Loowit Trail
Details
See below for my "new and improved" plan. Green Trails and Lorain disagree about mileages (32.1 and 30.7, respectively), but I found a couple of tracks on GPSfly that make me think that Green Trails are more correct. Anyway, shade will be at a premium for all 3 days, so come prepared for near constant sun and wind (and views!!).
Day 1 (Saturday) 13+ miles: I live in Sellwood and have good parking so let’s meet at my place at 7:30am and plan to be on the road NLT 8:00am. Starting from June Lake, hike up to #216 and hang a left. After the junction with Monitor Ridge we’ll leave the trees behind and hit a couple of miles of boulders before getting back onto the single track. Once we hit the junction with #240 (~10.1 miles) we can decide whether or not to turn off at Sheep Canyon or continue on the Loowit to Crescent Ridge, both of which will take us to our as yet to be determined campsite near the Toutle River.
Day 2 ~11.7 miles: Up at a reasonable hour and on the trail NLT 9:00am. We’ll figure out a way across the Toutle and then up and out of the canyon (rumor has it there’s a rope nowadays). After this, the rest of the day is pretty straightforward until we get to Windy Pass. We’ll go up and over Windy Pass (BTW it’s not as precarious as you may have heard), then down the scree field on the other side to the Plains of Abraham, where we’ll set up camp for the night on the southern end.
Day 3 ~7.5 miles: Up at a reasonable hour and on the trail NLT 9:00am. Another fairly straightforward day as we make our way back to June Lake. If memory serves there are a couple of miles of pumice plains and cairns before we hit a mile or so of fairly overgrown trail (no huckleberries to slow us down this early in the year!) before we hit the trees again. I figure we’ll get back to our cars by 4:00pm at the very latest (probably closer to 2:00pm), and I would very much like to stop somewhere in either Cougar or Battleground for a burger and a beer/milkshake.
I did this solo a couple of years ago and I absolutely agree with Lorraine’s 9/10 difficulty rating. The relative lack of water this year is both a blessing and a curse: a blessing because it’ll make ravine crossing easier and a curse because we’ll have to carry a bit more. There is water at the south end of the Plains (as of 5/3), there’s usually water in the blast zone coming out of the crater, but the stretch from June Lake to the Toutle is probably dry. All part of the fun!
About me. I like to be on the trails NLT 9:00am ("a reasonable hour"), I move at about 2 mph, and I am neither an ultra-light guy nor a “head down” hiker. I am a view whore.
Loowit Trail