Chameleon,

Those were probably my tracks you saw. I went up there Sunday afternoon. I went up to the knife's edge then turned around. The going was getting super slow because of the snow and although I would have loved to push to the plateau I would have run out of time. But in a month or so I'm thinking of going Ruckel Ridge to Eagle Benson to Eagle Creek.

Hey Fredo,

   The ridge was beautiful this week huh?  Yeah, I lost your tracks right on the really sketchy part - where you have to shuffle across the broken ridge top - in the heavily treed section of ridge.  You know Ruckel pretty well I assume - you seemed to know exactly where the trail went - even that section where you had to post-hole to the right of the ridge and then climb back up!  Bravo on a great hike!

-Zach

    Woah what did that cougar eat!?  I hope it enjoyed it and was very full because I sure don't want to run into that thing in a hungry mood on the ridge.  Jeesh if locked in a mono a mono battle with that thing I doubt the leatherman would suffice, I'd be reaching for the road flare i sometimes carry, lol, never thought of that as the potential use!

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Andy

Hey, never watched Supernatural? Flares works great against things that wants to eat you! Yes, tv teaches me everything I need to know.

Except how to avoid cougars. I never thought the Gorge was wild enough to have big predators like that roaming around.

Awesome photo of the dam at night! I love nighthikes, except I'm afraid of the dark (mostly irrational, but.. big cats.. c'mon). Thanks for posting that. I think I now have to gather a group and do a night outting on that trail come summer.

chameleon:

Does anyone know if the Ruckel Ridge Trail was ever an official Forest Service trail? 

I first went up that trail in the summer of '79 and it was basically just as it is today. I doubt that it was ever an "official" trail. After doing it, my friends and I decided to name it the "Dragonspine" and so refer to it today.

Don

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"If I had known I was going to live this long I'd have taken better care of myself" - anon

Wonderful pics and thanks for posting this, Chameleon.

dn

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"If I had known I was going to live this long I'd have taken better care of myself" - anon