This is a hike that I did with Kristen and her boyfriend about a year and a half ago. Back then it was late in the summer on a vey hot day which made it really difficult to go beyond the first peak (which doesn’t have a name) towards Silver Star. Being a very nice hike, I organized a group to actually try to do the whole thing. Being spring we had a much nicer day with warm weather, clear blue skies and lots of snow. Originally I had about 11 people signed up for this event but only four girls showed up. I do have to give credit to them because the really pushed it al the way regardless of snow, steepness or weather. We started from the same point I did last time crossing the bridge and quickly following an old forest road that goes up the ridge. For a while, this trail takes you thru dense forest on a very steep incline until it reaches a section of second growth forest. From there, ascending is more gradual on a trail that starts disappearing. Once we got to the snow, we were pretty much on our own although we knew we had to follow the ridge and some trail markers to the first peak. The snow wasn’t bad at all, with the high temperatures we’ve been having, the snow was very compacted making it easy to navigate thru it. After a first short scramble, we got to a view point with the first clear views of Mt St Helens where we stop to take some pictures. From there, we had another scramble and a little bit of forest to go before getting to the first peak. We got there roughly at 1PM so it was perfect time to stop for lunch while enjoying the views around us. As you’ll see in the pictures, we were on top of a peak with 360 views. From there we could see the falls on Star Creek but more impressive, all the surrounding volcanoes in the Cascades. We could also see from there our intended destination, Silver Star. To continue there, we had to descend to a saddle that then climbs abruptly to a ridge before heading to the summit. Since this section of the mountain faces north, it doesn’t get a lot of sun so snow stays much longer. Still, we were able to reach the ridge on the other side after climbing a rather steep snow field. We did continue on the ridge for a bit until we saw that the path towards Silver Star was not very clear. Considering we had done a lot and it was getting late in the afternoon, we decided to call it and head back not without having some real fun. As you might imagine, we had to descend all those steep snow fields we climbed earlier. Instead of just walking down, we used our jackets and a plastic bag to slide all the way down. It ended up being so much fun that we actually climbed back up to do it again… several times! Once we got tired of it, we continued bushwhacking until we found our trail and back to the car. By that time we were already hungry so on the way home, as most of the time, we stopped to grab something to eat. The reason I’m mentioning it here is because we stopped at a burger place with the best service and food I’ve had in a long time (considering it was a fast food place).
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