After several feet of snow dropped in Eastern Washington, Jim had to move our Golden Larch Trip to the west side which has no larches. After a hike up Defiance Peak with Erika a week ago, Jim had to move the hike to something under 5000 feet.
Jim decided on the Loowit Trail which circumnavigates Mt St Helens. Even with poor weather forecast, we still had a couple friends join us.
Jim and I headed out mid-day last Thursday to get the drive out of the way. The plan was to hike into June Lake for camp. Only a mile and a quarter from the parking lot so it made an easy destination.
We arrived the trailhead in the rain but it stopped just as we left the car. We arrived the lake, setup camp, and ate dinner outside. The rain didn’t start back up until 8pm. So lucky.
Doug met us in camp the next morning. He opted to sleep in his car the night before and stay out of the rain.
The three of us headed off on our first section of the Loowit Trail. We would spend the day traversing boulder fields with nice forest trail in between.
This section of the trail was slow but it was interesting to hike on pumice rock. The snow coverage had little effect. The pumice was still grippy as ever.
The top of Mt St Helens was in the cloud all day.
After the boulder fields, we encountered a steep canyon and had to drop several hundred feet before coming to some fixed rappel ropes. Time to drop into the canyon.
The rappel was quite easy except for the last 6 feet.
Once in the canyon, we starting looking for the way out.
We quickly spotted another fixed line with strategic knots located where you needed extra support.
Another hour down the trail, we came to the Toutle River Canyon. It was quickly obvious why we had to drop 1,500 feet to the river bottom in order to get across.
As we dropped into the river bottom, we were treated to some sunshine. Just enough to lift your spirits before the clouds and rain came back in.
As we were reaching the river bottom, we ran into Deb and Steve. They had just arrived. This kind of timing never happens in the mountains.
We set up camp on the sand bar next to the river. Excellent drainage for the forecast nighttime rain which came just as we were starting dinner.
The next day started with finding a safe crossing of the Toutle River. Doug found a good crossing.
Once across, we used a fixed line to climb out of the river bottom.
Today, we were headed across The Blast Zone. I was immediately taken by all the short pine trees. Nothing here was older than 39 years old.
As we climbed out of the river bottom, we had a great view of Toutle Canyon.
After climbing out of the river bottom, we took a break to take in our first view of The Blast Zone. Even though there was lots of high clouds, we still stood in awe of how flat everything was.
The flatness ran all the way down to Spirit Lake.
It took several hours for us to cross The Blast Zone. We took a long break in the middle to hopefully get a view of the top of Mt St Helens which spent the day in high clouds.
After The Blast Zone, we climbed to Windy Pass in the worse rain of the entire trip.
Just before the pass, the rain stopped. Perfect timing for us to look down on The Plains Of Abraham.
On the other side of the plains was Pumice Butte and camp for the night.
Our camp was right next to one of the buttes and an enormous drop off.
After breakfast, we all decided to hike up the near by butte for better views. The sun was finally out and we were going to make the best of it.
From here, we had views in all directions.
Mt St Helens to the west.
Mt Rainier to the north.
Goat Rocks to the northeast.
Mt Adams directly east.
Mt Hood to the south.
We actually had views most of the hike out. And smiles. Amazing how happy we get when the sun comes out.
———- Photo Gallery (click to enlarge) ———-
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