Manastash Ridge - Prater Trail, Manastash Ridge - Boy Scout Trail — Sunday, Apr. 14, 2019

The trailhead for this hike is the same as that for the more we’ll-known Westberg Trail in the Ellensburg area. The Westberg is in the hiking guide on this site. To escape the rainy weather, we decided to hike up Manastash Ridge. This is a frequent place to hike for me, so we took a new hike in the area and ascended the Prater Trail and came down the Boy Scout Trail. These trail are just to the west of the most popular trail in the area, the Westberg Trail. I avoid the Westberg because it is kind of an eroded mess. In the picture included on this report, the blue dot is our ascent route, the Prater Trail. There is a posted map at the start by the canal, so you can see what’s what. This trail is fairly gradual for the first half, but you pay for that later as you enter the woods. From then on it is steep, especially the very last tight switchbacks to the summit. The trail is not heavily travelled and we saw just about 15 other hikers. The snow is now gone and the trail is drying out so the slippery muddy mess is pretty much over now. There are a few flowers down low and we saw grass widow and yellow bells. The views from up high are great, and we could see weather moving across from the west and windmills churning away.