Justin Wright went hiking May 15, 2011 14 miles 5,000 feet gained

Mt Defiance

4

Hiked up Starvation Ridge and came down the Mt Defiance trail. Hit pretty heavy snow around 3800 feet so we snowshoed the rest of the way. The snow is still up to the fence at the Radio towers.

After doing Ruckel Ridge yesterday, I can definitely say this hike is quite a bit easier. But it does have one heck of an elevation gain.

Trail Talk

4 people have hearted this trip.

Chris · May 16, 2011

Hmmm... what to do after a hard day of hiking up Ruckel Ridge. Better take it easy and do Defiance ;)

Kyle Meyer · May 16, 2011

Looks like summer up there. I'm on the east coast at a developer conference and all this hiking makes me jealous.

Eric Peterson · May 16, 2011

Fresh snow? It rained a few times in Portland this past week, plus quite a bit starting Saturday night. Drove up to Hood River for daughters Lacrosse game, and watched all the cool trail heads go right on by. Still have to do Defiance, but at least I saw the trail head, heh. Nice job!

Justin Wright · May 16, 2011

@Chris - Yep that was my thinking :) My legs were already sore, figured I'd finish them off by doing Defiance. I can't even stand up today without it hurting somewhere.

@Kyle - lol, it sure didn't feel like summer up there. We were waiting for a blizzard to come rolling in.

@Eric - It was snowing a bit near the top yesterday so I'm guessing there might still be some new snow coming down. Sure doesn't look like it's going to disappear anytime soon.

Kyle Meyer · May 17, 2011

Our weather this year is ridiculous. Note to future years—this horrible weather is extremely atypical.