Completed a clockwise loop around Mt. Adams in the last days that the Yakama Nation portion is open this year.  I followed the route described by Douglas Lorain and Mark Wetherington in Backpacking Washington, with great assistance from Born2BBrad's trip reports at oregonhikers.org and the commenters to those.  The complete loop requires 3-4 miles of cross-country travel on the east side and is only possible during the limited period each year when the Yakama Nation opens 'Tract D' to non-members.  

I started at Round the Mountain Trailhead. The road is in reasonable shape. I would be comfortable taking a passenger car all the way if I had to. The Yakama have a permit box at the Mirror Lake turnoff to Bird Lake, but this year there is also one at the Round the Mountain Trailhead itself.

Trail conditions on the Round the Mountain trail and (naturally) the PCT are excellent. I had no idea you could hike for so long around one of the major Cascade peaks with so little elevation change. The south side of the mountain is a mix of burn zone, lush regrowth, healthy forest, lava flows and avalanche washes--a little of everything, but for the most part the vegetation is pretty sparse. Unfortunately this is well past the wildflower peak in Bird Creek Meadows, but on the plus side ripe huckleberries are readily at hand.  The Rough the Mountain Trail crosses a constant series of small, clear streams, although Horseshoe Meadow was dry.

I camped the first night in a secluded site along Riley Creek above the PCT, just up a short side trail after the crossing (about 13 miles from start). Riley Creek is a little milky but I found some potholes along the sides with clear water where the sediment had settled.

The easy hiking continued for the first half of day two, all the way to Foggy Flat on the Highline Trail.  The west and north sides of the mountain are much more lush than the south and east.  The PCT rolls gently through here with an abundance of camping spots.  The only iffy stream crossing was across a rather slender log over either Adams or Lewis Creek, I'm not sure which.

The Highline Trail is naturally a bit rougher than the PCT, but still in good condition to Foggy Flat, where several groups were camped.  After that, everything changes. The elevation profile from my recorded track is a gently rolling line for the first 2/3 of the trip followed by two big sharp triangles. Ascending from Foggy Flat, you quickly leave the trees and enter a barren landscape of loose rock, sand and cinder. In places you need a sharp eye to pick out the trail, but there are also many cairns so it's hard to get too far off track.

The trail goes up the west side of the Muddy Fork ravine for a long way until reaching a point where the valley flattens out a bit and the stream is braided. There is an obvious fording spot where the trail crosses the creek that looked perfectly safe. I opted to go another 100 yards or so upstream and rock-hop across the braided sections. This was at about 1:15 pm on a sixty degree, overcast day, although the morning had been sunny. While I was crossing, a team of six horses with four riders came down from above and crossed at the ford. They had gone into Avalanche Valley the day before and were on their way back out.

Once across, the trail continues climbing steeply to the barren Devil's Garden and the border of the Yakama Reservation, and then descends toward Avalanche Valley. There are several other minor valleys, streams and ridges to cross before you get there. The largest is Little Muddy Creek, which I also managed to rock-hop at about 3:50 pm. (For reference, I'm mid-50's, 5'10", reasonably fit but no kind of athlete).

The trail from the reservation boundary to Avalanche Valley is often faint but not too difficult to follow--in my case it had just been 'refreshed' by the horse traffic, which helped (although the horses made a mess of the otherwise lovely campsite in Avalanche Valley itself). In the late afternoon, I met a hiker coming the other direction doing the loop counterclockwise, which was encouraging. It sounded like he had crossed the Klickitat Glacier up high (the "Green Trails" map route) and found it difficult but, obviously, doable. I had Avalanche Valley to myself that night after about a 14 mile day. Getting up to the morning light on the east side of Adams was glorious (I swear the accompanying photo has not been enhanced or edited in any way).

There is no trail from Avalanche Valley to Sunrise Camp, not even a boot path, but the navigation is not hard. Study the descriptions in the sources above, your topo maps and satellite views, and it's pretty straight-forward, at least on a day with good visibility. That doesn't mean the hiking is easy. It is rough terrain with consistently terrible footing: rocks, sand, scree, deadfall, slush, ice and snow, and a 2000' climb. My GPS track showed 3.8 miles from my camp in Avalanche Valley to Sunrise Camp, and it took me about 4.5 hours.

I started by heading slightly downhill to Rusk Creek, crossing the creek by about 7:30 am. Climbing out of the ravine up the loose slope on the far side was much harder than actually crossing the creek (another rock-hop).

From the Rusk valley, I followed Lorain and Wetherington's advice to stay near the 6250' contour around the ridges to reach the Klickitat/Big Muddy Creek valley. This area burned not too long ago and has a lot of deadfall to work around and over. I did occasionally find a clear bootprint and even, briefly, the very beginning of a beaten path around the nose of the ridge, which was very reassuring. Then comes a long descent down the slippery slope to the base of the valley.

Big Muddy Creek has three forks. The smallest starts at the base of the glacier on the north/right side looking up. The larger middle fork emerges from the glacier about halfway up and runs down the center. The even larger southern fork starts in the upper portion of the valley but fortunately can be ignored. I crossed the small northern fork just above where it joins the middle branch, then scrambled up to the tongue of land that runs down the center of the valley. This is a long, steep slope but it's pretty stable. Eventually the middle fork of the Big Muddy curls around and you have to cross it. I found a section near its origin where it's a little flatter and the stream separates into multiple channels. At 9:45 am, I was still able to cross with dry feet (I really hate fording streams).

From the Big Muddy crossing, I headed for the base of the lefthand/southern snow field. At this time of year, there are two distinct snowfields separated by a rocky ridge, and both end just below saddles that look like they could be Sunrise Camp. I had to get a heading from my map and take a compass reading to confirm which one to follow.

Before reaching the exposed ice and snow, you must cross a section of the glacier that is topped with sand, gravel and rocks. None of this is frozen together right now, so it's a slushy, soft mix that slides with every step. Reaching the bare ice was actually a relief.

I reached the ice at about 7650'. The ice is exposed to about 8000'. Above that, it is still topped with snow. Going up the ice with microspikes and poles was surprisingly the easiest part of the whole climb. It's not any steeper than the rest and it's a consistent surface. I had great grip with microspikes and was not concerned at all about slipping. The snow part wasn't bad, either, although of course it moves a little with each step. The ice and snow stop maybe 50 vertical feet before the lip of Sunrise Camp, so you have to finish the climb with a difficult scramble up still more loose, shifting rock.

I couldn't stay on the trail from Sunrise Camp down to Iceberg Lake--I would find sections but quickly lose it again. Fortunately you don't need it. From the edge of Sunrise Camp you can look down and see the whole route--just pick a likely line from where you are to the lake and you'll get there. I opted to go down the solid rock ridge just north of the stream (good footing), then pass between the upper and lower snowfields and pick my way through the loose rock and scree to the lake.

From the lake you can see the trail coming up from below. It's not a good trail--more loose rock--but at least it's an actual path. Even so, I found myself off-trail repeatedly (along with many other people whose footprints I followed) on the way down to Hellroaring Overlook. After the sharp, rocky descent from the lake, the trail moderates and crosses a lot of sandy ground where the main path gets obscure. Each time I found myself off-trail I was too far west--when in doubt, hug the edge of the drop-off above Hellroaring Meadow. From the obvious overlook, the trail is easier to follow as it drops more steeply back down to the trailhead. My GPS had my third-day mileage at 7.8. My total ascent for the trip was 5500', almost all of which was in the two big climbs (compare to approx. 9500' for the Timberline Trail).

Some final thoughts and observations: I never had to get out my bug repellent--hooray for September. I think I got lucky hitting the stream crossings when and where I did--they could have been much more challenging. Watch the weather forecast closely if you want to do the off-trail section, not just for rain but for cloud level. Mountain-forecast.com, and probably other sites, includes expected cloud ceiling. Selecting a route in the fog would have been a nightmare. I almost chose to go counterclockwise out of concern that the mountain would be cloud-locked on my third day, but the last forecast I checked before losing cell service was more reassuring. Counterclockwise means starting with the very difficult climb to Sunrise Camp and then going down the glacier. That's clearly doable, but for me I know I was much less anxious going up the ice. Going down, I think I would have wanted an ice axe in hand. Finally, I've never hiked for so long with such rough footing. From Foggy Flat all the way back to the trailhead, very little of the route is on clear trail with a firm surface. But, the first two-thirds is some of the easiest hiking you'll ever do in the Cascades, so it balances out.

Happy Hiking!

Based on weather we pushed our trip back by a day starting on Sunday, returning on Tuesday.  The previous rain kept the dust down and we just had a couple of small puddles to skirt near Muddy Meadow, after which it was mainly mud-free sailing.

Date: August 17 - 19

Location: Mt Adams, Muddy Meadow TH to Foggy Flats with a day adventure to Devil's Garden and Avalanche Valley

Arrival Time: 10:42 am

Number of cars upon arrival: 1

Road conditions: Good, paved then graded gravel

Weather conditions: Mostly sunny start on day one, with increasing clouds later in the afternoon.  It cleared overnight to sunny skies for day 2, which was a little chilly. Day 3 sunny and warmer, perfect for the downhill return to the TH.

Last time we hiked the trail: 2018

Trail grade and tread: Good

Trail conditions: The trails were in decent shape minus about 12 downed trees on the Muddy Meadows Trail between the PCT and Highline trail junctions.  All had well-defined user paths around them. The trail through the rocky volcanic sections and past Devil's Garden was faint to non-existent at times but with the aid of cairns and a little route finding it was not too difficult to stay on course.  Stream crossings were rock hops on the way over but with higher levels on the return, we did do one wet ford. 

Hike features: wildflowers, open volcanic landscapes, glaciers

Wildlife: a herd of mountain goats above Devil's Garden

Bugs: Very minimal. The first night there were a few bugs but nothing to speak of after that. 

Flowers, berries: Still some nice displays of the usual wildflowers on the greener side of the trip, and the more volcanic side had wonderful flowers popping against the dark volcanic rock.  We focused getting our cabooses up hill and finding a camp spot on the way in, but on the way out... we indulged in some of the tastiest huckleberries around.

Number of cars upon return: 4 at 11:25am

Mileage: 24.73

Elevation gain: 5269'

We returned to Bird Creek Meadows to enjoy the wildflowers while they are at peak bloom.

We hiked the Round the Mountain Trail from the trailhead west to the Yakama Indian Nation boundary at Gotchen Meadows and back, stopping to enjoy the many beautiful scenes along the way at each stream, waterfall and meadow.

The Round the Mountain Trail is seriously overgrown with willows and mountain hemlocks in some places between the trailhead and the Bird Creek Meadows Picnic Area. Beyond the picnic area, the trail is in good condition as far as we hiked.

Heavy snow loads over the years as well as the Cougar Creek Fire in 2015 have damaged or destroyed most of the recreation infrastructure. Anyone unfamiliar with the trails should carry either a paper map or a trail map app with them. We encountered a couple of hikers who had never been to Bird Creek Meadows before and didn't know how to find Hellroaring Overlook.

We hiked about 5 miles round trip with several hundred feet of elevation gain.

#hikeathon

I did Pahto (Mt. Adams) South Climb 7/23 and 7/25 (yeah, twice in three days... I know) and also made a brief detour along a couple miles of the Round-the-Mountain trail, where it departs from the South Climb trail confluence. 

South climb: lots of sun cups, but they're still fairly navigable as they soften. I used crampons and trekking poles on the way up, then took the crampons off and used my ice axe and one trekking pole on the way down (snow was really soft and crampons weren't helping). From Pikers Peak to the summit is a mix of snow and dirt trail. Glissade chutes are in good shape. Remember - no glissading in crampons or microspikes! I saw several people doing this on 7/23. 

Round-the-Mountain trail: in good condition for the first mile upon departing the shared South Climb trail, then the trail fades out. I ended up bushwacking and crossing several streams before gaining a ridgeline to see if I could locate the actual trail shown on Gaia (no luck, so I turned around). This checks out with other trip reports. Pretty wildflowers are out right now.

Total mileage between the two days was ~28, with ~13,700 feet of elevation gain.

Completed a circumnavigation of Mount Adams starting from the Killen Creek TH, then linking up with the PCT, to the Highline Trail, than off trail around the east side of the mountain before dropping down to the South Climb Trail, linking up with Round the Mountain and returning on the PCT to Killen Creek.

Killen Creek - in great shape, a couple of small blowdowns, snowfree.  Beargrass and Avalanche lilies are out. No restroom at TH.

PCT to Highline - good shape

Highline -  in good shape other than a few blowdowns.  As you break out of the trees, trail is still well marked with cairns.  There is some creek crossing that involves rock hopping but nothing major.

From Highline to the South Climb trail was all off trail so won't get into that.

Round the Mountain - Trail is in pretty good shape.  A few blowdowns, some spots were the tread is rough but really nothing major.  Lots of wildflowers!

PCT back to Killen - oof.  Blowdown city.  Maybe 40 or 50?  Also, consistent patches of snow to navigate between Round the Mountain and the Killen Creek junction.   Also, one ford near the junction that in the evening was about knee deep on me so poles were very helpful.

Also of note, the mosquitoes were numerous and persistent especially below the treeline.