Over the weekend in partnership with Mt. St. Helens Institute, Washington Trail Association hosted a three day work party with over 40 volunteers working on various trails off of Forest Service Road 99.
The deets: Forest Service (FS) road 25 has a bridge out, so in order to get to the trailhead you'll need to go past the Cispus Learning Center using FS 23 (Cisupus Road) to FS 76 until you get to the Iron Creek Picnic Area. This route will add about a half hour each way to the drive) Once at Iron Creek you can access FS 25. This windy road is currently having some repairs done to it so be aware you may encounter that, along with logging trucks on the Cispus road. Just past Iron Creek Falls in about a 1/2 mile turn right onto FS99. Continue on this road for about an additional 25-30 minutes You will pass Bear Meadows, The Miner’s Care, and a few other view points prior to reaching the small parking lot that can hold about 10 cars. If you get to the Harmony Trail you’ve gone too far!
The Mission: our crew was one of three working on trails in the area. Our crew's mission was to remove encroaching brush on the trail and if we got to it some tread work after the junction. The name of the game today was hike, use loppers and hand saws to remove brush on the trail, then hike some more and repeat the process. Our crew of 10 was able to cover .75 miles (We made it to the junction). Over this short area we were able to remove brush from Alders, Pacific Silver Fir, Thimbleberries, huckelberries, and a few yarrow plants that were in the middle of the trail.
The Trail: The trail is in pretty good condition, there is one small area that is a little sketchy just before the junction. It’s on a rock face and about 10 feet is just wide enough for your boot, the rock is perfect to lean towards/ brace yourself on. It sounds a lot worse than it is actually! Other than that from the trailhead to the junction the trail is in great condition. There are many social trails going off the main trail. It’s hard to tell if they are from animals (See below under the sights) or if they are human paths looking for better views. This soil is so fragile since the eruption, it's really important to keep on the trail and leave no trace.
The Sights: This trail has so many amazing views! About 500 years from the trail head you get your first glimpse of Spirit Lake and a small portion of Mt. St. Helens. After that (Until the junction) the views just kept getting better and better. Spirit Lake and Mt. St. Helens are in your face if you are looking south. You can also see the Harmony trail cut through the hillside, and through what I call the moon scape down towards the lake. Off in the distance Mt. Hood (Kind of hard to see but is there) and Adam also make impressive appearances on this trail. Our crew were also able to spot deer/ elk prints in the fragile soil as we were hiking along the trail.
The Snacks: Huckleberries were starting to become ripe. Big juicy ones were enjoyed by a few of us on the trail. Wild Strawberries were also ripe. Well not all of them, but enough for a little bit of a treat. The Thimbleberries should be ripe in a week or two.
The bugs: Luckily this trail (At least the side we were working on) had a nice breeze coming off of Spirit Lake which kept the bugs at bay.
Right now is WTA's annual fundraiser, Hike-a-Thon - donations go directly back to trails and allows crews to continue to maintain the trails. Please consider a donation to WTA today (Or even become a member!) We had over 40 people working out of Wakiphis over the weekend. In order for this weekend to happen we need to have working tools, which includes sharpening (need the sharpen tools), maintenance tools for the power tools that were used, and new tools when tools break. In order to outfit a crew of just 10 people it costs about $1,000. Even if you can only donate $5 that makes a huge difference in trails around the state.
Until next time! Happy Trails
#HikeaThon
https://give.wta.org/Elizabeth2025
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