Mount Ellinor fist time in years and with a dog

The summit

I have not been up to the top of Mount Ellinor in about four years, since the crowds up there really turn me off.  I got an early start, leaving my house by 8.  The mountain was not too crowded, but I did not get to have the summit to myself for long.  Everyone on the trail was polite and friendly .  I’ve had bad experiences up there with other hikers and their dogs and one bad experience on a hike takes away so much from the relaxation I get from that hike.

I was really hoping for a view of Jefferson Ridge and the fire damage, but it was not to be.  The summit was fogged in.  People near the summit were hunting for goats.  These were hunters, not relocation experts.  I don’t know what hunters do with goats since goat meat is not very popular.  I guess they could sell the skulls for a pretty penny.

Two hunters were camped near the summit.  Two others day hiked it and one of them was very out of shape.  The hiking will be good for him if it does not kill him.

I got turned around  on the way down as usual.  I spent a bit of effort looking back as I went up so I would not get turned around on the way back, but that did not help much.   There is one spot where you have to clamber over a rock and it looks much less like the trail than all the little way trails that people and goats have made up there.  Maybe if I was a bit taller I would not have this issue of finding my way down from there every time?  This time was especially bad and I was feeling down on myself for having to struggle so much to figure out the route down.  I tried to not be too hard on myself though.

This was the only time this year that I have made it up into the high country.  It was nice to see the trees and mushrooms, but I wish I could have seen a view to make it really worthwhile.  This was Sage’s first trip up.  I do not normally take a dog up this trail due to the crowds.  Sage is very well behaved though and she always comes back when she is called, unless she sees a grouse.

A forest service working was looking at trees on the lower trail.  He talked to me like I did not know much about trees.  Little did he know.

He was not in a law enforcement truck and I did not see a gun on him, but someone from the forest service left a nasty surprise on two people’s cars at the trail head.   Probably big fat parking tickets probably.

I have a free lifetime pass but I still get miffed when I see tickets on other people’s cars.  I hung my spouse’s disabled parking pass on my mirror and put my own pass on my dash.  I’ve had the forest circus miss seeing my pass and ticket me in the past.  By hanging my husband’s giant pass I hoped that they would look closer and see my dash pass too.  I’m so glad that I did not forget to display my pass.  I remember when these passes were not required.

 I remember when the forest circus had money to invest in trail and road maintenance.  All that money is going elsewhere now and a $30 pass is not going to make up for the loss of funds.

The road up was in  pretty good shape.  I'm still shopping for a reliable used pick up truck.

3 miles with 2,400 feet elevation gain

Hericium that a chipmunk had been working on.  I took some and left some.

Sage on the trail near below campsite about 1/3 of the way up

A very out of shape hunter not wearing orange

Camp belonging to a different set of hunters, one of them was wearing orange

Snow or fog rainbow

View towards Mount Washington

Summit Bonsai

Recent trail work, the bolts are new

Must have been a lot of work to make this staircase

Trees on the summit of Mount Ellinor suffered in the drought and smoke this year. Two here had their
 tops die  this summer. These trees are probably hundreds of years old, but this year was too much 
for them to keep their tops alive.

Someone's hike ruined

Someone else's hike ruined