17 miles of hiking • 6000' elevation gain •
Drove out Saturday afternoon and camped on FS23 near the Dark Meadows trailhead. Lots of nice sitting rocks and a creek to chill the beer. Got up early Sunday and headed up the Dark Meadows trail to the meadow. We were going to head off trail to the top of Dark Mountain, but it looked really brushy and we decided to skip it. Instead, we followed the trail up to a saddle in the ridge north of Dark Mountain and then headed north off trail along Juniper Ridge to Jumbo Peak and then to Sunrise. It was a long, hot, dusty day with tons of biting black flies. Beautiful views in all directions though. David and I ascended a stair stepped gully to the top of Jumbo, which I think was probably easier than the bushwhack up the "regular" trail. Goats at the top, but they hoofed it (ahem) when we arrived. Sunrise was a straight trail, but badly eroded by motorbikes. Really swell views from an old fire lookout location. We descended to the Sunrise trailhead and began to walk to the road back down to FS 23, but fortuitously encountered a fellow PH person who gave Peder a lift down to get the car and come back for the rest of us. Then the 3 hr drive back to Portland, with a stop at Huff N Puff, home of the best burgers and shakes in seven counties (or something).
