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Mount Margaret

Washington

By Yes Mom I'm Alive

DAY 1

In hindsight there were a few signs we should have done something else with the long weekend: the forecast called for rain, our friends bailed the night before, and May was pretty early in the season to be backpacking above 5000 feet.

But common sense has never stopped us before, so on Saturday morning we piled into the Subaru and drove north to the Mount St. Helens Volcanic Monument, where we had permits for a two-night 30-mile loop around the Mount Margaret backcountry.

We didn't know what to expect – the good or the bad. The first five miles were a wonderful surprise; each bend in the trail brought us a new view of ridgetops, deep river valleys, and cobalt blue lakes.

After a late lunch, we turned north onto the Boundary Trail and our pleasant morning came to an abrupt end. Snow covered the hills and ridges in front of us, blanketing the trail we were meant to follow for the next two days.

I looked questioningly at Jeff, who was in charge of researching trail conditions before we left.

"You know, now that you mention it" Jeff said sheepishly, "I remember reading something about there being snow."

It was too late in the day to turn back to the car, and by our estimate camp was just a few miles ahead of us. We decided out of fatigue and stubbornness – the source of all good decisions – to push on to Dome Camp.

Spirit Lake

It didn't take us long to lose the trail. There were no other bootmarks; just a dotted line of mountain goat tracks high on the snowy ridge above us.

We tightrope walked across a half-dozen narrow slopes as we circumvented St. Helens and Spirit Lake. A third of the way across, we reached a point where the grade was too steep to traverse. Our only choice was to slide 14 feet down to a lower declivity, where we resumed our best guess of the trail from there.

DOME CAMP

It took us two hours to make it three miles to Dome Camp, where we laughably had a $6 permit for the night. If you can believe it, a ranger did not come by to check it...

We found a snow-free patch of ground under some trees and set up our tent. The creek we were expecting to refill our water supply was, of course, frozen over. Jeff melted snow in our JetBoil for the better part of an hour while I huddled in my warm sleeping bag and made an impassioned argument for not continuing onward tomorrow.

It didn't take him much convincing. We agreed we'd head back to the car after breakfast in the morning.

We just had to get through the freezing cold night first.

DAY 2

We woke the next morning in a heavy fog canopying the valley. We dawdled at camp, waiting for the icy crust to thaw, but it never really did. Reluctantly, we packed up camp and retracted yesterday's bootprints back to the trailhead.

NEXT TIME

When we arrived home, we dropped our stuff in the front hallway, jumped online, and booked two overnight permits to return in August when surely most of the snow would be gone. Here's the trip report from our successful loop of the Mount Margaret backcountry.

Button Label

Mount Rainier National Park

Mount Margaret

Washington

Washington

Patagonia

The Dolomites

Alaska

Washington

Italy