Schedule constraints meant that I hiked the Loowit Trail in two days rather than the usual three, which ruled out June Lake as a start point. With the Windy Ridge trail closed on weekdays for road work, I opted to start at Blue Lake and camp at Pumice Butte, hiking clockwise to allow a quicker retreat if the South Fork Toutle River crossing posed a challenge (it was a non-event). The route is well described in the trail overview, so these notes focus on current conditions.
Forest Service Road 81 is currently closed between Cougar and the junction with 8123 (the rough but passable spur to Blue Lake TH) due to a fire burning in the area, so check conditions to make sure 8123 is still open and plan to access it from the Ape Cave side.
Water is hard to come by this late in the summer. The only reliable options on the Loowit Trail are the South Fork Toutle River crossing, Willow Springs about a half-mile east of Loowit Falls, and the slightly silty Muddy River crossing. There is no water at Pumice Butte. I think I crossed a small flowing stream on the descent from Windy Pass to the Plains of Abraham, but I'm not entirely certain as I was quite tired and not in need of water at that point. You can also descend a very steep embankment to a stream just east of the June Lake trail junction, but it looked a bit treacherous.
I did not hike the Loowit between the Butte Camp Trail junction and the South Fork Toutle, so can't say if there's any water on that segment. Coldspring Creek and Sheep Creek were flowing strongly where the Toutle Trail crosses them, but the Loowit runs much higher on the mountain and they could well be dry at that elevation. Butte Camp has plenty of clear, cold water, but it will cost you an extra mile each way and about a thousand feet of elevation if you're diverting off the Loowit Trail.
Very few bugs and zero mosquitoes, which is remarkable this year - the dryness of the area does have its upsides! Look for huckleberry bushes between Muddy River and the June Lake trail junction. The berries are bit past their prime but still tasty. Saw several mountain goats between Willow Springs and the Plains of Abraham, and what looked like an elk in the drainage on the north side of Windy Pass.
In general, I found the north half of the loop much more engaging than the south. The transition from the forests and streams of the Blue Lake and South Toutle River areas to the blast zone and then the Plains of Abraham is fascinating, and you're rewarded with views of the rugged Mt. Margaret range and Mt. Rainier to the north and Mt. Adams to the east. If you don't want to commit to the full loop, the fairly easy day hike from Windy Ridge to Loowit Falls and back gives an excellent sense of the area. Staging cars at Blue Lake and Windy Ridge and day-hiking between them would capture most of the highlights of the full loop.
The south side was frankly a bit monotonous. The trail dives into and climbs out of many nearly identical steep-walled and now-dry stream valleys on the southeast side, then crosses three large lava flows that make for miles of slow travel. These are easily the most difficult part of the route. The marker posts aren't always visible and boot-prints braid and wander in these sections, making it easy to drift off the main trail. No matter the route you pick, you'll spend a fair amount of time rock-hopping, which demands attention given the risks of twisting an ankle or worse with a missed step. With very little snow on the mountain, wildflowers gone, and grasses turning brown, the south side looks especially desolate this late in the season. Aside from occasional orange and red foliage, browns and grays dominate the palette. Unfortunately Mt. Hood and other Oregon peaks were masked by smoke that had drifted in overnight.
I'm glad to have done this route since it's been on my list for a long time, but as another trip report recently put it, it's not necessarily one I'd look to repeat. If I do, I'd plan to go earlier in the year for better water availability and more color on the landscape.
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