Ridge, The Long Loop

Conditions

11.4 mi · +2,340 ft · mud. Started at 6:15a, finished at 1:40p. Overcast breaking to sun by 10a. Trail wet from overnight rain — the switchbacks above the creek crossing were slick clay.

Notes

Walked the tenth time. One thrush at dusk near the turn-off. The ridge was quiet otherwise — no other hikers until the descent. The view from the top clearing was layered fog over the valley, the kind that makes the ridgelines look like paper cutouts.

I sat at the stone bench for twenty minutes. Nothing happened. That was the point.

The mud on the north face was worse than usual. The trail crew hasn’t been through since early March. Two sections are starting to erode at the edge — the outer slope dropping away where the path narrows.

Species log

• Hylocichla mustelina — Wood Thrush, singing at dusk, near the old turn-off
• Red-tailed hawk, circling above the clearing, present for ~15 minutes
• Several unidentified warblers in the understory, heard but not seen
• One deer, flushed from the brush at the 8-mile mark