I had a hell of a time getting to McIntyre ridge.

The trailhead has been moved and closed and changed several times due to the illegal shooting and off road vehicle use in this part of Mount Hood National Forest. I was a mile up the trail when I came across a Jeep parked off in the trees with two passed out kids inside and a few beer cans scattered about. I passed by them quietly, and made my way up to the flower fields on the top of the ridge.

McIntyre ridge trail intersects with the Douglas trail and crosses the Salmon-Huckleberry wilderness to the beginning of the Eagle Creek trail (the Clackamas area one, not the Columbia gorge one). I’m always scheming on some extra-long epic thru-hike, and the Salmon-Huckleberry wilderness has some excellent trails that don’t see a lot of traffic. I stood up here for a long time looking down into all those green dark valleys, thinking about all the places I could go if only I had enough time.