Hike to Silver Star Mountain, June 29th

I have to start by saying the name of this hike is wrong. Not because that is not the name of the mountain we were trying to climb but because we got somewhere else. I though of changing it to the correct name but I couldn’t find it in my maps. Any way, when I decided to join Jason and Kristin on this hike, I though we were doing the normal and very well known trail that goes thru a rock arch and then to some old Indian burial pits. But no, Jason had a different plan. The idea was to take a north trail that should have taken us all the way to the summit of Silver Star Mountain. After a somewhat rough ride we got to the end of the road, next to a river (which I believe is the Star Creek). From that point we started and as soon as we crossed the bridge, we started ascending on a very steep trail. Under normal condition this would get you tired quickly, but if you add the hot and humid weather, well you get the picture. The trail itself follows an old logging road up the side of the mountain with limited views. The first portion of the trail is just undergrowth the covers pretty much everything. After a long while, we crossed to a section of the trail that opens up to a very dense forest. It doesn’t get any easier or less steep from here on though. There was on point in this section were you can get a glimpse of Mt Hood but this is just that, a glimpse of the view later on. We got to a point were de trail seemed to start descending a bit which was contrary to our heading, so at that point we went off the trail and up the mountain. For a while we did some bushwhacking until we got to the snow. Yes, snow, in June, with 90+ degree weather, there’s a picture to prove it. From that point on, we continued our hard climb with a nice view of St Helens and Rainier in the distance. Shortly after passing the snow, we finally made it to the summit. That’s when we realized we were not in Silver Star Mountain since we were looking at it right in front of us. Still, reaching this summit was not bad at all. We got to a small patch without snow, just wild flowers and 360 degree views. Sitting up there and being able to see St Helens, Rainier, Adams, Hood and Jefferson all at the same time is simply breathtaking. We also saw a couple of falls on the north side of Silver Star that were incredible. On the upper portion you can clearly see two, almost identical falls. The flow continues down where you can spot two or three more falls down below and then a very impressive water jump to a deep creek. After resting for a while and realizing that the weather was turning on us, we started our way down which was as treacherous as the way up. In the end, it was a very long and hard hike but very well worth it.