Siouxon Creek, WA 14 Sept 2013

Katrina and I hiked Siouxon Creek on Saturday morning after BSF.  We started out from Keizer at 9:30a in a drizzle, but by the time we arrived at the trailhead, at noon, it was sunny and nice.  The hike is a gentle rolling hike, with 700 ft gain over all, 7.8 miles.  You can go further than Chinook Falls (and the water was low enough to cross) but it was late, so we turned around there.  It was a beautiful forest, lush moss and ferns and the mushrooms were beginning to "blossom".  It took us 5 hours to do the hike because we stopped a lot, to take mushroom photos and just admire God's creation.  It was a pretty hike.  The road there is paved, though it is way off the beaten path.  Bikers share the trail but it wasn't a problem  Some swimmers here and there because the pools were perfect for a dip.

lush fern-y forest

fancy

yellow lace

the first foot bridge

double-decker

manicured trail

deep pools

pastry

the lunch spot

sunny-side up

little miss

forest moon-jellies

ruffles and ridges

chalice

knobs

Chinook falls

sturdy

check out the roots

Scott Mountain Loop 13 Sept 2013

This 9.7 mile hike off of Hwy 242 is a nice loop circling through forest, up a mountain, and along a lave berm, all with views of lakes, the central Cascades, and tons of mushrooms.  The forest is not remarkable, but the mushrooms were fun, and in spring the little meadows would have been lush with flowers.  The view from Mt Scott (6116 ft) was all mine, and gorgeous.  The drive there is a long one - almost 3 hours, and the hike took about 5 hr because of all my stops for fiddly macro mushroom shots!
Enjoy :-)

Benson Lake

table top

birth of the golf balls

jabba the hutt

elephant ears

toad

attack!

Tenas Lake (one of many)

grunge

funnels

roadmap

the horta

The Sisters and Broken Top from Mt Scott

Jefferson, Three fingered Jack, Washington, Belknap, Black Crater and two Sisters - lunch view

invasion

party

lobes

purple princess

Sisters from the lava berm

Hand Lake

convoluted

Scott Lake

Ape Canyon TH to Windy Pass 31 August 2013

Katrina and I set out from Keizer at 6:30a for the south side of Mt St Helens.  The day was beautiful, and we even were treated to sunrise over Mt Hood on the way up.  We arrived at the TH at 8:40a, not a bad drive, all paved and well signed.
We began the hike in a 1968 clear cut forest along side the Lahar mudflow.  Mt St Helens loomed off to the left and we got glimpses now and again.  After a mile and a half we entered old growth forest untouched by the 1980 blast.  Soon we had views of Hood, Adams and even Mt Rainier.  At the Ape Canyon overlook it was wide-ope to see all around and you felt like you were touching Mt St Helens, and at this point you are standing on the pumice covered flank.  Up to this point we had only seen mountain bikers heading to Windy Ridge - and for the most part they were polite and warned us they were coming.  The path is narrow so moving out of the way could be dicey.
We hiked on until noon and we stopped at a nice overlook of Ape Canyon on the other side to eat lunch.  Looking back at the mountain from that point, the view was carpeted in green because of a spring on the mountain slope.  After lunch we decided to walk on for 30 more minutes.  That took us all the way through the Plains of Abraham.  The lupines were past their prime but it was pretty with other flowers and the simple vastness of the pumice flats and scope of the mountain.  We arrived at the junction for Windy Ridge to the right or Loowit trail to the left and we decided to walk a little more.  We met a guy hiking back towards us who said if we went up to a notch on the ridge, we could see Spirit Lake.  Katrina was up for it so we went.  Another half hour...we could see the back edge of the lake covered mostly in logs.  That felt like a destination (though if we had time and energy we could have gone 2.5 more miles and been at Loowit Falls!) so we turned back and made it to the car by 4:10p.  14 miles and 2000 ft gain.  A great day!

(This would be a fun hike to do early in the season when the snow had not melted so much - however, then creeks may be an issue in the afternoon...they got noticeably bigger as the day progressed!)

the trail begins and goes for 4.5 miles through woods

peaks of Mt St Helens and the Lahar mud flow

now the view opens up to the east 

Ape Canyon overlook

heading to the Plains of Abraham

Katrina and Mt Adams over the pumice plain

our lunch view and Ape Canyon

trees affected by the blast

heading around the east side of the mountain

pretty grasses

going up to the ridge to see Spirit Lake

we are heading for that notch "v" on the right

Spirit Lake is to the left (tiny - log covered)

Spirit Lake, Mt Rainier

the spring fed area

Ape canyon on the way back

Mt St Helens and the Lahar Mudflow about 4p