After celebrating the end of 2013, Val and I decided to go for a hike to welcome the New Year. Knowing that snow has been very low this year, we ventured towards St Helens. Our original idea was to start form the Johnson Observatory on the Boundary trail and head towards Helens Lake but once we got there, we found the road closed just above the Hummocks trail. We though the road closure depended on snow on the ground – it seems it just depends on dates. With that, we opted for trying the Hummocks trail and go towards the Boundary trail and see where we got. The morning was crisp but not too cold and the trail was empty. The first portion went thru marshes and a small pond. Some of the scenery was a bit unrealistic as it doesn’t resemble anything on the other side of the mountain. Once we got to the fork with the Boundary trail, we followed it up and the views of the mountain and Toutle River drainage opened up to our side. It was both incredible and scary as there was no snow to be seen. The trail was pretty easy to follow all the way to the empty parking lot. From there we walked to the observatory which I hadn’t seen before. It was an eerie feeling to be there with the building closed and all by itself. With nobody around, it looked like we were visiting ghost town. Views from the observatory were not short of spectacular. In fact, we walked up to the upper viewpoint and stopped there for a quick byte before continuing a bit further on the Boundary trail. We did up to a point that offered really nice views and then opted to turn around thinking about the drive back home. On the way back we crossed a lonely soul running on the trail and a big family group when we were just about to walk out. I wonder if there’s a better way to start the year.
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