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| Hiking | 6.88 Miles |
1,376 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.88 Miles | 5 Hrs 53 Mns | | 1.32 mph |
| 1,376 ft AEG | 40 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | I’ve been living in Pine/Strawberry around 3 years so I decided it was about time to hike Strawberry Mountain. We opted for the direct route.
You park at the end of Ralls Drive and there is a gate there that you’ll need to go through. There’s an old road directly ahead of you that looks like the obvious route; we quickly discovered this was incorrect and changed course. The actual “trail” is to the right of the private property. For a little while, there is a faint trail to follow, but it quickly vanishes as you ascend. The terrain is really steep with loose rocks and pine needles, so it’s really slippery and difficult to get great footing. Just keep heading up till you get to a false summit.
Next up you’re headed back down and you need to be careful on your paths of choice. It’s easy to get stuck in thick manzanita or navigating lots of deadfall. Just chose the path of least resistance for what felt like a long time. There were cool views of Strawberry at different points during the hike, and we did stop off at a few viewpoints.
After navigating through that annoying terrain, you’re finally at the top. It’s not a normal summit where there is a clear high point. It’s actually kind of a long flat area. We looked around for a summit register but couldn’t find one. We did find a really cool arch at one point and did some downclimbing to get a better view. Saw what looked like a wall near the arch as well, so that was cool! Probably the highlight of the hike given it wasn’t a typical summit experience.
We headed back the way we came and definitely had a hard time staying on the same path we came in on and unfortunately uncounted quite a bit more bushwhacking on the return route. We were pretty over it after a while and called this a one and done. Getting back down the super steep part from the beginning was very slippery. We were very happy when we saw Tessa my 4Runner.
Overall, it was cool to hike along the ridgeline I see all the time when driving between Pine and Strawberry. The arch was definitely a highlight for us. I’m glad I hiked it once, but probably wouldn’t do it again (at least not from the same route). |
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| Restless between adventures... |
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