EISPIRATEN

Five of us hiked to Modjeska and Santiago on Saturday via HPS route #4 which says the hike to Modjeska is 7 miles r/t + 3 if you add Santiago. Many people I talked to said it couldn’t possibly be that short and unfortunately I do not have a gps to confirm or not but I would guess it was close to that. We started at 8:00 a.m. and were back at the car at 2:30 and that includes 2 long summit breaks.

The HPS directions are very good. The gate was open at Maple Springs Rd (we confirmed with the ranger the day before) so we drove the 3 miles plus the additional ½ mile on dirt and parked at the hairpin turn. The dirt portion of the road was pretty rough. You pick up the use trail immediately from here (tekewin posted a google earth image last week). It’s use trail nearly all the way, a fair bit of it shaded.

The only other person we saw on the trail to Modjeska was on motorcycle, he blew past us on the use trail without so much as a nod. Two of us fell down jumping out the way. There was no one at Modjeska’s summit but there were about 25-30 people on Santiago who’d traveled by many different routes and as many different modes including cars, motorcycles and bicycles.

All in all a fun hike and glad to cross it off my list the easy way.

Leslie

Awesome trip!

Did you take the ridge use trail between Modjeska and Santiago? What kind of condition was it in? I've been to each peak separately, but I want to follow your path some time this year and hit both the same day.

I'd love to see some pictures if you took any.

Thanks tekewin! We descended Modjeska the way we came - via the firebreak - and picked up the use trail on the left that leads to the saddle between the peaks. The use trail continues on the left again beyond the saddle and ends at a road just below the summit. Route finding was really easy. The trail is in very good shape - just a bit narrow and slightly overgrown in parts but we had no issues. I highly recommend it!

Thanks, Leslie! I'm anxious to get back there.