Backpacking Stagman Ridge
Stagman Ridge offers some beautiful views of Mount Adams and the surrounding central cascades but unfortunately also gives you a good look at what post forest fire devastation looks like. We took the hike, as recommended on NWHiker.com, to looking glass lake, then up through horseshoe meadow. There were definitely some amazingly beautiful sights, but also some rough, hot, burned, dirty places along the trail.
The #9R trail which creates the first part of the “lollipop loop” is pretty difficult to follow right now, as I understand it was not really a maintained trail before the fire and now, after the fire, it is easy to lose the trail; especially after the many creek crossings. Though we managed to find our way easy enough by basically pointing our compass east until we ran into the main Trail #9.
As stated before, the views of Mount Adams were incredible and abounded once you got above about 5,500ft. It was quite interesting to see how the forest recovers from a fire. In some area life was just returning and you got an idea of the kind of alpine paradise this used to be before the fire.
Overall however, this 10 mile loop was pretty fun and a good excuse to get outside and exercise the dogs. I am glad we got in the trip when we did, as this area caught on fire again in July, 2015.
