Me and Zeus headed out for another adventure, chasing sun and summits, and this time we hit the Blackmail Ridge hike outside of Roseburg, Oregon. It’s a 7.4-mile loop that runs along a ridgeline with about 1,745 feet of elevation gain, and you’re getting those big valley views the whole way. Early on the trail is easy to follow, a well-pronounced path that gradually climbs until you hit a split where you can choose left or right depending on how you want to run the loop. Once we topped out on a knob, the views really opened up—river and valley scenery in every direction, with more sun on one side. From what I could tell, this feels like an old fire access road that just meanders along the foothill ridges, giving you opposing views on both sides. Weather was pretty decent for us—mid 40s with a few raindrops here and there, maybe pushing 50 later. One big takeaway: I’d recommend doing this trail in the off seasons, because it’s exposed most of the way and would be smoking hot in summer. Bonus highlight was stumbling onto an absolutely massive madrone tree—bigger than anything I’ve seen out here.