PCT: Green Springs to Hobart Bluff

This section of the PCT between Green Springs Highway and Hobart Bluff is a 7.5 mile out-and-back of pure, mellow, PCT that is not a secret – so say hello to a lot of the neighbors you were trying to get away from!

Driving

–This 30 minute drive starts south through town on Main Street/Siskiyou towards the University. Turn left on Ashland Street towards Interstate 5. Don’t get on the Interstate! Go over it! The road sweeps to the right and you will continue towards, and past, Emigrant Lake. This becomes Green Springs Highway and heads uphill into the mountains. 15 minutes of winding road later you will see Soda Mountain Road on your right and Little Hyatt Lake road is on your left. Turn right and park right there.

Parking

– This dirt pull out is able to handle 20 cars but, if it’s an amazing weekend with lots of people, you can park across the street in the other dirt lot. Either way… dirt lot.

The Adventure

– You start at one of those small, “the PCT is going on private land” gates. The fine people at the Humane Society are making sure nothing bad happens to animals on this land I guess. About a mile in, and you exit their area and can now…throw rocks at squirrels again? The PCT trail doesn’t care either way. It just meanders up and down, through pines and then into open hillsides. At the 3 1/2 mile point you’ll hit a scrubby area with small oaks and where the conifers have petered out. Keep an eye to your right for the small “Hobart Bluff” sign and you will take that trail uphill for about 1/4 mile.
At the top of the actual summit it isn’t really that picturesque. Sure you can spin around 360 degrees and see Mount Ashland, Pilot Rock, Shasta, and McLoughlin but there’s a scrubby tree in the way here, and a well-worn picnic rock in the foreground there. I mean, it’s fine, but the money shot is down the other side of the peak to the actual Bluff that made Hobart famous. It’s a bit fo a scramble and there are a couple of different bluffs you can choose from but if you can see the Hobart Algae Pond below you, you know you have arrived!