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.
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