Boundary West — Monday, May. 21, 2001

South Cascades > Mount St. Helens

Trail is now snowfree for almost 5 miles. Made it as far as Coldwater peak, but the trail gets fairly hairy after the snow begins. As SIE in the last report on this trail noted, there is a serious erosion problem about 1.5 miles in. If it's not fixed soon it looks like it could become fairly dangerous. Views were fantastic. Besides the obvious, Hood, Adams, Rainer, and a few of the Goat Rocks also made an appearance. Be wary of the dust storms on the trail in the early sections, there seemed to be at least minimal vegitation near coldwater peak, but there is NOTHING growing near the first few miles of the trail. If you forget sunscreen or glasses turn around, this one offers no mercy. Also, extra water would be good idea. I usually drink about 1L for a hike this length, but I ended up drinking close to 2.5L! Despite all this, unless you want to walk all the way to windy ridge, this is a fabulous time to get out there and do it, I couldn't imagine trying it in the middle of summer.