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June Lake, Mt. St. Helens
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Tempting fate is becoming a pastime for me as I scramble off to June Lake, yet again. In fascination with the active monster that is Mt. St. Helens, I also respect it and enjoy seeing it's path of destruction. This week, I wanted to see how far up I could go before the weather told me I had no more attempts remaining. I left Thursday, a day earlier than the time before, and set up camp late that evening.
I had a good dinner knowing the effort that I must put forth the next day. Although my gear was heavy, it was bomber. I was not far from the trailhead anyway, a mere one and a quarter miles. It was an easy enough hike in with this much weight.
The morning sported a cloudy, misty day but I did not care. After waking, I ate a little left over dinner from the night before and was off at the shockingly late hour of 9:30AM. I kicked up the June Lake trail to the Loowit Trail #216 and took a left, heading west.
At least the clouds were high enough that I could see the base of the agitated mound of ancient lava. With a fresh coat of snow and a high cloud cover, you would never know that 1300 vertical feet were missing from it's original summit.
The trail was easy as I snapped away with the camera, trying to get a shot while the clouds were clearing.
I ambled across Chocolate Falls along the Loowit and had a look. At one time it looks as though lava flowed down this little wash and created this massive drop once it had come to a stop. The bottom of the creek bed was the most interesting feature as it looked like something that resembled flowing pudding.
Without water flowing down it's length, the bed of Swift Creek looked like it was still in motion. It made me ponder the true history of this highly active volcano.
Past Chocolate Falls, further along the Loowit trail, I could spot Monitor Rock along the summer climbing route. I could judge by the rock, that the snow level was at about 5000 feet, just above tree line..
I started climbing towards the junction with trail 216A heading up from Climber's Bivouac. To heed the call of nature, I used the privy at the junction, convenient indeed.
After the junction, the trail climbs significantly to the summit over various worm flows. Sweat poured off of me as I worked my way to the 4800 foot level. The humidity was close to 100% as nothing I could do would dry my thin synthetics.
On the scree fields, now heading towards Monitor Rock along the summer climbing route, I could still not see the summit, or very far at all, for that matter.
Once past the rock, I was in thick could cover. A climber coming down said visibility was zero on the mountain's summit and was not worth the effort.
I Stopped again at 6500 feet. The snow, getting precariously deep along with the worsening weather, proved too much for this newbie to continue on. I turned around reluctantly and tromped back to the junction with Loowit.
Was it a bear, deer, or elk? I had no idea what was causing the immense ruckus along the trail just around the bend from where I stood. As I slowly creped around the corner, poles in hand, I heard some loud stomping and then more crashing in the woods below the trail. Something was obviously running away as I found this quite amusing. Continuing past the woods and out into the fields before the June Lake junction, I gazed upon some of the larges elk prints I have ever seen. I wear a modest ten and a half as these prints were wider and nearly as long as my boot.
One last look back before a brisk pace over the lava flows got me back to camp. With swollen feet and a weary body, camp looked especially good when I arrived. I cooked up a good meal while reading a bit of Monkey Wrench by Edward Abbey and then dozed. The summit still eludes me but is a darn good excuse to keep coming back to try.
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