Beautiful weather for a quick pre-sunset hike. Didn’t have much time, so started at the June Lake trailhead and went through most of the rock field just to shake down the new boots. 

Road: There are some mildly rough sections, but it’s paved. Keep a look out and slow down when you start seeing the stretches of uneven road and you’ll be fine in anything. 

Trailhead: No privy (that I could find). Parking wasn’t a problem by 1715. 

Bugs: Easily deterred by a little Off, even at the lake

Water: June Lake only- you can hear the creek, but can’t really access it. 

Wildflowers: I’m not an expert here, but there’re a few flashes of purple and white; nothing like what’s going on at Harry’s Ridge, etc. right now.

Trailhead to June Lake: Trail’s in great shape; I don’t remember the last time I saw so little litter (sadly)! The first mile or so is a wide, well-shaded mild incline, with the sounds of a swift creek alongside in the beginning. There looked to be several nice tent spots adjacent to the trail, in addition to the spots near (not on) the lake. A couple of peekaboo glimpses of the mountaintop, but not much until after June Lake. I stopped to try to fix the leak in my hydration bladder and enjoyed the sounds of the waterfall for a few. 

June Lake to almost the Swift Creek Ski Trail: Once you cross the large rock flow/dry creek bed, all bets are off. There’s a little under a half mile of large rocks and boulders to hop/clamber over. I usually love exactly this kind of type II fun, but as a disclaimer, I started out tired, hungry, and breaking in new boots (yikes.) I was armed with a downloaded Gaia and stubbornly tried to find the “trail” for a while (frustrated that I somehow kept missing it), until I finally had to concede that there was in fact no trail. No path or part of this is necessarily easier or less strenuous, so honestly, just go wherever looks like it will have the least impact. Caveat: the field is large and you can’t see portions of it until you’re at the top, so a GPS would be a very good idea here. As long as you know where you should end up, you’ll be fine. I spent more time with 3 points of contact than I normally would’ve (already being fatigued), but if you have a decent pair of boots, you can mostly just rockhop upright.

Ultimately, I turned around before the junction due to being a bit depleted and the sun being so close to setting. I’m normally a Windy Ridge gal, but will definitely return and tackle more of this entrance to the Loowit. #FirstTripReport 

Trail is in great condition and weather window is perfection for circumnavigating Mount St. Helens! Saw lots of backpackers and a handful of day hikers, but only a couple other runners. 

TL;DR: A few blowdowns on June Lake Trail to access Loowit, but fairly manageable. Still some snow patches to cross, most easy and great boot pack from hikers/runners previously so no route finding needed. Trail is very technical, and dips in and out of creek beds (most of which are dried up), and is very exposed for majority of the trail. PLAN YOUR WATER, large sections without access! 

TRIP DEETS
Parked at June Lake TH and hiked in to June Lake camp (approx 1 mi) Friday night. Saturday we did a self-supported ultra trail run from June Lake to Loowit Trail junction and went clockwise all the way around and back to June Lake to camp. Hiked out from camp the following morning back to the TH. 

TRAIL CONDITIONS
June Lake Trail: wide, well traveled, a couple blow downs getting up to Loowit from June Lake. 
Loowit Trail: overall the tread is soft and dry/sandy. There's a few woodsy sections with a nice pine pack, but otherwise a pretty rocky and technical trail. There's a few miles of talus/boulder fields - just looks for the rock cairns or wooden posts for route finding. There's a couple of snow patches still on the southwest side. Nothing difficult to pass, a couple spicy spots that are steeper, but crossed without traction or poles. A couple creek crossings that required going up and down to find the best spot to cross. Also, a couple of rope climb/descents out of the ravines. Trail is very exposed so plan accordingly with weather. 

TRAIL RUNNING
As mentioned above, this trail is fairly technical. If you're like me, that means a little slower going. I felt like every time I got in a nice flow (running in stride) then it would get abruptly stopped by a snow patch, or rocky section, or creek crossing. It was hard to keep momentum in my opinion, but still amazing views, and never felt too strenuous as far as climbing/descending. I packed my spikes and poles, but didn't end up needing either for majority of the trail. I pulled the poles out for one creek crossing, and certainly could have used them in other sections, but not necessary, so would be runner's preference on this one. 

BACKPACKING
We saw lots of backpackers on this trip making their way around. This would be an amazing trail to backpack in a couple of days. There are a few techy sections (rope climbing, steep, loose tread traverses, talus fields etc.) that I was happy to not have heavier pack to manage, but clearly very doable as many were. All of the campsites we passed looked very nice and well maintained. A couple didn't seem close to water, so I would review where you're staying and closest water source. Main note would be on water sources if backpacking as noted below, and don't rely on map as many of the "creeks" are dried up and no current running water.

WATER
We made the mistake of not filling up reserve water to start, and there is NO WATER from June Lake until mile 11 at South Fork Toutle River. We did hear some snow melt trickle in a small creek around mile 9 and went off trail to collect (since we were uncertain when the next actual water would be). Unless you want to collect snow to melt, water is very scarce at the moment, so I'd plan to carry some. After that point there were more dry patches, but none as large or significant. We each had a liter flask we would carry on our back in addition to our accessible drinking flasks, and that system worked well for us. We were never without water at that point. Just be mindful, and my advice would be carry more than you need in case you hit a few dry miles. 

ANIMALS/BUGS
We heard marmots whistling, and plenty of birds as well. Only saw a couple chipmunks and a field mouse though. Did see some deer scat, but no animal sightings on this trip. You will notice how quiet it is on the North side where the blowout was, which was something unique and cool. The bugs were not bad at all along the trail; however, we did have some bugs at June Lake Camp. They weren't out of control but definitely noticeable, and more so at the trail head even. 

OVERALL
This was an awesome experience, and would highly recommend to anyone up for an adventure and getting to see all faces of a volcano, and the varied terrain that comes with it. It definitely has some technical sections, but trail is in great condition and well maintained, and no route finding necessary, which means enjoying the trail and views even more. I was quite pleased going clockwise and would likely do it that way again, and certainly would recommend that direction to others. The sun stayed behind us all day instead of in our faces, and I enjoyed the boulder field "warm up" and getting to the more open sections at the end of the day that were easier to travel. Of course this depends on your start/exit point, but clockwise from June Lake was great!

Happy trails!

   Wet Memorial weekend camping trip to Mount St Helens area. Took this little jaunt since it is short with the hopes of seeing Mt St Helen peeking out of the gloom. Arrived at the Marble Mountain sno-park lot and was surprised to see only two other cars. We figured that the wet/cloudy weather deterred the Mt St Helen summiters. The road to the June Lake trailhead is gated so we took the snow-covered Pine Marten trail from the sno-park to the June Lake trailhead.  You could probably walk the road and be faster but what’s the fun of that? Waterproof boots were fine without micro-spikes for this hike but poles with snow baskets were helpful. Followed the boot path and the blue diamond markers to the June Lake trailhead then headed north to June Lake. June lake is melted out and the two waterfalls on the far end of the lake are gushing.

    Had planned to hike the Loowit trail and loop to the Swift trail to the parking lot but the Loowit trail had a lot of blowdowns with no visible boot path so we opted to backtrack to the Pika trail. The Pika trail goes over the June Lake lava field which has snow and bare boulders. We followed the orange stakes over the lava boulders taking care to minimize post-holing in the snow. This was slow due to the need for care in the snowy areas but the extra time allowed Mt St Helen to briefly reveal herself when we stopped for lunch.  Absolutely gorgeous. Continued to pick our ways through the lava field to Swift trail (where we wished we had skis) then back to the lot. Did not see any people on the hike (except at the beginning of the June Lake trail). Despite the rain, it was a gorgeous hike. 

Took a quick overnight hike up the 1.6 mile trail to June Lake.  I did this particular hike in the dark (trying to develop some more advanced skills) and found it to be a wonderful experience.  The trail has obviously been maintained and improved over the summer so the hike was easy.  The June Lake area was empty of other overnight campers.  Set up camp in the dark and enjoyed an evening of intermittent rain.

The undeveloped campground of the lake is pristine and the colors were extraordinary.  Great short hike and a wonderful overnight trip.

This is a great short hike with a small lake and waterfall at June Lake, the trail is well maintained and relatively flat until June Lake.  There is a wide open area with several campsites, which would be great for people to try out backpacking or to take kids on a backpacking trip.  When you reach the clearing you can hear the waterfall and just need to take a slight right (east) to reach the lake.  We continued up a steep incline to reach the Loowit Trail (approx. 0.25 miles).  We were hoping to be able to see views of Mt. St. Helens, so we continued about 5-10 minutes in each direction on the Loowit Trail.  The weather was cloudy and foggy, so we didn't get any views but there were some clearings where I am guessing on a clear day, you could get excellent views.