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.

Trail is now snowfree for almost 5 miles. Made it as far as Coldwater peak, but the trail gets fairly hairy after the snow begins. As SIE in the last report on this trail noted, there is a serious erosion problem about 1.5 miles in. If it's not fixed soon it looks like it could become fairly dangerous. Views were fantastic. Besides the obvious, Hood, Adams, Rainer, and a few of the Goat Rocks also made an appearance. Be wary of the dust storms on the trail in the early sections, there seemed to be at least minimal vegitation near coldwater peak, but there is NOTHING growing near the first few miles of the trail. If you forget sunscreen or glasses turn around, this one offers no mercy. Also, extra water would be good idea. I usually drink about 1L for a hike this length, but I ended up drinking close to 2.5L! Despite all this, unless you want to walk all the way to windy ridge, this is a fabulous time to get out there and do it, I couldn't imagine trying it in the middle of summer.

Only 2.5 hours from Kent to the parking lot at the Johnston Ridge Observatory. The Boundary Trail is completely snowfree for 2.5 miles and offered fabulous views of St. Helens. It's a very easy trail that follows the ridge along at about 4000-4200' across the north face of the mountain. This area took the full brunt of the big blast and this trail gives an up close view. Some parts of the trail are somewhat hard to follow due to the scouring the area took; no topsoil to define a trail. You'll want lots of water and sun protection here due to the complete lack of any cover or shade. There is a narrow section along a very steep hillside that has a few sections of trail trying to slide downhill. You'll want good boots here for added stability. The tennis shoe crowd (not to mention the Teva sandal and especially the no water or any other supplies crowd) should not attempt this section. Beyond the trail intersection with the Truman trail coming up from below, the trail is harder to follow with some snow covering. Once the ridge is crested, the snow covering was probably 90% with just enough melted to follow with the help of the posts. The snow is melting fast and is not very deep, so don't let that stop you. This is actually probably peak time to do this trail. Too much later and it will be too dusty as evidenced by the dust storms we saw below us on the way out. GO NOW.

Not a bad deal -- in exchange for a 2 3/4 hour drive (from Auburn) each way and about 3/4 mile each way of walking in or around clearcuts, I got a lake, a very fine viewpoint, and 100% solitude on a sunny Sunday in August. (How long since you've had that experience in the Washington high country on a weekend' For me, 1991 I think). This trail is located just east of (but not in) the Mt. St. Helens monument -- I took FR 25 south from Randle, drove about 1 mile past the Windy Ridge turnoff to FR 28 and drove to the Mosquito Meadows ""trailhead"" (there is a trail sign there, but no real parking except squeezing one's car as far off the road as possible.) Mosquito Meadows can hardly be called a meadow -- the stumps bear testimony that most of the openness isn't thanks to Mother Nature -- but at least there weren't any mosquitos, either. After 1 mile I ascended to the Boundary Trail and followed it (all but the very beginning in tall trees) two easy miles along a ridge. (The Boundary Trail intersects road 25, but starting from there would have added 2.5 miles round-trip to the hike.) At the entrance to a lupin-filled meadow -- a real one this time -- I met up with the junction to Badger Peak, but first crossed the meadow to Badger Lake -- decent enough in size, but very shallow. Any mosquitos that had been there were now gone. I then returned to the junction and started up trail 257 1/4 mile to the Badger Peak trail #257-A -- at this last junction, the sign had fallen and lay a short distance up the latter trail. The peak trail was the only part of the trip to suffer much from blow-downs (still nothing really hard to get around.) Being alone, I had to be ultra-careful near the summit, especially as the soil there is rather sandy and loose (as it was through most of the hike when in open country, undoubtedly courtesy of certain volcanic activity from the west). The top (a former fire lookout spot) afforded a 4-way view to Mt. St. Helens (west), Goat Rocks (north), Mt. Adams (east) and Mt. Hood (south) as well as some interesting rock formations in between and some not-so-interesting bare areas (especially to the west) courtesy of your friendly nieghborhood logger. Total distance: about 8 miles round-trip. Time: about 3.25 hours, not counting stops at the lake and peak.

mt margaret backcountry Bring an ice axe or poles if hiking early season!! I started the hike on south coldwater (#230) about one mile down the road from the coldwater visitor center in the mt st helens national volcanic monument. It is only 3 miles to the first campsite, Ridge Camp. The hike goes through pre eruption clear cuts which demonstrate the incredibly destructive potential of weyerhauser. Logged slopes do not seem to recover as quickly as non-clear cut areas (surprise). On the way to Ridge camp wrecked logging equipment is visible on and near the trail. There is very little water available at Ridge Camp. You might want to bring enough for your first night camping. There is a stream about 100 yds before camp but as the snow is almost gone it may dry up for summer. From the Ridge camp I took the coldwater trail to the intersection with the boundary trail. There are some minor snow patches. They will be gone soon. At the boundary-coldwater junction the sign pointing towards mt margaret has blown down. Just take a left over the saddle at the sign that says restricted area. There is lots of snow in the area above St Helens lake but great views. The trail goes around the peaks and over the saddles between Coldwater, Dome and Mt Margaret. There is snow all over but none of it too bad until you get around Dome. There the snowfields get steep and an ice axe will be necessary until the trail melts out. I camped at Dome Camp and managed to get around the the side of Mt Margaret but would not reccomend that unless it has melted out a little more. I spent a some of the time traversing 45 degree snow fields. slid down one into a tree melt out (ouch). The trail is supposed to descend after mt margaret but I was done in by that time and retreated to Dome Camp.