St. Helens Loowit 360 Day Hike w/Loony Legends 7-14-12

[Eric Peterson]

Met up with Chase, CascadeHiker, Cornelius, Radpotato, Sean and Bosterson
around 5:30 at the June Lake TH. Got started hiking the loop around 6:10.

Picture of Chase and CH while waiting for Bos and Rad to arrive -



Group shot by Rad -



Some pictures of the June Lake area -





We hiked the 360 counter clockwise.

Heading towards Ape Canyon -







The back of Sean's head in the sun -



Cornelius and CH talking about how awesome the hike is so far -



Note the button as well:



Find Rad in this picture -



Find Rad in this picture as well -



And finally, find Rad in this picture -



Wait... here is Rad again in this one too -



First good view of the mountain before Ape Canyon I believe -







Weird shot of Chaseroo -



Cloud action was pretty fun in the early morning -



A shot of Chase's head -



Scrambled down a bit to grab this watrerfall shot -



CH shared his corn nuts with me, thanks dude that saved me!



First junction since the June Lake spur -





A bowermarmot sighting -



Here comes Joe -



Shot of the mountain between Ape Canyon trail and Abraham trail -



I believe this is a canyon on the north side of Pumice Butte area -





Plains of Abraham area before the next junction -



Junction with the Abraham trail -



We came from that way -



Looking for Joe and Nat -



Oh there they are! On our way up to Windy Pass -



Windy Pass area and quick break -



I think this sign says 'yikes' -







Nat and Joe at Windy Pass -



Chase at a another quick break after Windy Pass -







First major water break, this water source is coming out of the rocks from a shrinking snow field,
only Chase filtered his and I don't think Jim drank any but the rest of us drank this one straight -



Chase pumping it up -



Spirit Lake -



Junction with the Loowit Falls trail -



And the next junction with the Willow Springs trail -



Breach shot -



I'm bringing up the rear for the first time on the trip -



Another water break and a shady spot under some rocks -



The other guys took their break in the sun -



New tree in the eruption zone, a lot of taller ones this too, just amazed at the
rebirth process and several different species including pine mixed in as well!



Some old trees lying down taking a break -



Joe's taking it in -



Helens with Studabaker Ridge -



Why I gotta be like this -





Toutle canyon -



Got ahead of the guys again after falling behind and CH suggested a short cut that avoids some
switchbacking down to Toutle stream. I wanted a true Loowit 360 track so I opted to stay on
216 proper and jog/shuffle/sprint while they jetted straight down. Was sort of a race as I looked
down and over and they were jogging also. Got down to the edge of the canyon where there
is a nice wash out with a dicey notch that was flagged, guys no where in sight until I got down
the steep loose notch and could see Chase was up stream on a island or something.
I went down to the Toutle for our 1 major break of day and waited for them.
I couldn't see the notch from where I was but Cornelius, Jim, took a bit of ankle roll
off some rocks and finally came into my view limping a bit. Once all of us were reassembled
at the Toutle we rested and filled up for at least 20 minutes before heading up the biggest
EG ascent of the day.

The Toutle break was pretty much the highlight of the day for me -







Slogging up the major EG with Joe and Nat -



I blew my last wad for the day with the cheetah run earlier and hung back with Joe and Nat
for the rest of the hike

We were over there before the Toutle break, the other side of Toutle Canyon -



Heading up Toutle canyon -





Junction with trail 240, Sheep Canyon trail -



I think we saw our first people of the day right around here, some guys coming from Butte Camp
trail and heading to Toutle to camp.

Shortly thereafter we saw Jim for the last time, he had decided to take off from
CH, Sean and Chase since he had to keep moving as his ankle was swelling up.

Parting shot of Jim on the other side of a HORRIBLE wash out re-route that
adds at least 3/4 of a mile and upwards of 300' of EG -



I really wanted to 'schwack down and back up to hike back with him!

Our next junction with the Butte Camp trail -









Another water break that was melting out straight from a snow field! Good thing
the rotting elk carcass is under the snow and out of view!!



Nat's talking on his cell phone and taking a picture at the same time -



Junction with Monitor Ridge and where our hearts kind of sank a bit looking at the
mileage left just to get back to the June Lake spur trail -



3 miles!!



Joe, Bosterson and I took about a 10 minute break here. At least it was all downhill from here!

Winter climbing route spur -



Chocolate Falls I believe -



The lava fields seemed to be getting very tedious at the end of a long day and someone
left a shirt in the rocks -



June Lake spur finally!!

And the sign says 2 miles to the TH!?!?!? Thought it was 1.2 CH!!!!



Bosterson made a nice joke saying that when we got to our cars a new sign would say
"3 miles to your car, it's been towed to a new location". Nice one Bos!



June lake break again and Bosterson's awesome insole after hiking over 30 miles!



Finally back to the cars and the speedier TFF's waiting for us!

I think they said they were there for 20 minutes or so, but I think they were being
charitable and probably were hanging around for half an hour or more.

Group shot by Rad -



Not a bad clip really but we did take a few hours in breaks and really slow up hill hiking-



And the Fly -

http://gpsfly.org/a/1664

Great hike guys!

Loowit stream was the only difficult ford and will probably be a rock hop in a few weeks.

Next time lets go around the hard way FIRST so we can chillax more on the return leg
rather than fight the never ending lava fields and route finding. Good thing I had my
GPS with a actual MAP loaded of the red lines or it could have been another hour
before getting back to the cars...

[Bosterson]

I think Eric said it all, so I'm just going to post my photos. It was a blast to go all the way around the mountain in one go!


Trekking pole convention






False hellbore


VanMarmot in the wild?


Mt. Adams hiding top left




Coldwater Peak (L) and the Dome (R) above Spirit Lake






This spider made its web horizontally above a creek






Toutle Canyon - where's the suspension bridge??


Other direction (still can't even see where we would cross it yet)


Find Joe


Approaching the lava fields above Climber's Bivouac


Indigenous rock sculpture

[Crusak]

WOW! Nice work guys, doing that in one day. Trip of a lifetime by the looks of it. Heck, seems like most of your hikes are 'trips of a lifetime' lol. I'd love to tackle that trail as a two-day trek someday. But... the EG total makes it seem like it'd be something I could do in one day... Someday.

How were the temperatures during the day? did it get scorching hot, or just mildly pleasantly hot? And how far apart are the water sources on that trail? Looks like it'd be a good distance between watering holes.

Thanks for sharing.

[Eric Peterson]

Hey Crus, I'm working on a updated watering hole map now. There are quite a few streams
running right now but half of which will probably be trickles in a few weeks.

Peder has a nice Topo map of what looks to be reliable year 'rounders and I was
going to add all the seasonal taps on top of that.

[potato]

EP, your shot of the water running under the snow (hidden elk carcass) turned out well! I like it. And Bosterson, sweet composition on the False Hellebore shot...

I've narrowed my 300+ pics down to only 75 it will be a little while before I can post them.

[hlee]

Beautiful photographs guys! Sounds like an awesome adventure, too! Such a one-of-a-kind area. I'm looking forward to getting the chance to explore it more in the next month or so.

The photograph of the water rushing under the snow kind of creeps me out--didn't someone die near Mt. St. Helens recently from being swept under the snow in just such a manner? And I know someone mentioned that in another thread in the last few days as well. I can definitely visualize it now. Terrible... /debbie downer

[Jack]

Nice job, guys! Was there much snow on the southwest section of the trail? You're right EP, knock the talus down first, counter clockwise, and unlax. Great feat! and Great TR!

[Eric Peterson]

Nice job, guys! Was there much snow on the southwest section of the trail? You're right EP, knock the talus down first, counter clockwise, and unlax. Great feat! and Great TR!

Hey Jack, I think you mean clockwise Those nice rambly plains would be a lot
of fun at the end of the day...

The photograph of the water rushing under the snow kind of creeps me out--didn't someone die near Mt. St. Helens recently from being swept under the snow in just such a manner? And I know someone mentioned that in another thread in the last few days as well. I can definitely visualize it now. Terrible... /debbie downer

Not sure on that, but I did step through one, albeit a shallow one and luckily only hit a rock and not the stream or twist my ankle.

EP, your shot of the water running under the snow (hidden elk carcass) turned out well! I like it. And Bosterson, sweet composition on the False Hellebore shot...

I've narrowed my 300+ pics down to only 75 it will be a little while before I can post them.

My pos PAS Nikon is so crappy and out of focus on the right side that I'm surprised hardly
any of my shots turned out half decent! But thanks

[Sean Thomas]

Incredible hike guys and another great TR. I love the shot of a sideways "Chaseroo" and Helens with Studebaker as well. Great closeups, Bos. As Crus said, this was a trip of lifetime and one I hope to make again sometime soon.


CH - Thank you for leading us around the mountain and keeping things on track. You're knowledge of the route seems second to none as there were no unexpected surprises along the route. Even knowing exactly where the elk, marmots and most importantly water sources were, outstanding guidance! Big thx for dragging me along yesterday


Jim - It was great to meet you yesterday, you are fast and really put things into perspective of what someone can do if they put their mind to it. Training for a 100 miler is a serious task, this guy is a beast.

[Eric Peterson]

Incredible hike guys and another great TR. I love the shot of a sideways "Chaseroo" and Helens with Studebaker as well. Great closeups, Bos. As Crus said, this was a trip of lifetime and one I hope to make again sometime soon.

This might sound sick... but I really want to try the loop clockwise before I forget how hard
counter is!

I agree - Jim, you really manned it up to get out of dodge! I didn't hear about the 100 miler though,
but we just did 1/3 of it yesterday!