Silver Star Mountain - Ed's Trail — Sunday, Aug. 14, 2011

Southwest Washington > Lewis River Region

***Lost cell phone*** We dropped our Blackberry Bold that has a rubber case on the trail. We think we were on Ed's trail when we did it. We stopped to get our binoculars out and we think that's when it happened. We had taken Ed's Trail up, had done the rocky scramble and gone around the corner and were about 100 yards from heading into a forested area. If you find this phone, please contact me paula122801@aim.com As for the trip itself, the road in was very rough, with lots of potholes. You definitely need a higher vehicle like an SUV to get in there. Directions were a bit hard to follow and spots were lacking signs, but we finally found the trail-head. There are two trails starting from the parking lot, which I didn't see anyone mention in the trip reports. You can take either one as they both end up converging about a mile up. The trail on the left has more flowers and seemed shorter/steeper, whereas the trail on the right was still steep, but maybe a bit less steep and seemed longer. Once you get up to the spot where you can take Ed's trail, we took that (there is a sign) to the left and walked through endless beautiful flowers! We saw the arch and then did the rocky scramble, which put us at a nice rocky overlook to stop for pictures. Then we proceeded around the bend through scattered pine trees. This is where we stopped and I think dropped our cell phone. Then we proceeded into the forested area where we saw some remaining bear grass. Once out of the trees, we converged with the Silver Star Trail and took a left to proceed the remaining 1/4 mile to the summit. There are actually two summits, one to the left and one to the right. Both are worth visiting, but the one on the left has the canister for leaving notes, etc. We sat long enough to enjoy a granola bar and visit with some other hikers and then began our trek down Silver Star Mountain trail. The trail is mostly an old road with lots of rocks, but easily walked through. All-in-all, this hike had more wildflowers than I've ever seen and I would highly recommend it! No bugs, no snow, no mud, no blowdowns.....no problems at all with the trail. (except could use some better signs!) It was kinda cloudy yesterday, so we didn't get to see the volcanoes, but the flowers held our attention plenty! And the views were still grand! But please note that you should take more than one set of directions!!! We had printed out three different directions from various sites and we used all three!