St Helens, Hummocks to Boundary to Loowit VP

[BaileyBoy]

My friend and I planned on hiking CCW from the Hummocks TH to Johnson Ridge Observatory and back. The Hummocks Trail was snow free and in good shape. The broken bridge is easy to cross since one side is securely seated. Saw no critters on the trail, just lots of birds and some ducks and geese. Great informational signage at various points on the trail and lots of impounded water ponds. The Hummocks are really interesting looking and numerous, pretty flat trail easy to walk and no real exposure. Once we hit the Boundary Trail however he tweaked his knee about 3 miles in so we set behind a small fir tree for wind break and had lunch. I then continued alone since we'd met some young hikers who said the trail was in good shape. Well, for young people with young legs and less caution than me that was true, however I'm a bit older and more cautions and at about 3.5 miles in the trail is on a steep slope and very narrow with a pea gravel-like surface. The trail slopes toward the drop-off and there is no shrubs or trees to catch if you were to start sliding off the trail. I was extremely careful on this section and thankful for my hiking sticks. Used the old 3 points of contact for this area and decided I was not going to return this way but rather walk the road and hope for a ride.

At about 4 miles in I hit snow, 1-2 feet deep and lost the trail where it has a 90 degree turn south. Didn't see many tracks on the other side of the small drainage and my iPhone was almost dead and of course I had forgotten my charger. I knew I could head due east from that point and hit the highway so I continued overland. It actually was pretty easy traveling except for a few shrub patches I had to go through. There were lots of open meadows from which I could see the highway so I plugged on and came out right at the Loowit Viewpoint. Beautiful views from there so a few photos and hit the road to walk back to Hummocks. About 6 cars passed me by but the 7th stopped. He was an employee of the monument and very nice and informative. He dropped me off at Hummocks TH and I walked out to find my friend while he was still taking photos - great shots that are attached.

So bottom like make sure you take a charger and have the full trail loaded on whatever app you use. That way you will be able to find that turn and use the trail rather than overland.

I love that area and will be back soon to walk the North Coldwater trail with my wife and dog.

[wildcat]

Hummocks is a really cool area. Last time I hiked it was back in late '94 or early-mid '95, when it was still in extremely sensitive condition, barren, having been only like 15 years since the eruption, and entirely closed to the general public. It was one of those big all-day Friday field trips with the other (I think) two or three fifth-grade classes at my school. IIRC, we did a combination hike through the hummocks and part of the blast zone, guided by one of the guys from the observatory (hello, Hans!) and it really was a blast. If you've ever seen pictures of Mars it kind of was like that, except much more gray, and very, very desolate.

That was also the time where I learnt from experience that Nike "Flight" basketball high tops are exceedingly terrible hiking boots.

Later on in (probably) '96, dad and I had a Saturday spring drive up to the Johnson's Ridge area and we went a little ways into the hummocks area with our little doggy. By that time they had just opened a small section (less than a mile, I'm sure) to the public.

Way rad spot.

Kinda want to get out there and hike it again one of these days, and see what it's like after 27 years, though I don't know how well my long distance riding-optimised legs would be up to it.