On our way up at about 5:30 AM just before cougar one of the dudes in our hiking party got really sick. At this point we offered to turn around but he said he would be OK and we continued to climbers bivouac parking lot.
We arrived a little after 6am and there were 10+ cars here already. Once we finally got situated and ready to go we headed up to Monitor Ridge. I arrived at the Loowir trail/Monitor Ridge junction about 2 miles in 15 minuets before the rest of the hiking party. Once everyone was there, the sick dude still didn’t look too good so we decided to head to June Lake about 3 miles to the east instead of heading for the summit. I was a little bummed, but what’s an adventure without last minute changes.
The first 1.5 miles-ish the trail is well maintained with a few downed tress and one big hornets net in the ground. We flagged it with orange tape on both sides of the trail.
Next we came to the Worm Flow/Loowit Trail junction. Continue .2 mile and cross and small creek with a small water fall. At this point it’s a boulder scramble for about a little over a mile. The whole time on the boulders the trail is marked with white and orange pipes. Once off the boulders the trail is a little over grown but is still clearly marked. The last .5 mile is down hill to the lake.
June Lake is not that big this time of year, but you can see how big is gets from where the water line usually is in the fall/winter months. The lake is shallow and the bugs weren’t to bad here at all. We hung out for about 30 minutes for a quick bite to eat before heading back.
This in and out hike was about 10+ mile and super fun. I’ll be back again to summit St. Helens this year.
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