On this beautiful day 2 of us circumnavigated Mt St Helens via the Loowit as an all-day trail run. We started with headlamps from the June Lake TH and headed clockwise to the lava section right at the golden morning light. This is not a section you would want to attempt in the dark, as it is a technical boulder hop and you find your way by looking for the next marking pole. Once back on the trail, we admired the views and carried on through the ups and downs of the gullies until we reached the Toutle River. I was here in August (see my Aug 3 trip report) and the trail had some new surprises. The September storms had eliminated some of the more established routes in and out of the larger gullies. The Toutle approach was fine, and the rope to climb out was still there. It is a long rock hop or one wet foot step across right now. The long sandy climb out brought beautiful views and even Rainier then Adams came into sight. The plains had many smaller run-off gully crossings with the only major water coming out of the Loowit Falls. This creek was about the same size as the Toutle now. We had lunch here and carried on, admiring views of Spirit Lake and the falls. Windy Pass is steep but short, the climb down was harder than the up with the loose pumice marbles underfoot. This next section is the most runnable (mostly flat) and provides some of the best views of the mountain. We also encountered several mountain bikes out to enjoy the view. Then as we rounded the east face the large gullies started again. There is one which I believe is Muddy River(?)that had a nice waterfall in August but now was dry. Not only that but the trail down to cross it had been obliterated which required a little butt scooting in the ash and lava to get down the steep walls. That was probably the worst section of the trip however. With tired legs we carefully navigated the rest of the lava field before the trail dropped down below it and met back at June Lake. The round trip took us just under 10 hours, with plenty of picture stops.