Cady ridge had been on my list for a long time and I finally had time to cross it off. I can see why this hike is so highly rated, the meadows and views are amazing!
The road heading out to the trailhead is in great shape except for the last 3 miles. The last three miles are unpaved and full of potholes. So long as you go slow you shouldn't have any problems even in low clearance vehicles.
There's a decent amount of parking but I found that most of those parked there were backpackers on overnight trips given what I saw in the trail register.
Overall the trail is in great shape, no blowdowns and not really overgrown but a little muddy in a few places. The only word of caution is there were a bunch of horses on the trail ahead of me and they ripped it up pretty good. It made footing a little tough in a few places with loose soil and rocks. Plus dodging the poo is always fun.
The bugs were extremely annoying all the way up to the meadows, mainly flies which was probably due to all of the horse poo. After that they kinda died down, didn't really notice any mosquitoes.
The trail was unexpectedly quiet, didn't run into many other hikers. I made such great time getting to the PCT I decided I'd make the trek to Upper Blue Lake and then hit up Lake Sally Ann on the way out. I took Blue lake High Route to get to Upper Blue and it kicked my butt a little after already being a little tired from the climb up Cady Ridge. The lake was absolutely perfect on a warm sunny day. Spent a good amount of time enjoying lunch and letting the pup have fun splashing around in it. I met several hikers coming by that were doing the Pilot Ridge loop, I was surprised that there was nobody staying overnight at the time I was there.
After lunch I felt decently rested and headed back stopping by Lake Sally Ann on the way. It was very busy, lots of people had set up camp and were hanging by the lake. I stopped to take it in and let my pup have a drink before continuing on. Side note there's not a lot of water on the trail at this point in the season so make sure to have plenty with you or fill up at the dwindling streams along the way as there are lengthy dry stretches.
On the way down I found what I think was gear discarded by the folks with the horses along the trail side. Hopefully they were taking a bunch of people out to camp and were coming back to pick them up along with the gear.
It was a great trip that I'd highly recommend, however maybe not all in one day. According to my tracker I did about 26 miles in 7 hours.
Comments
Wenatcheehiker on Dishpan Gap, Cady Ridge, Lake Sally Ann, Blue Lake High, Meander Meadows
Thank you for report Did this same route years ago but stayed overnight at blue lake. It was amazing as we caught fresh cutthroat pooled up at the outlet of the lake with our bare hands. It was rainy that evening and a Ranger rolled in for the night. We asked about having a fire, he looked around with a grin and said why not with this weather. So we cooked fresh fish and got all warmed up for the night.
Posted by:
Wenatcheehiker on Aug 04, 2019 09:38 PM