Apparently the road in here opened today! Was originally planning to do June Lake starting at Marblemount, but seeing the gate open I said “why not!” I’ve been to this area starting at Windy Ridge, but never up the Ape Canyon Trail.
Road I marked as fine, but there are a couple dips in the road that would straight up destroy a car. You can drive around them no problem, but if you’re speeding and hit one you’re done. So just a heads up.
Anyways the trail was lovely. No snow even, only 3 blow downs and easy to move around. No bugs yet. A bit windy to start but that died off. This is a popular route for mountain bikers, which does present an issue as stepping off to the side is a bit hard in spots.
Views were lovely! St Helens had a hat most of the day, but Adams was steadily coming into better view as the day went on. Hood was out too but there was a ton of haze to the south.
Once you get to the Loowit Trail there is a bit of erosion that is a little sketchy where the two trails meet, and it may be worth being very careful in this area. But I did follow the Loowit Trail north to the first wash and only saw a single tiny patch of snow. Outright alarming for early May. I hoped to get to the Pumice Plains, but wind was kicking up a ton of dust. I decided to just call it there.
Views of the mountain from this side are dramatic to say the least. Animal sightings in the forest were mostly limited to Chipmunks and Douglas Squirrels. Actually had a Douglas Squirrel square up on me, right at eye level on a tree next to me— it always makes me laugh. I also heard a ton of grouse. Animal droppings were everywhere on the way up, and sure enough upon breaking treeline I saw a few mountain goats climbing up Pumice Butte. Always a good day for that.
As this is the first day the gate was open the bathrooms at the Lava Canyon trailhead were pristine.
Overall great hike. This was a good chance to field test my pack— I have a PCT section hike from Indian Heaven down to Oregon in two week, and the 12 mile round trip with 2400’ of gain/ loss was pretty much exactly what I’d expect on that section of the trail. First time I’ve ever carried rocks from home up and down a mountain before, but wanted to see how Bear can felt loaded up. As it was, a workout but totally manageable.
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