. The day was already warm when we started. With the little rain we’ve had this season, we found the trail incredibly dry. Being a very sandy trail it made the first part very dusty as we stumped or way in. Then the trail makes a quick turn entering the forest as it approaches the bridge over Lost Creek. From that point on, you start slowly gaining elevation until you reach the actual ridge line where the trail turns left and starts going up. As you gain elevation, the sky above starts opening up showing some rock formations at first. Then you come out of the forest and you’re welcomed with expansive views towards north-west. This changes continue for a while until one particular turn where the trees are left behind and bear grass grows everywhere. In the distance Mt Hood starts showing and then just appears in front of you. In the spring this area is just magical with all the wildflowers with the mountain as a background. By then, you’re mostly traversing the ridge line which is covered in parts and opens up in others. The views to the valleys below are obscured do it’s difficult to impossible to spot Dumbbell Lake or Cast Lake from the ridge. Near the end of the trail, where it joins the Zigzag mountain trail though, the trail passes on the right side of a knob. You can’t see the top from the trail but there are several foot paths the lead to it. Taking any of those paths, takes you to the rocky viewpoint that marks the end of this route. This is an excellent spot for lunch and views after which, we returned to the cars the same way we came.



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