June Lake #216.1
Feb 22, 2004
- Type of Outing
- Day hike
- Read More in our Hiking Guide
- Hike: June Lake
- Region: South Cascades -- Mt. St. Helens
- Agency: USFS Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument
- Trails: June Lake (#216.1)
- Avg Rating: 3.60
- Read More in our Hiking Guide
- Hike: June Lake Snowshoe
- Region: South Cascades -- Mt. St. Helens
- Agency: Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument
- Trails: June Lake (#216.1)
- Avg Rating: 2.50
- Be Aware Of
- Snow on trail
Lena the Dog and I headed down to the south side of Mt St Helens for a day trip. It's a lot of miles to drive from Olympia, but for comparison's sake the roads are a lot faster than the roads to Mt Rainier, so it didn't take much more time to travel a much greater distance. I'd guess it took about 2 hours, 15 min each way (versus 2 hours solid to get to Paradise).
Anyway, I parked at Marble Mountain Sno-Park, and started walking along a hard-packed ski trail towards the June lake trailhead. There were quite a few snow machines buzzing around, but relatively few when compared to areas closer to Seattle. Along the first 1.25 miles of trail parallelling the snowed-over road, I saw 3 samples of what I took to be cougar scat. If not cougar, then it was likely another type of cat. Lena wasn't freaked out, so I didn't think much about it.
After 1.25 miles, we turned north onto the June Lake trail and away from the snowmobilers. This trail was also hard-packed and well defined. We passed a few guys coming down from the lake who had spent the night up there - I was so jealous! Shortly after passing them, we stopped at a viewpoint where I took a photo of the mountain and June Creek . At this point, Lena got all queezy and whiney. This really freaked me out, as the only other time she got like this was a year ago at Marten Lake where I saw a good cougar print and later read on the WTA web site of a party walking into a cougar den just below the lake.
Despite her unease, Lena was up for moving on, so we continued up the trail another mile or so to the lake. I just made sure to keep my eyes wide open and talked really loud (to the imagined (?) predator) to lessen the chances of a close encounter.
We got to the lake after 2.5 miles and 1 hour and 15 minutes of pretty easy hiking and had a snack. The lake was unfrozen, and there was a very pretty waterfall emptying into it. Beyond the lake is a wide open area that rises up to the Loowit Trail and beyond to the rim of the mountain. Great views. It looked like a smooth white blanket draped over the mountain. Beautiful.
Before long, Lena started acting funny again and I decided to head back down the trail. I would have liked to make a loop trip, as there was apparantly dozens of well-defined trails in the area. However, I didn't know ahead of time the condition and quantity of the winter trails here and I didn't want to divert from the out-and-back route that I'd told my girlfriend that I'd be taking.
Shortly after leaving the lake, Lena and I found something that I am 99.99% sure wasn't there on the way up: Poop. Fresh (ie sitting on top of the snow, not melted into it like the other droppings I saw). Squishy (not frozen) - as evidenced by my ski-pole poke test and Lena's attempt to gobble it up. Fresh and squishy poop - I was starting to get a headache! Maybe I missed it on the way up, but I doubt it. I got freaked some more - but at least Lena kept her cool this time.
So, it was a loud trip back down to the car, and it proved to be uneventful. I never saw the hidden pooper, but I'm guessing that it saw us. :-)
It was a great, albeit short and quick, trip. The snow was great - I never even considered donning my snowshoes although I carried them the whole time. It was about 5 miles total and it took less than 3 hours. Elevation gain about 700'.
I'd love to get back to the area this spring before the snow melts away with a more elaborate itinerary so that I could do some more exploring.
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