Plan B, due to too much snow on our planned Wonderland Trail hike (17 mile section from Fryingpan Creek to Box Canyon), we hiked Norway Pass/Mount Margaret. What a great choice it was. My partner for the day was Goober Canari.

We arrived at the parking lot, which had 8 to 10 vehicles already, to sunny skies and a nice breeze. Roads are all paved to this trailhead although the edge of Road 26 is crumbling in places but we made it easily in a Jetta. There are bathrooms at the trailhead. We hit the trailhead at about 9:45 AM. There is an immediate fork and we went right, (left goes east on the Boundary Trail). Most of this trail is in the open, although there are a few spots shaded by trees. LOTS of wildflowers during the entire hike as well as ripe huckleberries, yum. The trail is never real steep but steady uphill. Trail begins to switchback up and a fork reached where Norway Pass is to the right. The last section before Norway Pass is along a north facing slope so it was nice and cool. We met a few other hikers at the pass where the trail from/to Independence Pass is also located. That trail is currently closed due to a washout but a couple of ladies told us that they went in about ¼ of a mile and that there are really great views there. The trail to Mt Margaret was visible on the ridge in the distance, it goes around, slightly down, and back up. We eventually came to a spot where a peak came into view. We crossed a small flat snowfield, and following footprints, kept going straight. This took us to an outhouse. The trail stopped after that. What we ended up doing was going cross country up the slope of what we thought was Mt Margaret. It wasn’t, but we summited a lower mountain that we ended up referring to as Little Margaret. What we should have done was to go left near the end of the snowfield and the trail continued on. A solo female hiker (Danielle) that we passed earlier figured this out and we climbed down and met her at the trail fork to Whittier Trail (embarrassingly misspelled Whitter on the nice new sign!). We figured out that the next peak on the trail was, in fact, Mt Margaret and proceeded on the trail which goes around its flank. Two high snowfields must be crossed and I helped out Danielle with a trekking pole to make it across; the second snowfield was steeper. The snow was soft so we could kick steps. We followed the trail around Mt Margaret and found a path leading to the summit. After following the path a ways up, there is a red arrow pointing both left and right painted on the large rock wall. You should go right. It is mostly a path but some minor scrambling to the summit. A better route from the trail would be to cross the snowfields, and then head straight up to the summit. It is no harder and is shorter. There is an old survey marker on the summit. Views at the summit are of Mt Rainier, Adams, tip of Hood, and of course Mt St Helens and Spirit Lake. At least 2 other lakes could be seen. I noticed a haze in the lowlands that appeared to be from the recent wildfires (Big Hump wildfire in Olympics and wildfire north of Mt Hood). The haze appeared to lessen as the day went on. The trail continuing westward is also visible as it skirts several more mountains. We descended the shorter route I mentioned above with no trouble and rejoined the main trail. As we carefully re-crossed the first (steeper) snowfield Goober made it across and I was just finishing when we heard Danielle slip behind us. She slid about 25 to 30 feet before stopping at some dirt/gravel exposed in the snow. If she had slipped a little earlier the slide would have been more like 150 feet, although it seemed to flatten out at the bottom. She twisted her ankle but was otherwise ok. I let her borrow my hiking sticks for the hike back. We encountered another couple that saw it happen and they were also on their way to Mt Margaret (without sticks or ice axe). We watched them approach the 2nd snowfield but then hike all the way down and around, a good choice. Better safe than sorry. I would still recommend either trekking poles or better yet an ice axe. Boot traction devices might also be wise. The snowfields aren’t that long but one missed step and it could be bad. We watched Danielle for a little bit and she was making steady but slow progress back. Our return trip down was uneventful. Now is a great time for this hike – I haven’t seen this many wildflowers on many hikes. The slopes are growing back slowly in the blast zone. Pretty much every western Cascade wildflower, scarlet paintbrush the most plentiful. Also lots of lupine higher up. Bugs were not bad. Enjoyed some fine chilled beverages and salty snacks courtesy of Goober Canari at picnic tables by parking lot. The relaxation in the shade, breeze, and scenery topped off a great day.

Beautiful hike, awesome views, and the flowers are so vivid right now. Not very buggy, thankfully. From the top of Bear pass you can see all four volcanoes! (Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood, and, of course, Mt. St. Helens). From the Norway Pass trailhead to Norway Pass the elevation gain is NOT 300 ft, as listed on the side bar, but more like 1000 ft.

We entered from norway pass th, went into Ghost lake and back out the way we entered. A total rt of 4.6. The lake was a nice lake with trees around the shores, off up on the hills you can view all of the trees that are still laying flat the way they blew down. A nice hike. This trail could use some maintance.

OM GOSH. So beautiful! Lots of flowers, great views of spirit lake, and mount st helens and a easy hike. Water source at TH.