Sunrise from the 504:
St Helens never peeked out from behind the clouds much more than this:
Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center perched on the hill in the early morning blue sky:
There were a few fun crossings:
Beaver Dam:
Coldwater Creek:
Awesome bridge over Coldwater Creek with Jo:
The view from the bridge and above on the ridge line:
From the Lakes trail we could see south coldwater ridge across the lake and noted how much snow seemed to have melted off since Roy's visit a few weeks back. We made the decision to make a loop using the Coldwater Trail(#230), South Coldwater Trail(#230A) and a short section of hwy 504 instead of backtracking the Lakes trail. Once we reached about 3200 ft or so on the Coldwater Trail we hit snow on off but never sank more than a few inches. Following the trail wasnt too hard watching for the corridor and cut logs/twigs and the many posts that line the trail. Things slowed down a bit with the trail breaking in the snow for a few miles but I was really impressed with our pace and ability to stay on track. Many sections of the trail were totally obscured in several feet of snow and others were almost melted out:
Here is our route with red arrows marking our direction, the red dot is the startingpoint at the Coldwater Rec Area and Boat Launch:
We saw two kinds of grouse today. It seemed like they were everywhere, only out numbered by the massive amounts of elk.
Soon enough and we were on the South Coldwater Trail viewing the lake from high above:
And the old logging equipment that a took a big time beating over 30 years ago:
After we got back to the boat launch area we drove back over to the Hummocks Trail and I got to hike the short 2.5 - 3 mile loop complete with several nice interpretive signs. The hummocks trail was amazing and although ive heard it busy i only saw one family on the loop. Truly an impressive sight but my camera died at the boundary trail intersection so I have a good excuse to go back
Looks like heading a bit north and east got you some decently clear skies on Saturday. I wish my wife or daughter would consider going with me on a hike. That'd be sweet!
