Almost Mt Margaret from Norway Pass, Oct 15th

The Boundary trail AKA Trail #1 in Washington is one of those long trails with multiple access points and destinations in between. It runs for over 50 miles and was originally designed as the limit or border between the Mt Rainier National Forest and the Columbia National Forest. Today it marks the southern border of the Cowlitz Valley District covering, for the most part, the southern side of Mt St Helens. On the western side, the trail starts at Norway Pass going uphill to the pass which opens to some of the most spectacular views of Mt St Helens and Spirit Lake. It then continues around connecting with the Johnson Ridge Observatory that looks straight into the volcano crater. I saw these views once before when I hiked this trail by myself several years ago and then ago when I backpacked the Mt Margaret Backcountry which uses a portion of this trail to close a loop. Thinking of the views and possible fall colors, I organized a hike there not expecting a big surprise. Being early winter I was expecting bright yellows and reds along the trail but what we were not expecting was snow. As we drove to the trailhead, we passed several patches on the road and found a thin layer at the trailhead. That didn’t stop us but made the hike a bit more interesting. Right from the start we were slipping and sliding on the snow making our progress a bit slower than expected. The colors were what I predicted, bright yellows and reds contrasting with deep blue and patches of white. It was almost a magical scenery as we gained elevation looking at Meta Lake and south towards Mt Hood. Then we reached Norway Pass which opened to this view

We had perfect weather with some clouds on the sky but no wind and generally warm. We continued on the trail getting our shoes and socks wet on the melting snow as we gained elevation. We made several short stops at different viewpoints to take pictures and enjoy the scenery. As we gained elevation, the snow got deeper so some of us put on traction devices to help with the sliding. Snow was a bit slushy but it still helped a bit. Towards the northern side of the route, where the trail climbs towards a saddle to the junction with the Whittier trail things got a bit more difficult and eventually we lost the trail. Instead of following the route to the saddle, we hiked up a small knob with great views of Mt Margaret and St Helens to one side and some of the lakes of the Mt Margaret Backcountry area on the other. We looked at the map and compared what we were seeing with the trail ahead and noticed nobody had gone that far so the snow was packed and heady going forwards. Closer to Mt Teragram, just before Mt Margaret, we could see the trail was not only covered in snow but it was also shinny indicating it was probably frozen solid. That area is slanted so falling from there was a risk we didn’t want to take so instead of continuing, we made that our stopping point and started heading back. We made a shot stop at a nearby ridge and walked a bit off-trail to a view point where we found some rocks to sit on and have lunch with a pretty decent view. The route back was the same retracing the same views which had only a minor change. With no wind, Spirit lake became completely calm reflecting the Mt St Helens on it. I don’t recall ever seeing this but clearly an image I wont forget.

You can see the rest of the pictures here

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