We hiked the Loowit Loop over 3 days and 2 nights, starting Sunday 6/25 and finishing Tuesday 6/27. Let me just start off by saying, this trail is so rugged and it was a beautiful but grueling trip. I do consider myself to have a somewhat moderate risk tolerance as I do scramble and rock climb, but there were times that this trail definitely pushed my comfort zone.
Climbers Bivouac and June Lake were still closed per the US Forest Service website when I was planning our trip which is why we chose to start from Marble Mountain. However, on trail we learned from other Loowit hikers that June Lake trailhead was actually now open so we decided to exit out that way which we were really glad we did, it's a cool little lake with an awesome waterfall. Of note, we did notice that there was a sign posted at the June Lake trailhead stating no parking for the Loowit Loop access and cars parked >48hrs will be ticketed.
Since we started at Marble Mountain Sno-Park and traveled CW on the trail exiting at June Lake we ended up doing a 1 mile road walk back to the Marble Mountain trailhead although utilizing the Pine Marten Trail probably would have been a wiser choice.
Day 1: Marble Mountain Sno-Park to Crescent Ridge - 10.2 miles, 3320 ft gain
Our approach to the Loowit Trail along the winter climbers route consisted of roughly 2.4 miles and 1000 feet of gain and was mostly snow free with intermittent patches. Once we arrived at Chocolate Falls we continued to the left to begin our CW circumnavigation. Once on the Loowit we very quickly found snow and were basically on and off snow for the remainder of the day, occasionally requiring GPS navigation to find the route. We crossed quite a lot of snow fields and chutes on the Southwest side but none that posed any real issue. My partner went ahead and cut steps as the snow turned into mashed potatoes but we faired just fine in trail runner with poles, and never used our spikes. It seemed like when we weren’t navigating through snow we found ourselves rock hopping through boulder fields, it was a bit tedious but rather straightforward using the wooden posts to mark your next waypoint.
At the Blue Lake Wash you cross the first rope assisted gully on trail. The rope on the south side of the wash is well maintained with ample length to get you to the bottom of the wash safely, and while the gully wall has rather solid footing, it is nearly vertical. This made me a bit nervous with my pack so my partner went down with his pack, came back up and took my pack down so that I could descend without the pack weight which made it feel much safer. However, ascending back out of the ravine on the north side of the wash proved to be a bit more challenging. The rope on the north side has been buried in some rock fall and is only accessible once you're about halfway up the gully wall. This side of the ravine is much more loose and feels quite a bit sketchier with the limited access and use of the rope. Plus I chose to ascend with my pack which made it a bit more strenuous, nonetheless— we both made it up safely and took at break at the top.
Between the snow, boulder fields, and dropping in and out of ravines, we were moving much slower than we had hoped and opted to camp up on Crescent Ridge just before the descent to the South Toutle River started. With all the early season snow, we crossed a lot of seasonal streams during the day and water was never an issue, something I know can't be said later in the season. This allowed us to stop and fill up our water capacity about 30 minutes before we made camp so that dry camping wasn't an issue. The campsite we found was marked on Gaia and to our luck, was melted out. It was a pleasant well protected campsite tucked in the trees. We setup camp, cooked dinner, and then walked down to a break in the trees to watch sunset, say goodnight to Loowit, and head to bed.
Day 2: Crescent Ridge to Plains of Abraham - 11.9 miles, 2735 ft gain
We awoke around 6:00 am, slowly crawled out of our tent, made some breakfast and packed up camp. We started hiking around 8:00 am and immediately began the forested descent down to the South Toutle River. There were several blow downs but none that posed any real challenges. At the South Toutle River is the second and final roped assisted section on trail. On the South side of the wash the rope was basically unnecessary, but it did make the descent to the river much quicker and provided security. We opted to take our shoes off and ford the river, it was shin deep for me and no issue. On the north side of the wash the rope is very helpful, it’s a long steep ascent back out of the South Toutle wash. I found the final traverse on the climb out of the South Toutle River Valley to be a bit sketchy. It transitions from forested switchbacks to a long sweeping traverse on a narrow loose rock trail but progresses to sandy/ash providing a shelf that is only 1 foot width wide. There is a fair amount of exposure through this traverse in my opinion but I never felt unsafe or scared, just very focused.
We spent the rest of the day hiking through wildflowers, dropping in and out of washes, and hiking across the blast zone. It was super pretty. Again due to the early season conditions we crossed many seasonal creeks from snow melt, and water was never an issue. There was 1 gully on the north side that was absolutely destroyed by the melt, it’s super steep and loose with no apparent path down, maybe 30 foot runout of razor sharp pumice. I slipped on bad footing but was able to stop myself from sliding, it did give me quite the scare though, and forced us to take a very slow and methodical path down. We ended the day going over Windy Pass, ascending the North side was no issue, but descending on the south side, felt very sketchy. At this point I was tired and feeling pretty insecure in my footing due to my slip on loose rock earlier in the day. The traverse down was super steep with lots of loose rock and the route was so faint I actually turned around and looked at my partner and said this can’t be the way. He unfortunately confirmed I was wrong, and took over on routing us down. It look me quite awhile and I certainly had a few moments where I questioned my ability to make it down safely, but with a little guidance from my partner I made it down without any slips.
On the south side of Windy Pass, the environment was indeed windy. However, at this point I was exhausted from the long day and multiple bouts of adrenaline rushes from the sketches traverses. We found a campsite rather quickly, settling on the third site we came upon which had a small rock wall for wind protection and decided to call it home for the night. We collected water from a stream on the south side of Windy Pass, so again, dry camping was of no issue.
Day 3: Plains of Abraham to Marble Mountain Snow-Park - 9.3 miles, 790 ft gain
We again awoke around 6:00 am and took our time getting on trail around 8:00 am. We hiked through the Plains of Abraham and around past Pumice Butte, there are quite a few very nice campsites over here with probably the best views of Loowit on the loop. Of note, there was water running at these campsites as well. This section of trail was definitely the most enjoyable and easiest going. We rounded to the South side of the mountain and made our final small climb before arriving at the Muddy Creek washout which was the last sketchy descent in my opinion. Maybe my nerves were fried at this point, but I looked at the traverse down into the gully and immediately said there’s no way. My partner led the way down and it actually wasn’t as bad as it looked, but I was ready to be done with dangerous terrain at that point. We made good time descending down in elevation continuing to work our way in and out of washes, eventually progressing through boulder fields and more snow again before making our way to the June Lake trail and out back to the trailhead. We arrived back at Marble Mountain Sno-Park somewhat wrecked, so hungry, and relieved to be done.
This trip was absolutely a mix of type 1 and type 2 fun, but I am so happy we did it.
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