This was day two of an early fall weekend hiking off of the Windy Ridge 99 Rd. This very chilly but bright and sunny Sunday was to be my first hike to Mt. Margaret via the Boundary trail and Norway Pass. I pulled into the Norway Pass trailhead around 7am and saw one fellow who was just arising after spending the night out on a cot. Brrrrrr. He remarked the frost was on the pumpkin last night. Yeah I guess so! It had to have been around freezing easily. The first bit of hiking up to the pass was in shade so I was bundled up like Jack Frost but as soon as I hit sunlight the layers came off. The areas tucked down amongst the ridges near St Helens, like the trailhead is, are testament to the power of the eruption of 1980 and how the pyroclastic flows and accompanying winds, due to being heavier than air, followed the lay of the land as they flowed up and down over them flattening trees or at least stripping them of all foliage, leaving the land buried in thick layers of ash. The years since have seen a slow but visible rebirth of what was once here before. The fall color really stands out against the light gray ash canvas. The day before I had seen a smattering of color on the lower parts of the Abraham trail but this area much further away in the blast zone had a much more impressive display throughout.I was really surprised by how many varieties of flowers were still blooming- lots of paintbrush, buckwheat, some lupine, oregon grape, huckleberry (many still with sweet fruit, and much more. After climbing a bit in 2 miles Norway Pass is reached and wow oh wow the stunning views really begin- Spirit Lk below and the gaping maw of St Helens, and acres and acres of dead trees everywhere either standing as ghost sentinels or as countless toothpicks upon the landscape. Two faint but easily discernable puffs of steam emit from different spots in the crater- one nearer the old lava dome and the other from the new dome. What a grand view to behold, but it gets even better from atop Mt Margaret. The additional 3 miles to it from the pass is on a gradually rising, meandering and long switchbacking route that for someone who hadn't done it before seemed to promise the Margaret summit around each turn or rise but kept going on and on...but it is actually very easy hiking and the views and fall color on the slopes couldn't have been better. At times you are ridge-walking and who doesn't love that? You really get a feel for the lay of the land and the character of the 1980 eruption event from this lofty angle. Truly a world class experience. The last mile to Margaret is through a cool winding trail between huge pillars of rock incl. the impressive backside of Margaret, you round the last corner and a magnificent panorama is before you. It doesn't get much better than this. I found a lunch spot and between photo ops , lazying and gazing was serenaded if that's the proper word by countless elk bugle calls way down below me. Ravens were soaring overhead and then coasting down towards Spirit Lk. I hated to leave but it was time to head back home. I saw no one all day until just before the trailhead. I passed one backcountry camp with a newfangled solar composting toilet behind its own privacy picket fence, complete with shovel to stir the contents I guess. Nice to see something like that. The camp spot (Bear Camp???)had a great view of Rainier and a partial one of Spirit Lk and St Helens. Not a lot of wind protection but in decent weather a nice spot. Great hike and great weekend! 2300' elev. gain, 11 miles RT to Margaret. Top image- St Helens and Spirit Lk from above Norway Pass on Boundary 1 trail. Bottom- from Mt Margaret

Since there aren't many reports on this area this will be a long one... The plan for this trip was to begin at the Norway Pass trailhead, hike up along the Boundary trail past Mt Margaret and camp at Margaret camp. Little went according to plan. Due to a spectacularly bad navigation error we doubled the length of our trip. Fortunatley the reroute was equally spectacular in coolness. Drove out to the Norway Pass trail head from Randle on FS25. Arrived at the trailhead to find only four other cars and a tent in the lot. There are restrooms here and water available from an old but working handpump. There is no water between the trailhead and camp, at least in late summer. Trail quickly climbs towards the ridge, gaining about half of the total elevation of the trip in the first mile or two. The first junction is between the Norway Pass trail and Independence pass trail. At this T you go RIGHT to reach the Boundary trail and Norway Pass. The tricky part? Both directions are labeled 'Independence pass' trail. One half of the loop is #227, the other is #227A. We went left. We realized our mistake about 1.5 miles later when we reached the bottom of the Independence loop and saw Spirit Lake with Mt Margaret way over on the far side. By now it was easier to just finish the loop. This half goes high on the ridge above Spirit Lake and the giant log jam. Views of the still steaming volcano the entire way and some very cool rock formations. Here the trail narrows and is eroded in some places. Many parts are similar to Kendall Katwalk. Partway in we found a big rusted axe stuck into the hillside. By now I suspect only the food in my pack was keeping my partners from pushing me over the edge... Eventually we reached Norway Pass and were on the correct route. Encountered a group of day hikers, the first people we had seen the entire trip. The trail climbs from Norway Pass up the hillside and reaches the junction with the Lakes trail. We stayed on the Boundary Trail debating if we would make it to Mt Margaret. The elevation gain is continual here but not too steep. We finally reached Bear Pass and climbed over the last little ridge, descending slightly to Bear Camp and decided to claim this one since nobody else was there. The camp is in a dirt covered clearing with many run-off stream beds snaking around. There is a solar toilet with a wooden fence around it offering only moderate privacy. Two raised tent pads, but they seem poorly sized and you would have to be creative setting up more than one tent on each. We elected to pitch behind some small trees nearby to gain some weather protection. Each tent pad has a small sump for grey water. Water is available in a tiny spring just to the south-west of the lower tent pad. Climb down into the ditch behind camp and look around in the grass here, it's not easy to spot. There is a tiny pool with water pouring out from under a log. Not sure if this will be running in very hot weather. Saturday night the winds were very strong, the campsites offer little protection against wind and weather since the only trees are small. We didn't get much sleep but the tents held. Consider bringing extra stakes and guylines, I think the wind is pretty regular here. Windchill was very bad also. Sunday we dayhiked out to find Mt Margaret camp. The distance seemed much longer than shown on our map. From Bear, climb over a few ridges with long slow switchbacks, then drop to a little valley with the junction to the Whittier trail which is closed. The Boundary trail continues up beneath the rock face of Mt Margaret, giving spectacular views of Spirit Lake, St Helens, and St Helens Lake, then descends towards The Dome and Dome camp. Eventually Margaret Camp is stumbled upon in a big clearing. Half of the door to the toilet is broken. There are also two tent pads here but otherwise the camp is unremarkable. Did not look for water, but supposedly there is another spring here. Hiked back to Bear Camp, stopping briefly to watch the many elk herds in the area and climb partway up Mt Margaret. The wind was rising and clouds looking ominous so we packed out a day early, not wanting to be caught in the wind and rain with no protection. Followed the correct route this time and arrived fairly quickly back at Norway pass. The trails in this area are pretty good overall. Very dusty from ash and a little eroded in places. Many signs are damaged or lying broken on the ground. All are fairly confusing and conflict with eachother in mileage. Check your route carefully. There is no water (at least in late summer) on the trail. You need a permit to camp in the Mt Margaret area, but it is free from the St Helens rangers. You also need a Northwest Forest Pass, which can be bought at the Cascade Peaks viewpoint just down the road from the trailhead if you forgot one. Many more trip photos: http://www.pbase.com/billcat/hiking/

Our first trip back to the Norway Pass / Mt. Margaret area in several years (now that the exorbitant fee regime has ended in St. Helens National Volcanic Monument). Revegetation along the trail has proceeded nicely in recent years, with lots of shrubs, some young deciduous trees, and the occasional clumps of young conifers. View are still almost continuous (and shade very sparse). Some berry bushes are still bearing. Some flowers are still in bloom. Lots of fireweed and pearly everlasting. A good bit of paintbrush. Some lupine, mainly at higher elevations. Occasional penstemon and harebells. One ravine about 4 1/2 miles in had a surprisingly good show of pink monkeyflower. The view from Mt. Margaret is panoramic, with great views of St. Helens and its dome, Spirit Lake and its massive collection of logs, nearby St. Helens Lake, and Hood, Adams, Goat Rocks, and Rainier farther distant. An Olympic (probably Olympus) was faintly visible above the shoulder of a nearby mountain. No biting bugs, but lots of flying ants and some flies on Mt. Margaret. Trail in good shape, though a big boulder has planted itself atop the trail on the shoulder of Mt. Margaret, and a few logs have slid down across the tread. No problems bypassing these minor obstructions. In all, still a great place to get some feeling of the magnitude of the 1980 eruption.

After a 3hr drive I arrived at the Norway Pass TH at 10am to find only 3 cars in the lot. It was already a hot sunny day, but no bugs for a change. The <10% graded trail wanders all over the place to get to Norway Pass and beyond. There are big views but very little shade in the blast zone. A couple of minor snowfields on the trail just below Mt Margaret. Four mountain bikers arrived on the summit as I left. One crashed and burned big-time trying to get across the steeper snowfield. Still some running water but none in the first hot 4 miles. The more western half of the lakes basin loop trail has a TRAIL CLOSED sign at its start in the pass NE of Mt Margaret - why'