Three weeks after an unexpected injury sidelined me from my initial attempt I successfully completed the loop around Mount Saint Helens.
The Loowit Trail is a 30-mile loop around Mount Saint Helens, an active volcano in southwestern Washington State which famously blew its top in 1980. The northern half of the trail crosses the “blast zone”, a slowly-recovering volcanic wasteland where off-trail travel and overnight camping are prohibited. No permit is required and the trail is indirectly accessible via several “feeder” trails, with most hikers starting from either the Climber’s Bivouac or June Lake trailheads on the south side of the mountain. The trail takes 3 days to complete at a relaxed pace but I met several people who were trailrunning the whole thing in a single day.
The appeal of the Loowit is the incredible variety of terrain mixed with the otherworldliness of walking through the aftermath of an active volcano. Rather than the “green tunnel” of many hikes below the treeline, most of the Loowit is wide-open and views are unimpeded: the mountain is always looming overhead. It’s sort of a best-of-both-worlds combination of that feeling of vastness you get in the Columbia River Gorge combined with the massive peaks of the Cascades. As you traverse the trail you’ll see plains full of elk, vast erosional canyons, boulder fields, pumice deserts, fingers of old lava flows, ashen slopes, glaciers, goats, gushing springs, massive waterfalls, and of course the blast zone and “the breach” leading to the crater itself.
With that kind of packed-in variety and no price for admission I doubt you’ll find anything else like it in the lower 48.
Day 1: Climber’s Bivouac to South Fork Toutle River
Having learned my lesson on longer-than-necessary approaches, this time around I started from the Climber’s Bivouac which lies directly south of the mountain and features a measly two miles of forested hiking along the Ptarmigan Trail before hitting the Loowit proper. Immediately to the west the trail exits the forest for boulder fields and old lava and mud flows. Routefinding across the boulder fields was a bit spotty in places as some of the wooden posts that mark the way were either missing or broken, however, with wide-open views in all directions there was little to no chance of actually becoming lost.
Along the next 7.5 miles to the South Fork Toutle River there wasn’t a drop of water, something which I had not anticipated. I ended up running out of water about a mile or so before reaching the river, a situation I wasn’t super thrilled about. In hindsight I think it might have been better to take a detour down to the Toutle Trail via the Sheep Canyon Trail, netting not just water but some waterfall views (assuming they weren’t all dry).
I arrived at the South Fork Toutle River just in time for the sunset. While filtering water I got to know the four other hikers camping in the area, one of whom was named Ed and would be my hiking buddy for the next two days.
Day 2: Blast Zone to Muddy River
The erosional canyon which is home to the South Fork Toutle River is absolutely massive: after using fixed ropes to get in and out of the bottom portion you spend the next hour or so just winding your way up the north side until you finally reach the plains. These quickly give way to the blast zone itself, a wasteland of rock and ash spanning the next several miles.
Surprisingly the blast zone actually had more water than anywhere else on the trail, with two good-sized creeks flowing out of the crater itself as well as a gushing-out-of-the-side-of-the-mountain spring just before the ascent up Windy Pass.
Descending south from Windy Pass yielded excellent views of the Plains of Abraham with Mount Adams keeping watch in the distance.
South of the Plains the trail crosses a series of large erosional canyons, not quite on par with the South Fork Toutle River but still nothing to sneeze at. Here’s Ed standing on the north rim of what I believe is the unnamed outflow of the Shoestring Glacier, which, unlike the Muddy River canyon just before it, actually had water.
Speaking of water, it’s interesting how much things can change after just a few weeks time. On my first attempt there was ample water flowing in the gully just south of Pumice Butte, this time around it was completely dry.
We spent the night on an “island” of greenery surrounded by smaller erosional canyons, somewhere just north of Pine Creek (which was dry). It was warm enough that we both decided to cowbow camp, something I haven’t done in ages.
Day 3: Home
A beautiful sunrise and a sea of clouds greeted us on the morning of the third day. After crossing a few more minor canyons we ended up traveling through small bits of forest separated by massive fingers of lava flow, bobbing in and out of the clouds all the while. The trail twisted its way through upturned earth and over ridges of boulders, and we were glad we had camped where we did since there didn’t appear to be a flat tent-sized piece of ground for the next few miles.
Having plenty of water, we decided to skip the short side trip to June Lake in favor of keeping pace towards the other crown jewel of the southeastern quadrant, Chocolate Falls. Sadly, nothing was left of the falls but a sad trickle down a rock face into a ditch.
Last and also least we have the only unpleasant part of the trail: a section which rises about 600 feet in only two-thirds of a mile, right around an 18% grade. Although well-shaded due to the heavy forestation it was still grueling, and seeing as how the Ptarmigan Trail back to the parking lot was just hundreds of feet past the top it was a relatively poor way to end the day. If I had to choose between clockwise or counter-clockwise travel in the future this would put me solidly on the side of counter-clockwise.
What I Learned
Well, first of all, I’ve learned that I shouldn’t wait a month before writing up a trip report so that I actually remember what I learned.
For this trip I think the only significant gap was around water planning, I should have done a bit more research on exactly where I could expect to find water along (and slightly off) the route: I was definitely not expecting to have no access to water before the first night’s camp.
I’ve been doing a lot of solo hiking this summer and it was really, really nice to have someone to hike with and talk to along the way. On the other hand you also give up the freedom to dawdle, get set up for pictures etc. – the pace was definitely a lot faster than it would have been on my own. Tradeoffs, tradeoffs.
Gear
LighterPack:
https://lighterpack.com/r/d4dfde
I brought exactly the same load-out (food excluded, obviously) as my previous Loowit attempt so I’m just re-linking that list.
What Worked
The Columbia PFG Zero Rules long-sleeved hiking shirt in white continues to impress: three days spent almost entirely in the late-August sun and not a hint of temperature-related discomfort nor any redness or burning of the skin beneath. This is the perfect hiking shirt.
The Lunar Solo tent was surprisingly easy to use as a ground cover for cowboy camping, I just staked it out as usual (using the wonderful Easton Nano Nails) but instead of inserting the trekking pole I just unrolled by sleeping pad on top of the flattened tent.
What Didn’t
My 20F Enigma was too warm until temperatures dropped into the 40s at night. Not surprising in the least, especially since I wear my clothes to bed, but it’s good to know that the effective comfort range is between 30F and 50F. I have a hunch that if I were to slim down to a regular width and length and actually bother with pad straps that I’d be able to get by with a 30F bag in similar conditions.
Shockingly, on the second night I wasn’t too thrilled with my Exped Deepsleep pillow, known up until now as the greatest pillow of all time. Aside from weight and volume, the drawback of foam is that it’s not adjustable in firmness, unlike inflatable pillows. Maybe it was the cowbow camping aspect but for whatever reason I definitely felt like my neck was too low and yet there was nothing I could really do about it. Well, I suppose I could have stuck the toes of my boots under the head end of my sleeping pad, but that didn’t occur to me at the time. I’ve hung onto an Exped AirPillow UL for most of the year, perhaps it’s time to give it another whirl.
What’s Next
Overly-conservative (and comfortable) sleep system aside, I’ve been looking for other places to cut weight. I recently stumbled across the Trail Designs Keg-GVP Stove System, assuming I could package it up the way I do currently (i.e. minimally) I could drop my kitchen weight by a little over two ounces, maybe three if I also ditched the carbon felt insulator (or replaced it with a thinner version, or just some aluminum foil).
Route
Gaia folder:
https://www.gaiagps.com/public/iN2pYQBHbp32HYYt2IDKMNkt
Stats:
- Distance: 30.4 miles
- Elevation gain: 9,000 feet
Water
One of the more interesting challenges of this trail is the constantly-changing availability of water, especially near the end of summer. There is no water along the trail for the entire southwestern quadrant from the Ptarmigan Trail to South Fork Toutle River. There are a pair of good-sized creeks flowing north out of the breach and a massive spring just a mile northwest of Windy Pass. At the southern base of Windy Pass is a trickle of water but after that you’re out of luck until you reach the canyon south of the Muddy River (although a couple weeks prior this was not the case), which has decent outflow from the Shoestring Glacier. Chocolate Falls was dry but there were some small streams before that, and of course you can always drop down to June Lake to fill up.
Photography
SmugMug gallery:
https://turigrinos.smugmug.com/Adventures/2020/Loowit-Trail-2/
I had some family visiting the cabin post-trip and decided that it’d be nice to throw the photo album up on the TV via the SmugMug app. What I saw was disappointing: the photos looked over-sharpened on the not-so-great display, speckled with white pixels here and there. The Digital Photography Book had led me to believe that more sharpening was always better, contradicting other advice I’d read saying that overly-sharpened images were to be avoided. I’d never really seen a drawback to bumping the sharpening slider in Luminar up to, say, 50, but after playing around with photos on the TV I’ve now decided that sharpening should never go higher than 25.
This is my favorite photo from the trip. The solid-cloud background gives it a surreal look, and the large tree on the right is nicely counter-weighted by the smaller tree on the left and its faded friends. Although by no means colorful, the green of the trees stands out dramatically against the gray. I cropped it such that the horizon line cuts halfway across the photo, cleanly separating the jumbled earth from the perfectly smooth sky. I’ll most likely end up making this into a print.
Although the sunrise looking east was nice, turning west revealed a strawberry-redness splashed across the top of the mountain. It’s hard to get the colors to pop the way they do in person with over-saturating but I think the glumness of the bottom adds to the emphasis.
Saint Helens is a strange place. Here we see a bed of lava butting up against the almost scarred-looking southern face of Pumice Butte, with Mount Adams peeking out from behind. It’s hard to recapture the in-person feeling but it was if someone had taken a giant knife and made criss-cross cuts into the earth.
I love the geometry of this picture. The trail leads straight into the hill which nicely breaks up the blue horizon line, setting Mount Adams apart from the rest of the photo. The heaviness of the left slide and the angled slope of the pass accentuate the vastness of the expanse on the right side of the photo. Although the trail was easy to spot in person I used the dodge tool to lighten it up just a bit for the photo.
This is a photo of the trail just before it arrives at the spring, which is the reason that next gully is choked with green. However, I just like it because of the way it captures the winding, up-and-down nature of the trail.
Love it. The first time around my “trail into the breach” photo just didn’t take because of clouds, time of day/lighting, and a distinct lack of detail in the shadows along the rim. This picture improves on the original in every way. However, in hindsight I wish I had gotten closer to the ground such that the trail was a bit more compressed, lending itself to a more panoramic crop.
This is the sunset picture from before but with the Orton effect applied to give it a softer, more dreamy look. I think it works quite well. It wasn’t until I wandered down to the water that I realized that the last of the sun’s golden rays were hitting the river just perfectly and I scrambled to get my tripod and camera configured for a proper long-exposure shot. In the next minute or two I managed to get some halfway-decent photos (such as this one) but by the time I had everything perfect the sun was below the horizon and the gold was gone. Sad!
Food
The takeaway for this trip is that Peak Refuel’s meals taste amazing, are filling, have tons of protein, and don’t require more than two cups of boiling water (usually more like a cup and a half) to cook. They’re now solidly at the top of my list for freeze-dried backpacking food.
Peak Refuel Beef Chili Mac
Intended to be the highlight of the trip, Peak Refuel’s Beef Chili Mac was saddled with a strong “burnt” flavor which built up over time. At first I thought it was too much fake smoke flavor additive, but after noticing it in another of their meals (one where smoke flavor made no sense) I thought it might be due to some product that’s added in order to reach their high protein targets. It didn’t ruin the meal by any means but it would have been much better without it.
Peak Refuel Chicken Teriyaki Rice
A last-minute swap to reduce overall calorie count. Delicious, and at 580 calories per pouch it’s a perfect breakfast or a large portion of dinner. I think a sriracha packet could have really upped the ante here.
Peak Refuel Homestyle Chicken & Rice
This was at the bottom of my list as far as meal expectations. It had a tinge of the burnt flavor from the chili mac but was otherwise stellar, will definitely be bringing again.
Trailtopia Triple Berry Crisp Dessert
I’m a dessert guy and, when I’m out and about, a small breakfast guy. For this trip I had the not-so-brilliant idea that desserts, which often have fewer calories than regular meals, would make great breakfasts. This is true to some extent, specifically about two-thirds of the way through the pouch. After that the sweetness becomes a bit too much to handle. Verdict: Trailtopia’s Triple Berry Crisp is an excellent dessert but not a very good breakfast.