Mount Margaret, Coldwater Peak, Lakes Trail & Boundary Trail — Saturday, Jul. 5, 2025

Hiked a loop of Mt. Margaret, Coldwater Peak, and the Lakes Trail, starting from Norway Pass on the east side. 26mi/6600ft. Mt. Margaret was definitely worth it, the Boundary trail section towards Coldwater Peak was good, I don’t think I would do the Lakes trail part again. Hopefully a long report is helpful to others, because this one is long.

Snow wasn’t an issue on the Margaret side, some dicey sections on the Lakes side. Driving detours from US-12 at end of report - you can get to Norway Pass even though road signs on the highway say “25/99 closed”, just have to take detours.

No water (except snow) on the southern half of the loop, Lakes trail did have water (the lakes, and creeks).

Boundary trail up to Mt. Margaret was beautiful! Lots of birds near the trail in the morning. Legs were wet from brush, pants were helpful, but the trail wasn’t overgrown (yet). There’s one mildly dicey section (picture), minor washout right before a section cut into a rock wall. Take one step down following the bootprints, one step back up, continue along the rock trail.

Saw the first human of my hike near Bear Camp, also the first snowfield. A couple more snowfields past the Whittier Ridge Trail turnoff, diagonally up and across snow towards Teragram but a fall would be a slide with safe runout. Spikes/poles were helpful. Mt. Margaret had beautiful views of the 3 expected volcanoes, and Hood in the distance.

Heading towards Coldwater Peak the snowfield crossings got a little dicier but still fine. Beautiful snow patches on rolling green hills. St. Helens Lake was beautiful framed with the caldera. Coldwater Peak was fine but wasn’t anything more than Mt. Margaret.

Coldwater trail (the west side of the loop) was fine, mostly was looking forward to water at Coldwater Creek (the first refill chance of the day). Towards the creek it got very bushy and overgrown.

Lakes Trail up to Snow Lake was brushy, dry, not a lot of trees, a couple streams. There’s a couple washouts but each have a clear path to follow.

Past Snow Lake, the remaining snow is in the wrong places for hiking. North of Shovel Lake is a big snowfield, walking across a slope that looked close to 45deg. A slide in the wrong spot would go pretty far down and away from the trail. There’s a dry patch higher up, but that’s through brush.

Towards Bear Pass, a couple snow bridges just about ready to break through and posthole. A couple spots where the dry trail has a pretty big drop off. And then one last snow field before Bear Pass/rejoining the Boundary Trail, another steep one to cross where falling would put you far off trail. Not fun, not even type 2 fun, especially at the end of a long day.

Next time, I’ll probably just do the Mt. Margaret section out and back. Maybe go a little further, but turn back before the Coldwater Trail and just carry a lot of water. Lakes weren’t worth the extra mileage and snow crossings, at least in my view.

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Road closures… USFS website took me a bit to understand but it was straightforward on the ground and matches the WTA note. Roads aren’t bad for forest roads, just a couple unpaved patches (<1mi total) and random bumps. From the north on US-12 take Cispus Road and keep taking it at each branch (even though the number changes) until you cross the Cispus River - WA-131 to NF-23 to NF-28. NF-76 west to NF-25, 76 is narrow and a little bumpy but paved and not bad. Then it’s the typical route: NF-25, NF-99, and ~1mi on NF-26 to Norway Pass Trailhead. USFS website says 26 is closed due to vandalism further north, but this section was open.