We did 3 days/2 nights CW from climbers bivy TH.
Super cool loop with lots of variation in terrain, and lots of flowers (especially lupines) at the moment! And some of the berries are starting to get ripe! None of the ravine areas (or other challenging parts) felt sketchy to me but ymmv. The river crossings are also not bad— my party all either rock-hopped or waded (never deeper than mid calf).
The limited water supply was the most challenging part for me, I carried a bit over 3.5L each day but could have used more.
Deets on clear water sources (by section as we hiked it) below:
Day 1: Bivouac TH -> Toutle river
The only source thru here is the Toutle river, except for one patch of snow you could melt if you were really down bad (not sure how much longer that will be there).
Day 2: Toutle -> Little pumice butte
There was one really clear spring less than half a mile from the point where the Windy trail meets Loowit, and a silty creek a while before that (below the falls). After windy pass, there is one clear creek right by little pumice butte, which was really low but still had some flow. Wasn’t psyched to be drinking out of that based on the amount of improperly buried shit all around the surrounding area :/
Little pumice butte -> bivouac th
There were a couple of streams through here but they were nice and silty, so if you wanted water that doesn’t look like iced coffee, you’d have to bushwhack a bit to get to a clear spring off the trail or take a detour at June lake.
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