Little Mt. Adams – Hellroaring Meadows Loop

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bobcat
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Location: SW Portland

Little Mt. Adams – Hellroaring Meadows Loop

Post by bobcat » August 6th, 2013, 10:24 am

From the area near Sunrise Camp, Little Mt. Adams stands out down the Ridge of Wonders as an almost perfect cinder cone with its lava ramparts encircling a small crater.
Little Mt. Adams from Sunrise Camp Trail.jpg
Last Saturday, I motored through the bulldust to Tract D and paid the Yakama Nation’s $5 entry fee. At the trailhead languished the new footbridge over Hellroaring Creek, so when I got down there, I made the ford (There was a bridge when I was last here in 2006). Then I waded through boggy meadows swarming with mosquitoes to the junction with the Island Spring Trail. A portion of the sign lay against a tree.
Footbridge, Hellroaring Creek Trail.jpg
Ford, Hellroaring Creek.jpg
Columbia monkshood (Aconitum columbianum), Hellroaring Creek.jpg
Junction, Hellroaring Creek-Island Spring Trails.jpg
Well, the Island Spring had not been maintained in 2006 and it has not had a smidgeon of maintenance since then. However, most of the route, although sketchy, is fairly easily negotiated through meadows, patches of dry montane forest, much blowdown, and ever expanding thickets of snowbrush, spiraea, bitter cherry, young aspen, etc. Yellow squares on trees also show you that you’re on the right track. Beyond the lower trail’s only switchback, the going gets easier in mountain hemlock/ponderosa pine parklands, also with much blowdown. The trail drops to a bench on the slope of the Ridge of Wonders and then wanders to a creek. The source of this creek seems the logical place for Island Spring itself, but maps have that feature placed lower down the slope.
Aspen, Island Spring Trail.jpg
Towards the spring, Island Spring Trail.jpg
After the creek, the “upper” Island Spring Trail resumes, but this section has been abandoned for even longer than the lower section and is not on current maps. The trail route heads up the valley side of the ridge, avoiding a lot of blowdown in the montane forest, but sometimes getting lost in thickets. In some places there is the vestige of a tread, but many of the yellow squares remained and somehow I was able to keep track of these (also there was red flagging in places).
Trail into thicket, Island Spring Trail.jpg
Yellow square on mountain hemlocks, Island Spring Trail.jpg
Mt. Adams lupine (Lupinus sericeus sericeus var. flexuosus), Little Mt. Adams.jpg
At least the squares showed me to the cinder scree below Little Mt. Adams. There’s a choice here: you can traverse to the right through the subalpine woodland to a saddle and then slog up scree to the summit or you can go straight up to the base of the lava rim and walk along it. I went straight up the cinders and walked along the lava wall to a climbable nook leading to the “summit.” From here, one drops through whitebark pine krummholz to the crater itself, a quiet, sheltered spot dotted with alpine wildflowers. From the rim, there were views to Heart Lake in Hellroaring Meadows and the valley’s headwall. Everything above, including the high points of the Ridge of Wonders, was socked in.
View to Goat Butte, Little Mt. Adams.jpg
Inside the crater, Little Mt. Adams.jpg
Dirty socks (Eriogonum pyrolifolium var. coryphaeum), Little Mt. Adams.jpg
Dwarf alpinegold (Hulsea nana), Little Mt. Adams.jpg
Meaning of life, Little Mt. Adams.jpg
I dined in the crater and then contemplated the bush/bogwhack to Heart Lake. In 2006, I had gone pretty much straight down the slope and slogged across the bogs almost directly to Heart Lake. This time, I decided to angle towards the head of the valley and cross it on the debris slope. As I got closer, however, with the Ridge of Wonders rearing above, I found myself up to my armpits in lush shrubbery (sawwort, wormwood, alpine knotweed, etc.) on a very steep slope with hidden snags gouging my legs. I realized I was doomed to the bogs again and headed down.
Alpine collomia (Collomia larsenii), Little Mt. Adams.jpg
Thompson's paintbrush (Castilleja thompsonii), Little Mt. Adams.jpg
American sawwort (Saussaurea americana), Ridge of Wonders.jpg
I tried to pick the least gooey line across the bogs but sucking goo alternated with willow thickets and then Sitka alder then islands of mountain hemlock and then more goo. Branches of Hellroaring Creek had gouged ten-foot canyons in the peaty valley floor and I had to find logs across. I had heard of a “climber’s trail” that went up the west side of the valley to Sunrise Camp, but found no such track on the other side. Once there, however, it was an easy lope down through the woods, crossing one old debris field, until I saw a wall of rock to my left.
Hellroaring Creek branch crossing, Hellroaring Meadows.jpg
Ridge of Wonders from Hellroaring Meadows.jpg
Where the goats spend winter, Hellroaring Meadows.jpg
I recognized this wall as a feature local climbers (Trout Lake/White Salmon) had spoken of, so I headed over there. A faint track led along the base of the wall to join the trail into Heart Lake. I visited the lake and then headed out on the Hellroaring Meadows Trail, one that actually is well-maintained. The trail turned at a talus slope squeaking with pikas and where a large spring pours from the base of the rock. Then the path traverses, mostly on the level, in mountain hemlock/huckleberry woods to the trailhead. It was about a mile back down the road to the Bench Lake Campground where I had parked.
Climbers' wall near Heart Lake.jpg
Bear-grass and false hellebore, Climbers' wall, Heart Lake.jpg
Little Mt. Adams and Heart Lake.jpg
Big spring, Hellroaring Meadows Trail.jpg

cfm
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Joined: June 18th, 2008, 6:49 am

Re: Little Mt. Adams – Hellroaring Meadows Loop

Post by cfm » August 6th, 2013, 5:13 pm

Hi Bobcat, I had a similar visit to Little Mt Adams as yours in 2010, starting from Hellroaring Meadows, it started foggy, then snowing and I only got a glimpse of the headwall, but I loved that crater!

I actually returned two weeks ago for a backpack trip, I hope you don't mind if I piggyback on your Tr and add a few pics.

We started at Bench Lake but missed the switchback on the Island Spring Trail and ended up on "The Island", and the ridge just north of LMH. WE headed west and eventually it joined up with the Ridge of Wonders.
LMH2.jpg
We were intending to travel the ROW all the way to Sunrise Camp, but came to some obstacles we couldnt safely go around with our heavy packs on. WE bombed down a gully into the canyon and made campalong one of the many braiding streambeds that come off the headwall. It was spectacular!

Hellroaring.jpg
The next day we climbed out of the canyon through a hanging meadow on the SW edge and hooked up with the climbers trail and made our way to Sunrise.
goatys.jpg
View from my second night's camp on the edge of the canyon:
sunrise view.jpg
Thank you for the ID of the alpine flowers!

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bobcat
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Re: Little Mt. Adams – Hellroaring Meadows Loop

Post by bobcat » August 8th, 2013, 9:32 am

@cfm: Well, you certainly had nicer weather than I did! I too had mulled the possibility of heading up the Ridge of Wonders to Sunrise Camp but (1) I spent too much time trying to follow the exact track of the old Island Springs Trail, and (2) a closer look at all the spires and pinnacles made me realize that, if there is a route up the ridge, it would be very tricky and involve a lot of up and downs - taking much more time than I had!

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Gray Jay
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Re: Little Mt. Adams – Hellroaring Meadows Loop

Post by Gray Jay » September 28th, 2013, 5:50 pm

I hiked the Island Springs Trail last year and explored Little Mount Adams, so I know what a bushwack it is to climb through the brush and over the logs while trying to stay on route. Fortunately, I was with a friend who knew the trail so we generally kept on course.

When I got home, I got some information about the Island Springs Trail from the Yakamas. Because the bridge over Hellroaring Creek frequently washes out, the Yakama Indian Nation has abandoned the trail. However, Washington Trails Association conducts an annual Volunteer Vacation at Tract D in partnership with the Tribe: this year, the WTA volunteers constructed the footings and sills for a removable foot bridge over Hellroaring Creek (the bridge as shown in your photograph) with the idea that the bridge will be installed when Tract D opens each year and pulled at the end of the summer. If this plan works, the next steps will be to reopen the Island Springs Trail and the Hellroaring Loop Trail that go out of the Bench Lake Campground.

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