GoalTechHikes Norway Pass/Mt Margaret/Mt Whittier/Lakes Loop (Mt St Helens/Spirit Lake) 070718

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mjirving
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GoalTechHikes Norway Pass/Mt Margaret/Mt Whittier/Lakes Loop (Mt St Helens/Spirit Lake) 070718

Post by mjirving » July 8th, 2018, 2:12 pm

2018.18 - Norway Pass/Mt Margaret/Mt Whittier/Lakes Loop
“On the knife’s edge” 


7/7/18
Rating: 5 Stars


Miles: 16.2
Time: 8 hrs, 5 min
Avg MPH: 2.0
Elev Min: 3,600’
Elev Max: 5,900’
Total Ascent: 3,565’
Steps: 35,000’
Flights of Stairs: 404
Time Up: 1:00am
Sleep Hours: 3.5
Start Time: 4:45am
Temp Low: 45
Temp High: 75
Other hikers: 41
Male:Female hikers: 56%/44%
Longest time without seeing a hiker: 5:30
Wildlife: Olive Sided Flycatcher, Chipmunk, Butterflies
Approach Road: Paved
Parking Permit Required: NW Forest Pass
Parking Lot: ~30 cars/paved
Bathrooms: Pit (2)
Cell Service Verizon: None down low, 1x up high, A blip of LTE on Mt Whittier Summit


Norway Pass * Spirit Lake views * Mt Teragram * Mt Margaret Summit * Mt Whittier Summit * Coldwater Creek view * Coldwater Lake view * Boot Lake * Holmstedt Lake * Snow Lake * Shovel Lake * Panhandle Lake * Twin Lakes * Grizzly Lake * Mt Rainier views * Mt Adams views * Mt Hood views * Mt St Helens views * Bear Pass


Opening Shot: Mt St Helens and Spirit Lake from Bear Pass
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It was an early morning, even for me, as I woke up at 1:00am and was on the road at 1:15. I actually got to the Norway Pass trailhead early as I beat the map's estimate by a fair bit. It’s paved roads all the way there except for a tiny 100 yard section of gravel where they are working on the road toward the end. Since I was early, I took a short nap. When my alarm went off at 4:30, it jarred me out of my sleep! I had drifted off hard.


I was on the trail at 4:45, right at civil twilight. It was shaping up to be a perfect morning with mostly clear skies. The slope of the trail was good, so I could really pound up the trail fast. I hadn’t decided if I’d just go to Mt Margaret and back, or do the Lakes Loop which would be about 14 miles or so. That seemed longer than I wanted, due to the 3 hour drive each way, but I was going to make that a game-time decision. There is about a 3 mile approach trail to get to Norway Pass and the loop. I had heard of some sketchy crossings in this area and I came to my first one on the way up to Norway Pass. It was cut from a rock face. It wasn’t really challenging at all and I was questioning the comments I had read. Little did I know what was to come!
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Along the way, I passed the junction to Independence Pass. I’m glad I didn’t choose that trailhead as the trail is closed due to washout. I quickly reached Norway pass. I was really motoring up the trail at about a 3 mph pace, so I quickly decided to do the whole loop. At Norway Pass I was greeted with a dawn view of Spirit Lake with logs floating in it that have been there since the eruption. It was really a stunning way to start my day! I saw the foothills in the clouds behind it. I had no idea at that time that those foothills were Mt St Helens! My sense of direction can get twisted and I had thought that the mountain was rotated around to the right of this viewpoint.
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I had some great flower views today with just a few Mariposa Lily.
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Time to head up the trail to Mt Margaret.
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I saw just a few Tiger Lily; this one lined up perfectly with Spirit Lake in the back.
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The paintbrush were EVERYWHERE on the whole hike it seemed. This surprised me, as I had seen hardly any up near Goat Rocks the week before, which is only a hop-skip-and-jump north of here.
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Phlox was around sporadically.
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I started running into sporadic snow at 5,300’ and I was kicking myself for not bringing my microspikes. Somehow, in my mind, I thought this would all be melted out. I really hoped that decision wasn’t going to limit my hike today! I could also start to see the base of Mt St Helens in the clouds.
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I had a unique experience of seeing the Western Pasque Flower in all of its stages of bloom today on a single hike. This surprised me, as I’d think they’d all be in roughly the same stage. I don’t know how quickly they evolve through their stages…maybe pretty quickly? This is one of my favorite flowers…in all of its stages of bloom.


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When I planned this hike, I thought I’d do either Mt Margaret, or the loop, as Mt Margaret is a spur trail off the loop route making the loop even longer if doing both.  In true GoalTech fashion, I of course decided to do both. I looked at my map and it appeared to only be about a 1/2-mile off the trail. Of course I was wrong, it was really a full mile off trail. Oh well, it’s such a long drive to get here for a day hike that I’m glad I got both of them in today! I passed 5,860’ Mt Teragram on the way to Mt Margaret. It looked pretty cool in the wispy clouds.
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I wrapped around and made the easy summit of 5,856’ Mt Margaret. It was a bummer that there were clouds all around, but I could see the close-by views. I sat there on the summit, eating my snack, thinking about the two very important Margarets in my life. Margaret Sims was my aunt who passed away from breast cancer and Margaret Legard is my best friend’s mom who passed away suddenly from heart issues a few years ago. They were two wonderful women! Since there was no real view from the summit, here is a picture of the summit as I started my descent.
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I saw (Buttercup?) on the way down. (Please help me with flower ID if I have any wrong…thanks!)
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There were TONS of Avalanche Lily (maybe literally) on this hike.
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As I got back towards the main trail I took a cutoff to the Whittier Ridge Trail too avoid a few extra steps as this was a triangle intersection of trails. I’m glad I did, as the main trail over the ridge appeared to have some pretty steep snow to navigate down. I was again kicking myself for not bringing my micros and my ice axe. Here is the view where the trails reconnected. You can see Boot Lake down there. This was just an amazing view. I know I say that a lot…but the pictures don’t do it justice. (Boot Lake almost looks like snow in this picture...it's just left and up from center.)
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Here is a short video to get a better idea of the view. I say “Holmstedt Lake” in the video, but I was wrong, it’s really Boot Lake.
2018-07-07 Boot Lake 360 from Michael Irving on Vimeo.


The Whittier Ridge Trail was AMAZING! It’s blasted out of the cliff side and the top of the ridge. The trail is about 2 full miles of being right on the knife edge of the ridge crest. It was unreal and was so cool. The way I’d describe it is that it has the perception of being sketchy, but it’s not really sketchy. Having said that, I would not want to be up there in high wind, or when the rocks are wet, and certainly no way if there were residual snow or ice of which there was none of any of this up on the crest.


There was a bit of Heather up here.
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I followed the ridge straight up to Mt Whittier on the crest on the left side of this picture. The summit is in the clouds there. After the summit, I continued to follow the ridge from left-to-right across the top of this picture. It was so much work! I was huffing and puffing…although I was also pushing the pace as I knew I had miles to get done. This would be great to do from a base camp of camping with a light pack rather than having a full pack. It could be done, it just would be a lot of work. There is never any scrambling, but it’s about as close to scrambling as you can get without actually doing it.
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In a saddle I got a great view down the valley of Coldwater Creek which empties into Coldwater Lake by the Johnson Ridge Observatory.
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I some of the tighter spots I saw signs of Mountain Goats with their wool getting torn off into the bushes.
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This is the first time I’ve seen Cliff Beardtongue as it grew directly out of the cliff face.
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I’m on my way up the crest to Mt Whittier there in the clouds.
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From the crest, I had stunning views down into the valley. Can you see the long waterfall in the middle, spilling off the plateau?
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There it is…
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This pinnacle was cool to look at.
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At the summit of 5,883’ Mt Whittier, I could see the still thawing out, Holmstedt Lake, to the north.
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Here is Shovel Lake from the summit, watch for it in the video below as I don’t mention it.
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Here is a short 360-degree video from the summit of Mt Whittier.
2018-07-07 Whittier Summit 360 from Michael Irving on Vimeo.


Before I left the summit to continue along the ridgeline I had my "summit snack", a Snickers bar. I pulled if from my pack and saw this...that doesn't inspire confidence when sitting on a summit with a knife-edge ridge-line!
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I saw a few Western Wallflower.
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This gives you an idea of the “trail” cut into the cliff-side.
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Another view of Shovel Lake as I circle around it.
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This was my best views of Mt Teragram to the left, and Mt Margaret to the right.
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This is a zoomed-in view of Coldwater Lake. You can also see Heart Lake perched up high in the foreground.
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This is the only Fleabane I saw.
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I had downloaded a GPS track of this loop before I came. I had noticed that they had gone on a little spur trail to the side. I wondered if it offered a unique view they were seeking. I came to a snow chute. I crossed about 5 snow chutes that required kicking steps to get good purchase on the snow during this hike. (would’ve been nice to have microspikes and an ice axe!…Actually, they were about 99% not needed) This next snow chute was one of the longer crossings where I had to kick about 50 steps. I made it across no problem, but then reached a washout that had a climber’s rope connecting the two sides fo the trail to get across.  I looked at my map…dang it…I did the same thing that the person did who I used the GPS track from! I missed the trail junction and went too far! They did the same thing I did…missed the turn, checked their maps and went back.  Here is the washout with the rope line.  I actually considered crossing it as it’s a short loop around the peak and back to the main trail, but then I quickly reminded myself that I had already added a bunch of miles today and figured I better move along.
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Of course I had to re-cross that snow chute, which was super easy with the nice kick-in steps…thanks self! :-) I still missed the darn trail. After going back to the snow chute again it appeared that the trail junction was under the snow. I went straight down, along the edge of the snow, and picked up the trail again after it had switchbacked under the snow, and was on my way down to the saddle. Snow Lake was off to the left.
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I only saw this flower once, and I couldn’t identify it. It may actually be more of a bush, so maybe it’s not technically a wildflower? It looks kind of like a rhododendron, but the blooms seemed too small. See the bee?
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After getting down to the saddle I had a good view back to the ridge that I had just hiked over the last two miles from left to right.
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Can you see my kicked-in steps in the snow just barely to the upper-left of center? (Trust me, this looks sketchier than it was…it was nice that there had been kicked steps before me too to re-step into.)
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Here is some Serviceberry I’m pretty sure, only ones I saw.
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Columbine was on the end of its run.
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Beargrass was everywhere.
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Here is a typical snow chute that I had to cross, you can see my steps.  I’m glad I wasn’t up here even a week earlier.
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Now I was starting my trip back along the Lakes Trail with a tour of the local lakes. this is Shovel Lake that you saw from above, this was the most stunning. If you look close, you can see a tent in the upper-right corner of the lake. Whittier Ridge is in the background that I crossed.
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Next was Panhandle Lake. These were the first people I saw on the hike so far. They had camped at this lake the night before. 
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It really started to get brushy from here down to Grizzly Lake. I’d highly recommend a long-sleeve shirt, pants, and a machete for this section. Well…a machete is not required, but it was very brushy. In fact, this might have actually been the most dangerous part of the hike as many places had steep drop-offs on the side of the trail, but they were so covered with brush, that you almost didn’t realize they there there. I saw quite a bit of Serrulate Penstemon.
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Lupine was around along with this pink thing that I don’t know if it’s actually considered a wildflower…anyone know its name?
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This was the first time I had seen Sitka Valerian, it was everywhere too.
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It was also the first time I saw this limited (Saxifrage?)
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Passing by Panhandle Lake it struck me how much blowdown was still around from the original blast…amazing.
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Look at the blowdown around Twin Lakes too. (Can you see the second twin lake tucked back in there?)
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My first Shooting Star was there as I crossed the creeks feeding the lakes.
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Oregon Sunshine was there too. (or is it Washington Sunshine up here? ;-)
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There was a fair bit of California Corn Lily in the brush too.
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Butterflies are always so skittish. I took this as close as I could get and then cropped it to the extreme to at least try to identify it. Not quite enough detail to determine its variety.
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I started the ascent to Bear Pass. I was starting to feel the miles of the day with my aggressive pace. I passed Grizzly Lake on the way. Also, notice Mt Rainier in the upper-right of this picture.
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As I reached the pass, I had a pretty good view of Mt Rainier to the north (zoomed in). It was nice that it finally came out of the clouds…mostly. I could also see Mt Adams mostly and even Mt Hood to the south for the first time.
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Also at the pass, I was greeting with the grand finale unveiling! Wow…does that look amazing to see Mt St Helens perfectly aligned with Spirit Lake.
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Here is the zoomed-in view of Mt Hood,
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and Mt Adams.
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Here is a 360 video from the top of Bear Pass, showing all the mountains.
2018-07-07 Bear Pass 360 from Michael Irving on Vimeo.


I was basically back at Norway Pass and with the loop being complete, so I headed back down the trail I came up this morning. I saw some Western Bleeding Heart on the way.
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Meta Lake was also there which I couldn’t see much of in the new light of the day this morning.
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My hike was complete at exactly 1pm. What an amazing day. I can’t recommend this hike enough, but it will challenge you.


I took a brief nap in the car before heading down the road. I got this picture of Mt St Helens after I was a few miles down the road. I got lunch at Burgerville in Woodland with the triple-berry shake. It’s no Subway, but it was mighty good!
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To close out, here is a final picture from the summit of Mt Whittier using my GoPro for a more wide angle look.
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And lastly, a 360-degree video with my GoPro from the summit with a slightly different wide angle look too.
2018-07-07 GoPro Whittier 360 from Michael Irving on Vimeo.


Summary:
Wow! What a hike! It’s a trek to get there, but the payoff is huge. Just going to Norway Pass to get the views of St Helens, Spirit Lake and Mt Adams is worth it. Just a tiny bit more to Bear Pass gets views to the north of Rainier and Mt Hood to the south. Mt Margaret is a great out and back, and for the ultimate adventure, do the knife edge of the Whittier Ridge to Whittier Summit. 


Favorite experience of the day:
Whittier Ridge and the view of Mt St Helens perfectly centered over Spirit Lake. 


Least favorite experience of the day:
Not getting full views from Mt Margaret and Mt Whittier due to clouds and the brushy trail down low as a close second. 


Today's route (Clockwise from lower-right):
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Today's elevation:
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Google Earth with Track:
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GPS Track:
https://www.gaiagps.com/datasummary/tra ... e597ed2f3/




-GoalTech aka Mike
www.GoalTechHikes.com
@goaltechhikes (Instagram)

pablo
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Re: GoalTechHikes Norway Pass/Mt Margaret/Mt Whittier/Lakes Loop (Mt St Helens/Spirit Lake) 070718

Post by pablo » July 8th, 2018, 3:20 pm

Wow, I don't ever recall a TR on Whittier Ridge when it had snow on it. I'd have chickened out. Great photos and report on one of the neatest loops around these parts.

Thx,
--Paul
The future's uncertain and the end is always near.

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mjirving
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Re: GoalTechHikes Norway Pass/Mt Margaret/Mt Whittier/Lakes Loop (Mt St Helens/Spirit Lake) 070718

Post by mjirving » July 8th, 2018, 5:57 pm

Thanks Paul, I agree, an incredible route! I was glad I wasn’t a week earlier as might have chickened out too! It was just on the edge of my comfort level with the soft snow and short traverses.

Mike

Schrauf
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Re: GoalTechHikes Norway Pass/Mt Margaret/Mt Whittier/Lakes Loop (Mt St Helens/Spirit Lake) 070718

Post by Schrauf » July 8th, 2018, 6:36 pm

Great loop and great report. I did Whittier last year and there was either a washout or I was off route temporarily near the 5818 peak north of Whittier, on the SW side of the ridge. That was a little sketchy, and I'm still not sure where/if I went wrong, but in general one of my favorite hikes.

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mjirving
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Re: GoalTechHikes Norway Pass/Mt Margaret/Mt Whittier/Lakes Loop (Mt St Helens/Spirit Lake) 070718

Post by mjirving » July 8th, 2018, 7:04 pm

I don’t remember anything notable other than my offtrail mistake, but that was further north it sounds than 5818.

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CampinCarl
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Re: GoalTechHikes Norway Pass/Mt Margaret/Mt Whittier/Lakes Loop (Mt St Helens/Spirit Lake) 070718

Post by CampinCarl » July 9th, 2018, 8:20 am

All I have to say is, WOW! I need to get up there!

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Born2BBrad
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Re: GoalTechHikes Norway Pass/Mt Margaret/Mt Whittier/Lakes Loop (Mt St Helens/Spirit Lake) 070718

Post by Born2BBrad » July 9th, 2018, 9:02 am

Great TR! Very thorough. I thought I was a super data nerd, but you got me beat :P
Make now always the most precious time. Now will never come again.
- Jean Luc Picard

Link to GPX tracks
Link to Trip Reports

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jeffstatt
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Re: GoalTechHikes Norway Pass/Mt Margaret/Mt Whittier/Lakes Loop (Mt St Helens/Spirit Lake) 070718

Post by jeffstatt » July 9th, 2018, 11:41 am

Hi Mike,
I love that you're including the screenshot from GoogleEarth. It's a great way to get a quick overview of the trip before digging deeper in the map. Why do I keep forgetting how beautiful that area is? I need to get out there....soon!

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mjirving
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Re: GoalTechHikes Norway Pass/Mt Margaret/Mt Whittier/Lakes Loop (Mt St Helens/Spirit Lake) 070718

Post by mjirving » July 9th, 2018, 12:17 pm

Thanks for the comments. It really was one of my favorite hikes ever. Really spectacular. And yes, I can get a little (a lot) nerdy with the stats! All part of the fun! :-)

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bobcat
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Re: GoalTechHikes Norway Pass/Mt Margaret/Mt Whittier/Lakes Loop (Mt St Helens/Spirit Lake) 070718

Post by bobcat » July 9th, 2018, 1:07 pm

A most spectacular report! It's too far for me to go as a day hike (and I ain't getting up at 1:00 a.m.!), so I'd need to plan ahead and camp out nearby or backpack in to the lakes like most of the hikers you probably met that day.

On your flower IDs:
1) Rhododendron looking plant is indeed a white rhododendron (pretty common in the Cascades)
2) Your pink flower is mountain spiraea
3) The other white flower - not a saxifrage - is marsh-marigold

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