On Sunday, March 1st we decided to head up to the south side of Mt. St. Helens to check out the Goat Marsh Research Area. The drive up to Kalama Horse Camp was almost completely snow-free with only a few trees down on road 81 past Merrill Lake (easily driven around). Once we arrived at the horse camp we found the gate on road 81 open (the camp itself is closed and gated for the winter) so we continued another 1.5 miles an parked alongside the road. At this point the road was still clear with a deep icy rut down the center and we did not want to chance getting stuck in the ruts trying to turn around. High clearance vehicles could have kept going.
From here we walked on road 81 about 1 mile to where the Kalama Ski Trail crosses road 81 and turned northward toward Goat Marsh. The snow was fully covering the trail with about 1 to 1.5 feet of snow so we put on our snowshoes and cruised our way to the marsh.
The marsh lakes were frozen and snow-covered in about 1.5 feet of snow with critter tracks snaking across in multiple directions. We stopped, had a snack and enjoyed the total silence of the place while admiring Loowit's snowy SW flanks.
After a short break we returned the way we came with a short diversion to see some additional swampy lakes that were noted on my Caltopo map.
It was a short but enjoyable outing with spring-like conditions. The snow depth is really lacking this year. We saw no other people or cars during the entire 2.5 hour trip.
4.58 miles, 545 ft ascent
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