Jefferson Ridge Trail #808

Today I started out at the Elk Lake trailhead and hiked up to the top of the Jefferson Ridge Trail. I ended up hiking 9 miles with 3200 feet total ascent. This hike kicked my butt!

(Bridge on the Elk Lake trail, click on image to enlarge)

I hiked with a group of people who call themselves the "Mountain Goats". They hike much faster then I do so I left home early. I tried to get to the trail head an hour before them. But I had trouble finding the trail head. I drove my jeep all the way up to 2,900 feet and then back down but failed to find the trailhead.



(looking down onto one of the Elk Lakes, click on image to enlarge)


I had brand new topo maps for my GPS and the trail was on them but the maps would not load so were of no help to me. When I got home I found out that my GPS memory card was not in all the way. If only I had thought to look at that when I was out there today.


So I decided to hike Elk Lake instead but the Elk lake trail is so short and a branch of it leads to the road that the Jefferson Ridge trail is on so I hiked back towards Jefferson Ridge. As luck would have it the group I was going to hike with were parked on the road right where the trail I was on intercepted it.

So I hiked up with them, and they showed me the trailhead. The trailhead was covered by a fallen tree but they had been there before so knew where it was. I should say I did not hike with them but behind them. I was surprised there were still on the summit by the time I managed to stumble up there. I kept up ok going back down the trail though.




(On the top at last)


( A small but very deep hole near the trail, click on image to enlarge)



(Looking down onto Lena Lake, click on image to enlarge)

(Snow falling hard, click on image to enlarge)

On the way down the snow started falling pretty hard and I thought I would be hiking in the rain once I got lower down but there was no rain at this point. We did see all kinds of different weather today though. Ranging from sunshine to rain and wind to wind driven snow.


(My track log, my routes up and back were different, click on image to enlarge)


(Elevation Profile, click on image to enlarge)


I accidentally erased my track log about a mile from my car so I really went closer to 9.3 miles today but it's not the milage that kicked my butt, it was the elevation gain. Jefferson Ridge trail is rather steep and unrelenting. The view at the top was only so-so, perhaps not worth all the effort. Still it might be nice to go back when the rhodies are blooming.

I had to regain several hundred feet right at the end of my hike. This hike rates a 24 on the hike difficulty calculator.