Photo of the Month: Mt Hood, Oregon

Swift Ski Trail, Mount St Helen's National Volcanic Monument, WA

Taking advantage of a long 3-day weekend, what else is there to do but embark with some good friends, good food and a bottle of champagne on an epic snowshoe journey to Mount St Helen's!? Ok, I know I call every trip I venture into "epic," and maybe this time I am exaggerating a bit. New, exciting and challenging are better adjectives for our hike this weekend because, as we all came to find out, snowshoeing is a shit hell of a lot harder to do than normal hiking. Perhaps in place of epic, "adventurous," "monumental," "Herculean," or "very long" may suffice. Yes, I do believe this trail was "very long."

Our hike started at Marble Mountain sno-park at the end of Forest Road 83 in Mount St Helen's National Volcanic Monument. Marble Mountain sno-park is a good place for winter camping as it has composting pit toilets and a sno-shelter stocked with wood and a wood stove. Sno-park permits are required and can be purchased at the Cougar Store in Cougar, WA and other retailers in the area for $21 for a single day pass, or $41 for a season pass. Our plan was to hike the Pine Martin ski trail #245E to the June Lake ski trail #216B, arriving at a frozen June Lake.

The Pine Martin ski trail #245E begins from the edge of the Marble Mountain parking lot and is an easy hike with steady up and down terrain accomplished by any beginning snowshoer. It is rated at a "moderate" difficulty. At 1.8 miles long, we only intended to hike the first mile of the trail to the junction of the June Lake ski trail, but about 1/2 mile in, a wide and shallow stream crosses the trail, and having inadequate boots to handle even a small stream crossing, we swung a left onto the #244 Swift ski trail.

The Swift Ski Trail #244, also rated at a "moderate" difficulty, was a challenge for all three of us on the trail, even with our relatively good physical fitness level. The trail is 2.2 miles to the junction of the June Lake ski trail, and is uphill the entire way. It is a relatively constant grade, but taxing non-the-less for anyone even little out of shape. It took a good part of 3 hours to make it to the junction of the June Lake trail, but was a nice workout weaving through doug-fir, western hemlock and pacific silver-fir forests.

We attempted the top half of the June Lake ski trail, but about 1/4 mile down a very steep hill we decided to give up and turn around back down the mountain. Did I mention it rained heavily the whole weekend? I still recommend snowshoeing as an activity everyone should try once. I loved it, both of my friends hated it. To get to Marble Mountain sno-park from the highway, take Interstate 5 east to State Route 503 to Forest Roads 90, 83, 8312 junction.

Summary:

Mount St. Helen's National Volcanic Monument, Marble Mountain Sno-park

Pine Martin ski trail #245E, "moderate" difficulty rating with varied terrain

Swift Ski Trail #244, "moderate" difficulty rating with uphill terrain

June Lake ski Trail #216B, "difficult" difficulty rating with uphill terrain

For more information:

http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/recreation/winter/