FS Road No. 99 (to Windy Pass Viewpoint) is closed at about FS Road No. 25, so if yer planning to hike to Norway Pass, add about 10 miles of road hiking onto yer agenda. And don't even think about driving on to Cougar on Road 25, the road is snowed in about 2 miles south of the 99 intersection.

We set out Saturday to hike the Goat Mountain trail and camp at Deadman's Lake in the Mt. St. Helens area. We drove down FS Road 25, but missed the turn on FS Road 26 at 8.7 miles from Randle. We continued 22 miles on Rt. 26 past 99, which heads towards the blast zone of Mt. St. Helens, before realizing we went too far. A check of our maps indicated we could cut back to 99 and meet up with FS 26 without having to go all the way back towards Randle. 7 or 8 miles later, we did find the turn for 26, but the road was closed at the trailhead for Norway Pass, about 5 miles south from the Goat Mountain trailhead. We decided to go back towards Randle to see if we couldn't get closer from the other side. On the return trip back down 25, we noticed that the signs for FS 26 were removed and there were no signs for Ryan Lake as mentioned in the guide books we relied on. That did not bode well. We followed 26 to another road barracade, and guessed we had about 3 miles of pavement to walk before we would even reach the trailhead for Goat Mountain. By now it was 2:30 pm, and finding another backpacking trip was pretty much out of the question. So we strapped on our packs, and went for it anyway. FS 26 wasn't too bad, except for the one washed out bridge we had to scramble through. The pavement and weather were very hot, the valley afforded few views and the direction was steadily uphill over the entire stretch. We finally made it to the trailhead at 4:00. Once on the Goat Mountain trail, it is up up up first through blast zone, then on the protected northside of the mountain where the trees provided much needed shade. When we got to the summit, the views finally arrived, with Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Hood all making appearances. Although exhausted already, we figured the ridge hike, through another blast zone and downhill to Deadman's Lake would be worth the effort, so we continued until after 8:00 PM before arriving at our ultimate destination. Mosquitos were bad at the lake, but died down at dark. The fishbowl of the lake had an amazing echo, and no other hikers were to be found. The bark of a dog perhaps was the only indication of life somewhere nearby, but the crystal clear night and abundant stars kept us company. The return trip the next morning was even better, with temperatures being much cooler due to our earlier start. After climbing back to the ridge, we spotted a large herd of Elk down in the valley, slowly wading through the waters of another backcountry lake. But the flies kept us from lingering much, so we sped across the ridge and back down to FS 26 for our 3 miles of hot pavement on the feet. If the hike had only been from the trailhead, this would have been a great trip. Of course, we also wouldn't have gone the entire trip without seeing other hikers!

We hiked to Mount Margaret in the Mount Saint Helens National Monument from the Norway Pass Trail which starts on the Windy Ridge (east) side of the park. Despite clouds overhead and some rain during our drive in, the weather was fairly clear during our hike, making this a memorable day. After hiking to Norway Pass, we were rewarded with a view across Spirit Lake to Mount Saint Helens and into the crater. Since this is part of the area affected by the eruption there are no big trees to block the view which continues along the entire trail to Mount Margaret. The trail to Norway Pass gets quite a bit of use, but most people turn back or hike a loop there, only a few go on to Mount Margaret. Its a fairly long (10 mile round trip) but not especially difficult hike with most of the elevation gain on the first part. The last part of the hike is along flowery ridges, where a little snow lingers. It is wonderful to see nature thriving in the seemingly devistated landscape. There are birds, butterflies, grasshoppers and bees, but we were not bothered by bloodsucking insects. There are ripe Huckleberries. We saw a group of elk in the distance, and heard one bugle from another location, there is elk sign everywhere on the ridge. The only down side to this hike is the potential to be hot because of the lack of tree cover, although it was quite mild today, we didn't even drink up half the liquid we packed.

What a way to experience Mount Saint Helens considering I've never really seen it before even by car. Leaving home by 4:00am made for a quiet, lonely drive to the Norway Pass trailhead, and I was hiking by just before 7:00am. What a landscape! Tree snags all over, blown down trees...being someone who loves composing tree snags in my photography, I was dizzy with excitement. ""What will I do' What will I do!!!'''"". It was great. One other person had actually started before I did, but lucky for both of us we took different paths to the same general area so we both had excellent wildlife viewing. It was very warm already at the early hour even before the sun was shining---almost as if the volcanic ash and rock stores the daytime heat in them to release at night! Birds were going bezerk from the start, with four species of woodpeckers, a blue grouse, many varied thrushes, and 671,293 robins (give or take 10). I suddenly was frozen with the loud shrill of a bugeling elk bull nearby below me. He kept on calling for well over 20 minutes before I finally hiked far enough to get a look down below in a small hidden valley area toward Mount Margaret. He was down there with 11 other elk, and by 8:15am they were hidden and silent for the day. In the mean time, I was seeing bear scat all over the place, and suddenly was hearing another elk bull calling from up on Independence Ridge. The other hiker before me went that way first before heading toward Norway Pass, and when we chatted later up near Mount Margaret, he too saw elk---close to 30 of them up on the ridge. Two fabulous herds for us each to enjoy. The wind was blowing hard to keep the heat of early morning down, and it made for a snowstorm effect as seed puffs from thousands of fireweed plants were blowing all over the place! The views from Norway Pass of Spirit Lake and Mount Saint Helens are out of this world, literally. It was such a sight it was easy to almost just forget about taking pictures. I then continued up to Bear Pass, Mount Margaret, and on toward Mount Whittier. That's a real pretty mountain, and the lakes down below are numerous and gorgeous! I then backtracked, and looped back on the Independence Ridge trail back from Norway Pass back to the trailhead. Again there was massive sign of elk and bear, and fresh coyote scat could be seen along the trail. It was a relief to be back by 1:30pm, and I can't even imagine how hot that sun would be later on or on a hotter day in July---ugh! My cooler was my best friend on the drive home.

Hike to Norway Pass is dry. And in need of bushing - because of all the blooms, came back with legs painted yellow from pollen (the bees' knees). Good viewpoints just beyond trail intersection along both paths - best view along main trail is at the 3 mile sign for Mt Margaret. Beyond the pass, the trail veers up onto the ridge and is drier still, but the views - and cool breeze - along the ridge are worth the ascent. Saw 2 backpackers on the way in and 3 on the way out. None of the other day hikers seemed to venture more than a mile from the paved trailhead. Also hiked beyond the observation deck at road's end... hiking the extra, mostly flat half-mile is worth the extended views of Spirit Lake.