"The trail was busy up to the Barrier fire lookout. We post-holed about 10% of the time following an older trail along the ridge to McConnell Ridge peak, which hasn’t seen much recent traffic. " — ivo • Apr 16, 2023

"North scramble route up Yates Mountain. The short bit of scrambling near the top was a welcome change from steep hiking through the forest. My route up McConnell point was a rocky ridge above the highway. It was a nice option to scramble up small cliff bands rather then using the other hiking trails." — Randy • Jun 23, 2020

"went backpacking in Quaite Valey campground friday night, parking at Barrier Lake. Given rain, we postponed our plan of hiking Engagement Mtn Friday night. Instead, got up Saturday and had breakfast on the summit of EM. We returned to camp, packed up, and took the backpacks for a walk. we first headed to the Fire lookout via Prairie View. we dropped our packs where prairie view hits McConnel ridge, to lighten the load to the lookout. After returning to our packs, we had lunch, and headed down via McConnell Ridge. Wasnèt sure which of the three Bumps was considered the summit, so we did all three of them. Then there wasn't really a trail. We headed downn the gully, avoiding a few cliff. bands. Instead of heading for the ridge, we staid at the base of the ridge, and found some descent scree to descend quickly. Had we known the first bump was the summit, we would have likely turned around, as the rest is not really worth it IMO (certainly not with an overnight backpack). On the return, we followed the lakeshore given there were three grizzlies on the trail." — apfelstrudel • Jun 6, 2020

"It was a rainy day so I didn't feel like bushwhacking. Tool the trail from Barrier Lake Dam up for quite a ways, but instead of going to the fire lookout, I took the hiking trail to McConnell Ridge. Just at the steep part of the main trail it was muddy and subsequently a bit slick. There was also some good drop offs on the way to McConnell Ridge." — BertB • May 9, 2018