Blackjack Ridge, Bootjack Mountain — Saturday, Jul. 28, 2007

Central Cascades > Leavenworth Area

Left the trailhead about 11am. It appears there are a couple of different trailheads that all lead to a path paralleling the road. We parked in the big lot almost opposite of the horse camp and walked about .25 mi before turning to the right up the Blackjack Ridge trail. The trail goes through forest climbing fairly steeply except for one brief respite. Eventually we broke out into the meadow/burn at about 1.30. Stopped here to enjoy the silvery trees and the view--somewhat marred by clouds on the west side--and eat lunch. We started up towards the summit again around 3.00. The trail to the summit is somewhat hard to find, but just start heading up where you think it'll be and you'll find it. Made the summit about 3.30--an easy scramble at the end. Enjoyed the view and headed back after about 10 minutes. The steep downhill was tiring, but we made it back to the car around 6. A few too many trees for my taste, but once you break out of them the hike is awesome! It'd have been even better if we had had the full view. The trail's well engineered throughout and we saw no one, evn on a beautiful Saturday in late July.