This trail is amazing! Arrived at TH at 7:45am, having left Longview, WA. @ 6:00. Overall this hike is 8 miles. Very strenuous. Climbs about 2300 feet. There are a few permutations and ways to reach the summit. I elected to hike Ed's Trail. Note: There are some very dicey scrambles which are of very high consequence of a mistake. (not for children) I understand that there were at one time ropes in a couple of areas to assist you, but there were no ropes there today. Weather perfect, about 70 degrees. Light drafts of the slopes very welcome as cooling breezes. The climb actually will take you 4-1/2 hours up and down with a twenty minute lunch at the top. Trail in pretty good shape. Not always soft underfoot with a lot of shale type rocks. There is a rock arch partway up that the trail goes under which is good for photo op's. The views from the top of Silver Star are amazing. Enroute to the top at one location I counted five snow capped peaks you can easily see on a clear day. (Mt.Rainier to the far north, then St. Helens closer, looking north, Mt. Adams to the East, then Mt. Hood southerly, and finally, believe it or not, Mt. Jefferson way south). On a Friday, I encountered only about 4 or so groups coming up and going down. Weekends would be much different. Don't miss this hike! It's fantastic. Went with my hiking club. (see photo)

Date: June 29, 2024

Thought about a sunrise hike but the forecast was for clouds so we slept in instead.  

Location: Chinook trail to Ed's Trail to Silver Star Trail and on to the Summit.

Weather: clear-ish with high clouds, starting temps high 50s around 8:15am, warming from there.

Trail grade and tread: decent

Trail conditions: good

Hike features: 6-volcano views and wildflowers

Wildlife: none to speak of, (unless you count the dead mole we saw on the trail)

Bugs: Somewhat of an annoyance.  Nothing biting, but there were some kamikaze-bombers who liked to fly right into your face.  At the summit there were a bunch of tiny bugs, not sure what they were but they began to speckle our shirts as we took a quick snack break.  

We did not see anyone until Ed's trail where we passed one hiker + dog who were heading back toward Ed's TH.  Once we reached the junction we encountered consistent hikers heading to and from the summit most coming from the direction of the Grouse Vista TH.  Once at the summit we could see several people on Ed's trail going in both directions.

We took the requisite summit pics and headed back down. Another great day at SS with lovely wildflowers throughout.

Oh, and someone planted a US Flag on the ridge that parallels the Silver Star trail and Ed's trail which is new since we were here last (last year). The flagpole is fairly substantial, and it appears to have a solar light trained on it too.

Used the upper parking lot at Grouse Vista TH. Seems everyone came from Camas/Washougal side, because road is in great condition. I started in sunny weather, choosing CCW as suggested by AT:

- jct with Hidden Falls/Tarbell, fork right and stay on GV,

- jct at 1.3mi, keep left,

- jct at 2.3mi GV joins Silver Star Trail coming off W-1280 road

- jct with Indian Pit Trail, keep left, continue for about 500ft then at a big pile of rocks, summit trail to the right.

Weather quickly changed and clouds blocked views almost entirely.

After the summit, I returned to the pile of rocks, made a right to a 5-way jct, continued on to Ed's (CCW, /w Star Creek to your right, looks otherworldly, or in other words, "north-cascadian"), then returned via a service road to the 5-way jct. I followed Sturgeon Rock trail (steep and rocky in parts, just like the GV) and finally joined Tarbell Trail/a work road that weave through a partially logged forest (more wildflowers). Tarbell Trail crosses Rock Creek over a bridge at some point and eventually merges with Grouse Vista at the first jct above-mentioned, completing the loop.

Route: Tarbell -> Chinook -> Ed's Trail -> Silver Star -> Chinook -> Tarbell.  Had a few little detours along the way.  :)  14-n-change miles total.

Humid and smokey in the AM, but got a bit more pleasant in the PM with a light breeze.

Trailhead at Tarbell was well maintained, I was the only person around for miles.  Didn't see anyone coming or going until getting within about a mile of Silver Star. At and around the top it was pretty busy, but expected it to be so.

Trails were all in decent shape overall...little bit of overgrowth on the Chinook once getting on Forest Service land.  Signage on DNR land was fantastic, on Forest Service land it was completely absent.

Ed's Trail was a blast!  Haven't had that much fun on a trail since Goat Rocks Wilderness!  Watch your footing in places as the trail is about as wide and stable as a tree root.  Couple of spots for some rock scrambles, and the views were amazing, even in the hazy.  

At the top of Silver Star the bugs were pretty awful, but nothing a few sprays of DEET couldn't drive away.

Hardest part of the trip was Silver Star trail...the rock for the trail is pretty wearying on the feet, but that aside the trip was great.  It is a bit of a labyrinth around Silver Star of trails, but in most cases "all roads lead to another road", so I found just wandering around not to be problematic.

High clearance vehicle is a must to get to the trailhead.  FR 4109 was impassable for me so parked at the bottom and walked up.  I was surprised by how steep this road was in addition to the abysmal condition.  Left my vehicle at the bottom of 4109 and started hiking up the road at 8:15am.  There was only 1 other vehicle at the bottom.  The 2 mile walk up the road was uneventful but it was interesting to finally see just how bad it is.  There were a ton of ripe thimbleberries and huckleberries (both red and black) along the road that slowed my pace.  There were 3 high clearance vehicles at the trailhead when I started hiking up Ed's trail about an hour later.

Ed's trail was spectacular.  So much fun and really great views down to the valley below.  Very open the majority of the way, but fortunately it wasn't very sunny.  The trail features were pretty unique and made for a very interesting and fun hike.  Unfortunately the low clouds prevented me from seeing any of the volcanos, so this was more about the journey than the destination.  I reached the summit around 11AM.  The summit of Silver Star was fairly busy, with the vast majority of folks coming from Grouse Vista trailhead.  I can only imagine how good the views are of the surrounding peaks on a clear day.  I ate lunch at the top and made my way back on the Silver Star trail.  The way back was much faster and much easier than Ed's Trail.  I arrived at the trailhead in about an hour, completing my final Columbia River Gorge hike from the 100 WA Classic Hikes book.  I made my way down 4109 in 45 minutes.

Knowing how bad the road was now, if I did this hike again I would do this as a lollipop hike starting at the Grouse Vista trailhead -> silver star trail -> ed's trail.