Had our 26-year-old baby boy visiting with us this week, so decided to take him hiking at Mt. St. Helens. Other than the infamous paved, roller coaster FS Road 25 and FS Road 99, the way up to Windy Ridge is a beautiful drive. Just don't drive like a maniac and your car shouldn't lose too many parts.

Even though it's near fall, there were still some wildflowers to see and still some streams to cross. We saw at least 40 mountain goat. The mountain, itself wouldn't come out from hiding behind the clouds, but we could still see all the surrounding hills and ridges. Still worth the long drive to get there.

We saw two people total on the trail and maybe saw 5 cars in the parking lot. Woohoo!

Left from Windy Ridge Viewpoint at about 10:30 am. The first 1.7 miles is along the service road, dropping down to a couple of trail junctions where it enters the blast zone. We did a loop counterclockwise, taking the Truman trail into the basin of ash and pumice, with expansive views of Spirit Lake and the whole eastern half of the blast zone. At about 5 miles in, we took the connector trail, which appears to be called something like "Willow Springs" trail, to meet up with the Loowit trail, contouring the slope higher up. The entire area was filled with paintbrush nearing the end of its bloom, and a very fragrant, low growing lupine in full bloom, plus other flowers as well. Saw several horned larks and many juncos and some white crowned sparrows.

We took the spur trail to Loowit Falls. Definitely worth the extra half mile. Then continued on the Loowit Trail to meet up with the Windy trail, and back up the road to the TH. The entire loop is about 9.5-10 miles. I'd recommend doing the loop clockwise, as opposed to the way we did it, because the Loowit has a few sections that cross boulder filled ravines, requiring a just an extra bit of care. These were not a problem, even for us old folks, but In hindsight, I would have preferred to cross those when fresh at the beginning of the hike. It was a hot afternoon, and we were glad we saved a snack to munch before the slog back up the service road. Bring and use lots of sunscreen for this hike. There were several water sources along the loop, and they didn't look like they would dry up any time soon.

One of the most incredible day hikes I've ever done in 50-odd years of hiking. The blast zone and close up views of the collapsed north flank of St Helens are amazing. 

We set out to night hike Loowit Trail loop under a full moon. We started at around 5pm from Windy Ridge Viewpoint and finished around 11am. This was one of the most beautiful hikes I have ever done. The views are spectacular and never-ending, the terrain varies nicely, wildflowers, ripe berries, and best of all, the entire area is teeming with wildlife.

The start of the trail is splendid. You start with a close up view of the crater side of Helens, and can quickly see Mt Adams and Mt Rainier as well.

After just a few miles on the Loowit Trail, sometime before Sheep Canyon, we saw a small gang of elk cross through the forest and a couple mountain goats hanging out by some cliffs. The birds were quite active, as the evening progressed. Larger birds seem to be more active earlier during the day, and the smaller ones came out closer to sunset. We watched the sun set right before descending into Sheep Canyon.

I was looking forward to a nice peaceful night hike lit up by the full moon. Little did I know that my plan was doomed to fail. The moon was definitely bright enough to light up most of the trail so that lights were rarely needed. The landscape looked surreal under just moonlight. However, as night set in, We were descending into Sheep Canyon, and the forest around us grew more and more boisterous. The chirping of the crickets was deafening, but not quite loud enough to drown out companion and alarm calls of all sorts of birds, elks bugling all around us, calls that I didn't recognize, and the unnerving rustles of who-knows-what that's disturbed by our approach.

My partner finally had enough of not using lights after being frightened by sudden rustling time after time. We discovered that most of the culprits were fat toads too lethargic to move more than a few inches when we come running down the trail. We watched them try to navigate low vegetation and fallen branches in their vain effort to escape (they would only be able to scoot a few inches. We didn't see any successfully jump.) and wondered how on earth can these helpless looking animals not only survive here, but thrive. We would come across many dozens of fat toads throughout the entire trail.

We continued along the trail trying our best to not disturb the toads and not to be disturbed by the toads' sudden rustling. Every time the forest rustled, I couldn't help but remember the two very large paw prints I saw earlier in the hike that could have been from a very large dog without nails... or a cougar. I'm no good at identifying prints, but I can still identify the size of prints.

After an hour of hiking in the dark, we were extremely anxious and our hearts were racing. Of course, that's when my partner saw a large animal lying on the side of the trail, not more than a few feet from us, emitting a low growl. We couldn't quite make out what it was with our dim light and didn't really try. My partner said "bear" and we bolted as fast as we can, crying out in terror along the way, for at least half a mile. Then we jogged for a while to get as much distance between us and it as we can. My best guess at what happened is that some hiker in a large sleeping bag was sleeping next to the trail snoring, because what on earth was a bear or elk or other large animal doing sitting at the side of the trail? But who knows.

Now terrified from the earlier encounter, we reluctantly pressed forward. We passed through mostly young but tall conifers, and every once in a while some massive thick-trunked ones that must have survived the eruption. Alders were also very abundant. A few hours later, we heard rustling and very short calls all around us. Some sounded like they were only a few meters away. We suspected it was a group of elk that we disturbed, so we made a lot of noise and waited for them to leave the area. They decided to move downhill. When the surround sound of rustling stopped, we would take a few more steps along the trail. Unfortunately for us, the trail took a few switchbacks downhill, which meant encountering the group of elk a couple more times.

By this point, we prayed to get out of the forest and wished for crossing more talus fields where there are fewer surprises. When we got to the rocky portions, we'd try to take naps on the boulders - any excuse to not go back into the forest. I saw a couple shooting stars, laying down staring up at the sky. Early Perseid's? When we were still, we heard the back and forth calls of elks all around us, birds talking to each other rather than mostly alarm calls, and a weird bark-cry that we couldn't decide if it came from a coyote or a dog at some campsite.

When dawn finally came, we were VERY relieved. We saw the clouds sit in the valleys and rise quickly as the sun came up. The trail took us through overgrown patches of just ripening huckleberries and tiny strawberry plants weighed down by a huge yield of tiny wild strawberries. I've never tasted strawberries so sweet and strawberry-flavored in my life! The blueberries are currently mostly green and red-tinged at best, except for one patch near the parking area that had ripe ones.

We spent the rest of the hike uneventfully admiring views as alarmed birds startle from our path and chipmunks and ground squirrels eye us suspiciously. We even saw another group of elk from afar. So much for peaceful night walks!

General trail info: The water sources from jacksonrhall's trip report 4 days ago were still accurate. The two northernmost sources were very silty. Trail was pretty well marked and maintained, although it can get very dusty/ashy/sandy in places, and occasionally you need to cross some talus fields. Trail is very close to or on the side of steep hills/cliffs, so be careful!

Update: We looked up different sounds that we thought the low growl could be, and we are now certain that what we encountered was a bear snoring at the side of the trail.

Counter-clockwise solo run starting at Windy Ridge. If you've never done this trail, keep in mind that it includes rough trail at times, with boulder fields and ascents and descents with a rope (the rope is fixed there) and much of the trail is out in the open and exposed to the sun.

The drive: do NOT simply use the "open map in new window" button and follow Google Map's directions. They will lead you to private forest roads, which are gated off. I had to figure out a detour at 10:30pm, which was no fun. Just use the driving directions from WTA.

I slept in my car and started at around 4:45am hoping to beat the heat of the day. Watching the sun rise with Rainier in the background made it worth it for sure. Other than 3 hikers who started when I did, the first twelve miles I saw no people- only a herd of elk and a bunch of mountain goats.

The ropes in place heading down the canyon to the Toutle might be useful but things are pretty straightforward. After crossing the Toutle, I started passing more people- lots of trail runners (I think there was a 50k that was scheduled for today and then cancelled) and some backpackers. It seems most folks started on the south side (June Lake, Marble Mountain, or Climbers' Bivy) and went clockwise.

The boulder fields on the south side of the mountain are frequent and, while they'll slow you down, are a fun diversion. Posts mark the way when the trail isn't visible.

Water access is continuing to dry up for the year. A few of the sources from the report a few days ago are gone. There are a few streams on the north side of the mountain, but other than that the only ones are the Toutle (west side), Chocolate Falls (south side) and a creek near the June Lake trail (south side), and a river around the 4 o'clock position. I recorded waypoints for all the water sources, which I'll attach.

All in all, a great day out. The Loowit is wonderful because it includes such variation in the environment-  boulder fields, lush vegetation, the sun-baked dirt of the Plains of Abraham, wildflowers, and more. The landscapes are like nothing else. Enjoy!

We are out of shape. However, this was a moderately easy trail with only minor elevation change, and the views were gorgeous. This 8.7 mile hike took over 5 hours, and total elevation change was around 1600ft. From the Windy Ridge viewpoint area, we headed south on NF-99 gravel road which took us up and around some hills. We took the Windy Trail to connect to Loowit Trail, which brought us to the Loowit Falls trail. A short uphill and we were at the viewpoint for the falls. The falls was kinda cool, but you can't get very close. More impressive were the different landscape types, the views down to Spirit Lake, and the flora and fauna. Flowers and small meadows were gorgeous as life is returning. The ground cover was coming back in places, and it was like a soft cushion. The pumice beds and dried lava flows told the story of massive destruction. Crossing the trail at one point, a spring of water emerges from the ground and flows down into 2 valleys that are full of green. Beautiful. Great hike, great day, will be sore tomorrow.