Silver Star: Ed's Trail, November 2011

Silver Star is a 4,390 foot mountain near the town of Washougal, in southwest Washington.  It was so named for its radiating ridges' resemblance to a sheriff's star.  I hiked up the popular "Ed's Trail" route back in the fall, on one of those late fall days when the weather makes you think summer might just last all year.  Just another one of the seductive qualities of the Northwest.  

There were mostly clear skies as I walked bare ridges up to the summit.  This mountain complex (really, it's a small mountain range) was burned over viciously in a series of fires called the Yacolt Burn.  The fire was so devastating, and the subsequent replanting so ineffectual that the main high ridges remain mostly bare.  The ecological loss is stunning, and so is the scenic gain!  This is one of the very few close-to-Portland hikes that's not mostly a forest walk.

The trail passes under a basalt rock arch.  Delicate Arch it ain't, but it does sure look fragile.

More clear skies.

I reached the summit quite a while before sunset, and planned on hanging around and exploring the summit ridges till then.

Meanwhile, several other hikers and their dogs (ubiquitous up here) explored the summit with me.

Clouds rolled in from the west, complicating my plans for a sunset photo.  

On the other hand, the clouds refracted sunlight, creating an optical effect referred to as a "glory," or more colorfully, as the "spectre of the Brocken."  Apparently there's a mountain in Germany where the prevailing weather conditions create this phenomenon quite regularly and the mountain people referred to it as a ghost.  I'd never seen one before, so I was quite happy to see it!  I've since seen one of these from an airplane.  The shadow inside the glory is yours truly.

There are also native vision quest pits at the summit.  In the background is Bluff Mountain.

More vision quest pits.

As the sun's last rays warmed up, I walked back over the other side of the summit, hoping to catch so nice colors before clouds rolled in and obscured all the direct light.

I caught this shot quickly as the sun set behind clouds.  Then I noticed a little more light further down the mountain. 

I started running downhill.

By the time I got into the light I was a little too frazzled to compose any shots with real interest.   But here's a jeep road that they drove up and down while trying to reforest the mountain.

Sunset over Portland.

This somewhat alpine landscape is the most interesting thing this close to Portland, and I've found it immensely satisfying to visit, each time.  It's our little corner of the Cascades that reminds me of the Rockies, which I liked very much when I spent a summer in Colorado.  I love the forest, and love trees.  But they constrain the views.

Thanks for reading!