Made the long drive to Helens for perfect weather and no crowds. I enjoyed being here in the off season. It was a SUPER windy day, coldwater had some serious rapids going on. I saw a heard of Elk at one of the viewpoints.
Hummocks is such a lovely trail, you get a little bit of everything on it. Trail is in perfect shape as always. I would have continued on to Boundry Trail but it was just too windy dust was flying in swirly funnels so I called it a day. The road is gated just past this TH, I believe until May.

Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktDv9NGTVGA

With the lowlands enshrouded in morning fog, I headed for the sunshine near Mt. St. Helen's for a day of solo hiking. This hike is a loop but starts at the South Coldwater TH and ends at the Lake TH, with a 1.1-mile asphalt walk down WA 504 to connect the two. I decided to park down by the boat launch at the Lake Trailhead and get the pavement pounding out of the way first, in the cooler morning temp. That was a very good idea. (An even better idea would've been to lock a bike at the Lake TH parking area and park the car at the So. Coldwater parking area, so that one avoids the 1.1-mile highway hike altogether.)

In any case, if you start at the South Coldwater Trail #230A, the trail is a gentle grade along dusty soil and rock and lined by cottonwood, alder, and willows. The trail quickly passes into cool, forested shade for one mile before opening back up into the sun. In general, this trail alternates between sun and shade. Wildflowers are abundant, though not spectacular here. Lots of foxglove, daisies, red paintbrush, and lupine dot the hillsides. Coldwater Ridge Visitors Center and Coldwater Lake can be seen on your left.

The route is marked with posts so it's very easy to spot here on the South Coldwater Trail (not the case later on). Along the way up Coldwater Ridge, about 1.3 miles from the TH, you'll pass a couple of impressive pieces of twisted, rusting logging equipment destroyed by the 1980 eruption. Hiking in the sun along the ridge, you can catch a glimpse of the fuming head of Mt. St. Helen's off to your right. At 3 miles, you'll come across am upended steel-tracked logging tractor that was blown here from somewhere closer to the main volcano. A short while later, you'll reach the junction with Coldwater Trail 211.

Bear left at the junction to stay on the Coldwater Loop, following the Coldwater Trail #230 for 1.9 miles down into the canyon. Here, I was wishing I'd brought a machete, as the trail is extremely overgrown. You can still make out the trail through breaks in the foliage, but you'll want to tread carefully, as your feet are hidden from view much of the time and the trail sometimes inexplicably gives way underfoot. As you descend down to Coldwater Creek, you'll come to a trail marker (post) that currently has a purple foxglove growing next to it. There's an obvious path to the right of this post, but that's not the trail! Instead, go left and you'll see a mound of large rocks piled up as a cairn. That's the trail. Come to the bridge over Coldwater Creek and as soon as you cross, head to the right until you come to the junction with Lakes Trail #211. (You will see a footpath to the left that follows the creek; this is only to be taken if you need water, but there are several much easier places to access water further on.)

Turn left at the junction and head west on the Lakes Trail to continue the loop (if you turn right, you'll head to Norway Pass TH 12.4 strenuous miles away). About half a mile past the trailhead, you'll reach the head of Coldwater Lake. The trail follows the contour of the lakeshore as it heads southwest. You'll cross many year-long streams that contain cold but funny-tasting water. (I brought a SteriPen today but I wish I had brought a filter instead. The only good thing about having the SteriPen today was that I could walk and sterilize my water simultaneously; if I stopped for more than two seconds, swarms of biting flies with no respect for 100% DEET, settled on me and began to feast.) Salal, berries, and fireweed are abundant along this portion of the trail. You can access the lake at a couple of well-marked access points, but as this trail is in the Restricted Zone, you can only leave the trail at these points and nowhere else.

When you come to the talus field, follow the bright pink markers tied to tall posts. The trail from this point on is quite easy to follow and has several lake access points and stream crossings if you need water. 9.7 miles from the So. Coldwater TH, you'll arrive at the Lakes Trailhead, where hopefully, you've left either a car or a bike to get you back to the So. Coldwater TH. Otherwise, you'll have to hoof it. (Personally, I liked ending at Lakes TH because I got to sit on the dock and dangle my feet in the cold, refreshing water of the lake after a long day's hike. And a cool breeze kept the bugs off!)

 
DISTANCE: 10.8 mile (9.7 miles with car or bike shuttle)
HIKING TIME: 4:30 (at a moderate pace)
ELEVATION GAIN: 1380 ft (2520 ft-3900 ft)
START: South Coldwater Trailhead
MAP: Green Trails No. 332 (Spirit Lake)
PERMITS: Mt. St. Helen's Pass required at Coldwater Lake Recreation Area (Lakes Trailhead)
WHAT I'M GLAD I BROUGHT: SteriPen, DEET, a car cooler with an ice-cold drink at trail's end
WHAT I WISH I'D BROUGHT: machete for the Coldwater Trail portion, Katadyn water filter to get rid of the funny taste of the creek water, a bike to ride the easy 1.1-mile downhill on WA 504 back to the South Coldwater parking area.

Out group of 6 Mazamas hiked a 9.5-mile clockwise loop around Coldwater Lake, using a 1.3-mile car shuttle to connect the start and end of the hike. We started out at the Coldwater Lake Boat Launch, where the Lakes Trail begins along the west shore.

Coldwater Lake is only 29 years old, created when the north face of Mount St. Helens collapsed in the 1980 eruption and blocked the Coldwater Creek valley, creating a 4-mile long lake.

The Lakes Trail follows the shoreline, sometimes in the open and sometimes in alder woodlands, crossing creeks and landslides. Beyond a large gravel fan resulting from an old logging road failure far up the slope, trail maintenance declines and the route becomes more brushy and requires a little route finding. We encountered a blacktail deer fawn lying in the trail, so we made a detour around it. At 4.4 miles, the Lakes Trail junctions with the South Coldwater Trail. This path crosses a bridge over Cataract Gorge of North Coldwater Creek then climbs steeply for 1.9 miles to Tractor Junction on South Coldwater Ridge. This is a brushy section of trail through alder and willow and the tread needs repair in places where it has eroded under the snow load.

Once the trail reaches Tractor Junction, where a piece of rusting logging equipment was blown off the ridge above by the force of the volcanic blast, it is in the open, mainly following old logging roads. Excellent views are available down at Coldwater Lake, across to Coldwater Ridge and up the valley to Minnie Peak, Venus Peak and Whittier Peak. As the trail proceeds southward along the ridge, views of Mount St. Helens open up and more rusting logging equipment testifies to the human activity on the ridge in May 1980. The final mile or so of trail descends steeply down to the South Coldwater trailhead on SR 504. It showed signs of recent maintenance where it passed through alder woodlands.

We saw around 50 species of wildflowers in bloom and herd a pack of coyotes in the valley below us. I smelled the strong odor of elk at one point, but the heavy vegetation prevented me from getting a look around.

Triple Banger @ St. Helens 5-22-09
I packed a bag and headed out Friday morning. I arrived at the Spirit Lake Visitors center at 9:30. Only saw a couple of people and hoped this was going to be a trend all day…I did the small trail around the ponds and got some good photos of flowers and birds. Saw a boat and fisherman in the pond, totally out of place and I’m sure illegal, there were signs everywhere no fishing/hunting. Mountain was behind the clouds at this time. I was headed to coldwater lakes now and make a few stops along the way. Chatting with so many nice people at every stop. I arrived at Coldwater Lake around 10:30 and took more pictures and soaked in the views. I noticed some large charter buses in the parking lot. After speaking with a friendly fisherman he said they were a junior high group from Bellevue. I talked to the group leader about where the hummocks trailhead was and she warned me that she brought 400 students with her and there were more kids on the trail I was headed to.. I took a deep breath and said it can’t be that bad…I set out around 11:00 on the Hummocks trail which is located across the highway from the Lakes trail. Hummocks is a nice easy 2.5 mile loop with great views and diverse areas, ponds, meadows, lava formations, rocks, river, mountain views.. pretty much everything you would like in a trail except 400 students. I only had to move over once in the beginning and then the last ½ mile I had to say excuse me 50 times, I think that is what they were broken up in groups of.. It was funny to see the Bellevue mom’s in there “hiking” clothes. I made a quick side trip a few miles on the boundary trail to avoid one of the groups, it was worth it. When I was done I headed back across the street to walk the lake loop trail. Saw another sweet old fisherman and his dog Jack. The color of his lake is jade right and truly spectacular. I didn’t want to leave and was figuring out if I was going to drive home or stay the night somewhere.. originally I was going to do some trail on the South side of the mountain but after further review the only thing open is the ape caves and I will save that for a trip when I’m not solo. I was very interested in seeing the Lava Canyon area but the bridge is out and might be many months before the heli a new one in the ranger told me. The wildflowers are just starting to poke out so if you want a flower show wait a while. But it’s nice because there are not many bugs yet. All together I got around 5-6 miles in. This area reminded me a bit of Painted hills, Grand Canyon, and Rainer all rolled into one.