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Distance from parking lot to summit: about two and three-quarter miles.

Ascending time: About two hours and 10 minutes.

Descending time: About one hour and 10 minutes.

Trail marker: a red spot inside a white spot

The Red Spot Trail branches to the left off the Cascade Link in a hemlock grove only a few yards after the Birchtoft Trail branches off to the right (much sooner than it appears on the map). It generally traverses the southeast slope of the mountain. The trail presents a good compromise between gaining altitude and letting you travel without becoming too breathless. It has many relatively level sections, though its worst drawbacks are probably that it passes through longer stretches of forest before presenting you with views of the surrounding landscape, and many sections of the trail are composed of smaller rocks that are more difficult to negotiate than those found on the other trails. Recrossing several of the streams you went over on the lower reaches of the Cascade Link, it eventually joins the Pumpelly Trail at the spine of the eastern ridge of the mountain. While it's perhaps a little more than half a mile longer than the White Dot Trail, the hiking time is not much more, and may be less for some people, because of the reduced steepness of the entire route and subsequently the reduced need to rest.

This is a pleasant, if undistinguished, trail.

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Last update and copyright © 31 July 1998 by Wayne Brink, email: