Wednesday morning drove to Red Rock Pass TH and commenced hiking the Toutle Trail (238) to the South Toutle River. Trail is in good condition...a few trees down but not a problem to navigate. There was more snow than I expected: it started about 2/3 of a mile north of Blue Lake and continued for about a half-mile. I got off route several times since this was my first foray on this particular trail- managed to find my way however. There is patchy snow on the north facing slopes down to Sheep Canyon. A few flowers in bloom in the forest are: trillium, yellow violets, vanilla leaf, and avl. lilies.
I set up camp on the bluff on the south side of Toutle Canyon, and then proceeded to take an afternoon dayhike on the Loowit to the north side of the mountain. The descent into the canyon from the south is no problem, there is a rope in place to assistant in safe making it safe. I happened to overshoot the north side ascent, which is about 75-100 ft downstream of the south side. I wandered downstream several hundred yards and then found a spot and climbed to the bluff on the north. The water in the river is only about ankle deep. I picked up the trail in short order and made the ascent out of the canyon. There is an area higher up where you will be hiking in sand, but this section is relatively short.
I was pleasantly surprised to find the area between the canyon and Studebaker Ridge quite green, wild strawberries in bloom, scattered subalpine firs, etc. The trail does work its way through several moderately deep ravines, a bit of snow on north facing slopes and some short sections of trail damage as well. Made it to Floating Island Lava Flow before turning around. Flowers in bloom: a few Indian Paintbrush, a few broadleaf lupine, many alpine lupine, and a lot of penstemon. Once back in Toutle Canyon I used the shoot with rope attached to descend...much tougher than the southside due to two 4-5 foot vertical sections. It way be 'easier' to stay a bit to the east (mtn side) as their are more rocks in place- in any case ascending this with a full backpack will be a work out.
Hiked out this morning to be back to work...took 238 out as well. I saw no one the entire hike except a couple of dayhikers near the trailhead. Loads of helicopter activity.. the USGS or NRCS must have been working on their sensor arrays.
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