I went up the Cedar Butte Trail to South Side Trail, to Olallie Trail and thenback via PTC, a total of a bit under 6 miles. A beautiful day; I left the car at 6:10. It was nice and cool. I saw one trail runner on the way up and zero people until I got back down to the PTC Trail.
Now most of us consider a “view” to be something majestic, like what you see when you are on the summit of a mountain. And this is true. But I love love love this kind of view:
This is the kind of early morning or late afternoon view you get in the forest when the sun is shining through the trees. The photos are nice but actually being there in the moment is just magical.
I saw something like that on the way down, near the beginning of the Olallie Trail I could see the PTC trail in the sun up ahead:
Track below:
