Headed out early to beat the crowds - arrived at around 7:30. I put our AtB pass in my pocket, as no one was there yet to issue wrist bands, but no one was stationed near the Boundary trail head even when we came back, as far as we saw.
Early is awesome -The weather was incredible - we drove up through the low cloud level and light rain at the bottom to find bright sun and blue skies with the clouds all around below us, making the valley look bottomless and the crater appear to float in a sea of clouds. There were only three people other than us when we got there, one was just dropping off a bike to do a hike-a-bike trip, probably from Coldwater, and the one of the others was a young child, so we had the trail pretty much to ourselves for a long time. We ventured out to Harry's Ridge first to get some stunning views just as the cloud cover started to dissipate, flowing away down the valley. The flowers are most certainly out and still at peak. There's a spot that is almost solid paintbrush and penstemon.
As Harry's Ridge is a relatively short, dead end hike, we looked to see our options for extending our hike. We'd been over to Mt. Margaret and on the Coldwater trail previously, from the the other side, so we decided to backtrack a bit and check out the Truman Trail. It was just a little before 10 when we turned back from Harry's Ridge, so we still weren't seeing too many people out that far on the trail yet. We hiked a couple more hours out onto the pumice plain before stopping for lunch and turning around. We saw no one at all until we were heading back and the traffic was still light - except for one huge group of what appeared to be an entire tour bus full of people..... I suppose they may have been heading off to Loowit Falls? Right around the time we turned around clouds started moving in, for a little while they made interesting formations, but by around 1:30 the mountain was socked in and ominous little dark clouds were creeping over Johnston Ridge.
We didn't encounter the expected crowds until we met back up with the Boundary trail even at that it wasn't that bad - only encountered one really boorish person, who came up behind and thought that when we stepped aside to accommodate people coming towards us, on a narrow section that meant she should push her way through... she actually shouldered several people aside... wow.... Closer to the trailhead, where the most people are, the trail widens to accommodate 2 way traffic for the most part.
Just the standard reminders - take water - you're unlikely to find any on the trail- even if you do have a filter, take sun screen - there's precious little shade, take extra clothing- the weather can and likely will, change and often quite quickly.
Comments
seattlenativemike on Harry's Ridge, Boundary Trail, Truman Trail-Pumice Plains
Nicely done with the photos :)
Posted by:
seattlenativemike on Jul 01, 2018 08:25 PM
hikingwithlittledogs on Harry's Ridge, Boundary Trail, Truman Trail-Pumice Plains
Looks like a beautiful day for a hike! Great pics. 👍
Posted by:
hikingwithlittledogs on Jul 01, 2018 08:48 PM