Surrounded By Volcanoes - Mt. St. Helens Natl. Volcanic Monument, 7.7.19 - 7.9.19: Part 1 of 4
Incredibly, it had been four years since my last backpack trip and I was beyond excited when the day finally arrived to once again don my pack and do what is truly one of my favorite things in the world. I had long wanted to get up close and personal with Mt. St. Helens, especially the northwest section. I’d seen photos from north of Spirit Lake looking into the mighty jaws of the crater. Mt. St. Helens blew the entire top off the mountain in a violent eruption back in May 1980. It had been 39 years since that event and I was very interested to see both the devastation that occurred and how much rebirth had taken place since that day.
The area I had originally wanted to go was to a camp on the south side of Whittier Ridge where the camp actually looks down across Spirit Lake to St. Helens. Greg Dilley and Cindy Ferraro planned to go with me. I waited too long to try and reserve the camp and it was taken on the dates we wanted but Greg managed to secure two different camps for the two nights we planned to be out. Since these camps are on the north side of Whittier Ridge, the only views of St. Helens would be early in the hike before dropping behind the ridge. However, this north side also had its unique characteristics and a beauty all its own.
This map shows our route. Starting at the Norway Pass trailhead, we hiked over Norway Pass and explored the length of the north side of Whittier Ridge which followed Trail #211 past a string of lakes to the junction with Trail #214.
Drizzly start of our adventure
We were a bit concerned about the weather forecast which hovered between cloudy and rainy so we kept our fingers crossed for the former. Backpacking in the rain is a challenge. At the trailhead, we started out in a very light drizzle but the temps were comfortable and it wasn’t long before the drizzle fizzled. Our first day was a planned five miles up over two passes and down to our first camp. I cannot describe adequately and photos just don’t convey the plethora of color that surrounded us in the form of every conceivable wildflower imaginable. Brilliant orange Indian Paintbrush. white Glacier Lilies, Red Columbine, purple Lupine - Cindy and Greg were much better at naming all the flowers along the way but we hit it at a great time if you like lots of color!
Indian Paintbrush
A bit over two miles we came to Norway Pass and our first opportunity for the famous view of Spirit Lake with St. Helens behind it. Sadly, the clouds were much too low and although we could see Spirit Lake our views of the St. Helens crater were obscured by clouds. That was extremely disappointing but we knew there would still be a lot of other things to see.
Spirit Lake from Norway Pass
Our first obstacle came in the form of a somewhat sketchy rock cliff that had an eroded section of trail across it. We handled the dicey section like the pros that we are and worked our way higher until we came to the high point of the day which was Bear Pass.
Sketchy section
Yours truly at Bear Pass
Spirit Lake from Bear Pass
Spirit lake was cool with a large amount of dead trees filling up the north end of the lake. When St. Helens blew, 300 mph winds created by the eruption and the incredible massive landslide instantly leveled a large part of the surrounding pristine forest and we observed the destruction all along our route. We tried to put on our most positive faces but we were clearly disappointed at the lack of big views.
Red Columbine
From Bear Pass we dropped over to the north side of Whittier Ridge and came to the first lake on our route called Grizzly Lake. By the way, with names like Bear Pass and Grizzly Lake you would think there were bears in the neighborhood and you would be right. We saw bear tracks and several sets of bear scat, some of it very fresh but we never saw any bear on this trip.
Grizzly Lake
The clouds were rolling in and out all day long so you might have a view and seconds later it would go away. The fact that it wasn’t actually raining made the fog much more tolerable and actually the resulting lower temperatures were ideal for lugging a full backpack up and down through the mountains. Several hours and five miles from the trailhead we came to our first campsite of the trip known as Obscurity Lake Camp. We figured the lake was called Obscurity Lake due to the fact that the camp isn’t even on the lake and for that matter you could hike right past the lake and barely know it was there. While this camp wasn’t a primo spot in terms of views, we again made the most of it. After setting up camp we climbed a knoll next to the site and from the top of the knoll we could look straight down into Not Obscure Any More Lake. Well, I guess it went from Not Obscure Any More Lake to Obscurity Lake and back about twenty times but never truly cleared off.
Obscurity Lake from our knoll
All in all we felt great to have smoothly reached our camp, avoided getting rained on and just to be back out on a backpack trip again. The forecast had also showed that our next day would most likely be the best weather of the trip (partly sunny) so we were excited for the adventures that awaited us.
Cindy and Greg
For the next phase of our trip, look for Part 2.