St Helens - Loowit Trail

Trail running friends had been raving about this one for years and I finally got around to doing it. I didn't take a camera so I've recycled photos from elsewhere on the web. The Loowit Trail circumnavigates Mount St Helens which is in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. This map is from their website. Click on it to enlarge.
I'm not going to give all the details because there are other excellent sources. I highly recommend Mount St Helens - A Guide to Exploring the Great Outdoors.
Traditionally trail runners from the Seattle area use the Windy Ridge trail head as their access point to the Loowit since this involves less driving from the North. For the last two years this approach has been inaccessible due to washouts. So I looked at all the other possible access points to find the most optimal start / finish point. Mark and Scott cautioned against running the lava sections late in the day on tired legs. I ended up choosing June Lake trail head and a clockwise circuit for a number of reasons:

• minimal extra credit (only 1.7m in and 1.7m out from the trail head to the Loowit trail)
• cover the two significant lava flows within the first 10m of the day
• first refill at Toutle River at about 13m, 2nd and final stop at Loowit Falls river at 19m
• the East side is easy running to the finish with the exception of the Muddy River ditch crossing

Here is my GPS profile of the Loowit Trail including the access via June Lake trail. Click to enlarge.
Red lines left to right: Toutle River water stop, Blast Zone water stop, Windy Pass. The track log and named waypoints for the route can be downloaded in this GPX.

Many of these pictures come from Darin Swanson's blog. A big difference between his account and mine is the time of the year. They ran it in June. I ran it in October. Usually in Summer runners whine about heat and lack of water. They had a different experience: cold and rain. Based on my experience I'd say that a cold clear day in fall is a great time to run this loop. The views of all the other volcanoes were perfect. The ground was frozen and crunchy for about two thirds of the loop which meant no dust. Sometimes the snow was thicker than I'd like but most of the time it was no problem.

Blow by Blow
Even though there is a motel and an eatery at Cougar on the South side of the mountain, I chose to stop over the night before in Woodland at Exit 21 on I-5. Woodland has about a dozen motels, all the usual fast food joints and a Starbucks that opens at 4:30am. By 5:15am I was on the road which had me at the June Lake trail head just after 6.

I left the car at about 6:30am just as it started getting light. I took it easy up the 1.7m schlep to the Loowit. It isn't very steep but I hadn't really loosened up yet either. Between the start and the Climbers Bivouac trail you cross your first lava flow. The 'trail' is followed by looking for the next post or flagging. Be aware that the Loowit intersects with the Winter climbing route (Trail 244) and that you should avoid being suckered into turning right up the mountain.

After crossing the Climbers Bivouac trail you enter the longest lava section. It goes on for about 2 miles. This is followed by the intersection with the Butte Camp trail. At this point you are winding around the mountain on very runnable trails. This is also the highest elevation you'll reach all day since this section is about 50 ft higher than Windy Pass.

There are some large erosion gullies (ditches) to cross between here and the Toutle River. Most of them are mere annoyances but there is one which demands respect. You'll know when you've arrived at it because initially there is no obvious way across. One of the advantages of the cold weather was that the shady side of the ditch was frozen solid for me. What is usually loose rocks and sand was almost like alpine downclimbing, in running shoes. One of the disadvantages of the cold weather is that it made everything very icy and slick, especially downclimbing into the gullies. When I do this loop again, I'll take some old climbing rope and leave it in-situ as hand lines to get in and out of the more serious ditches.

At about 10:15am I reached mile 12 of my day and the Toutle River crossing. I had to go further downstream to find a good entrance to the drainage and then walked upstream to a large boulder in the icy stream. It was late season so the flow was quite low and I could jump to the boulder and then from it to the far bank without much effort. I refilled my bottles here and scrambled out the other side. Getting out the other side always seems easier and it is for two reasons:

• you had a good opportunity to scope it out from the opposite bank, something you cannot do for the descent into the ditch
• climbing up is easier than climbing down and this applies to crappy scree too (think about the position of your eyes relative to the action to figure out why)
  

I heard rumors that the water was "chewy". The way to avoid getting sediment in your water, assuming you're are not filtering, is to scoop it from the slowest flowing part of the creek you can find. Smaller fingers on the sides tend to move much slower than the main stream which means they carry hardly any large silt particles. All my scooped water was crystal clear.

The climb out of the Toutle River is probably the biggest hill of the day and it is a great trail at a perfect angle. After that, another 6m or so of cruising on gets you to the blast zone. The trail becomes indistinct at points and you need to rely on common sense and lame cairns. I only lost the trail once during the day and that was while actually crossing the blast zone. It is obvious that it gets cleaned out seasonally during the melt and the easiest thing to follow, if you look at the map, is your altimeter: just keep to about 3750 ft and go in the direction that seems obvious. At the far side of this dead zone you'll cross the river that comes down from the falls on your right. This looks like it will always be a reliable water source to me and I used it to top up for the last 11m.

Soon after the stream crossing you gain elevation and traverse around with fine views of Mount Adams and Mount Rainier. This traverse culminates in the crossing of Windy Pass. Although I could see a switchback on the hillside on the left of the gully that goes up the pass, I chose to stay in the gully: it was more direct and frozen solid. It looks like it could be loose scree and sand during Summer but when frozen, it was trivial to scramble up.

Topping out at Windy Pass is fantastic. Instant awesome view of Mount Adams. Spectacular vista of the Plains of Abraham below. From here on out you get to cruise. The trail is much easier to follow than some of the scrappy parts on the West side because it sees more traffic. All the intesections on the entire loop are well marked with "Loowit Trail" signs. Late in the season the river crossings like the Pumice Butte one are dry or almost dry. I imagine that in early season they must be cold and terrifying. The blowout ditch at the Muddy River puts a dent in your pace at this point but it is perfectly doable and nothing like the one on the West side.

After that, clean sailing. The Worm Flows are different to the earlier lava flows and the trail through is almost runnable except for a few sections where you need to pay attention. Then, downhill cruising through the woods. You'll notice a small lush canyon on your right with a river in it. This is your wakeup call to start paying attention so you don't miss the left turn to June Lake and the cruise back down to the trailhead.

Stats and Gear
Distance: 29.6m (June Lake trail head version of Loowit Trail loop)
Elevation Gain: 8000 ft
Car-to-Car Time: 8:46
Loowit Loop Time: 7:59

I carried a small running pack with two 750ml hand bottles and another 1000ml spare in the pack. I never needed the spare and next time I'll just use the two hand bottles. It was a cool day though. Warmer weather would be a different story.
My gloves saw more action than I would have thought. I had them on for two thirds of the loop. Initially it was cold and then later, the water in my bottles was glacial melt. I carried a jacket but never needed it. I wore tights and a long sleeve white top. Shades and a peak cap were nice.
For nutrition, 5 of the six water bottles that I consumed were two scoop Perpetuem mixes. The sixth was just water. I also chomped down about half a dozen mini PayDay bars just to keep something other than liquid in my stomach. Took about one E-Cap per bottle.

Other Peoples' Random Photos
As usual, click to enlarge.

Falls at June Lake.

Crossing the lava is easy but slow. Remember, none of these pictures were taken by me: I had clear skies and patchy snow on the ground.

Trail markings on the Loowit look this.

This picture of the Toutle River gorge gives you a sense of scale. The trail approaches from the right, goes down into the river valley, and then exits out the left. But that all happens downstream of this photo.

In the belly of the beast on a rainy day. This is your first waterstop at the Toutle River crossing. Click to enlarge and see Bushwhacker Burke from his June 2007 circuit for scale.


The thousand foot climb out the North side of the Toutle River gorge.

In the middle of the desolate blast zone on the North side of Mount St Helens. If you look closely you can see the Lower Loowit Falls. These feed the second reliable water source for the loop.

On the East side of St Helens. A lot of this trail is easily runnable. Obviously there was more snow on the hill in October already.

More East side trail. Except for the odd ditch crossing, you can really cruise on this side. I smelled the barn coming down from Windy Pass and sailed all the way home from there.

This is what the North side of the Muddy River crossing used to look like. Today, all this is gone and what's left is a nasty steep scree slope.

Next Trip?
Anyone for a mountain bike trip up the Ape Canyon trail to the Plains of Abraham? This looks like it should be a Summer trip to make the most of the wildflower season.