Silver Star Mountain - Ed's Trail — Saturday, Jul. 29, 2023

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.