Mt. Adams - South Climb TH to Hellroaring & Iceberg Lake

[zombie]

My hiking partner and I met in Clackamas early Friday morning and headed up to Mt. Adams. It was my first time in the Adams area, although it has been on my list for a long time! The plan was to drive to the South Climb Trailhead and take the Round-the-Mountain trail to Hellroaring Viewpoint. I knew we could hit the Bird Lake Trailhead and cut off about 5 miles, but we wanted to see as much as possible during our day on the mountain…and boy would we be glad that we made that decision!
There were calls of thunderstorms for the afternoon and evening, but the drive up revealed a decent day thus far as we caught our first glimpse of the mountain.

Forest Road 8040 was in pretty great shape and travels (I think!) through the burned out areas of a huge fire back in July of 2008. If this is in fact correct, I watched this fire blaze from the slopes of Cooper Spur on Mt. Hood five years ago.

The South Climb trailhead was PACKED when we arrived at about 9:30am. Dozens of cars filled every available nook and group after group of climbers prepared to head up the mountain. We shared the trail with them only until the Round-the-Mountain junction, and this first length of just over a mile leaves much to be desired. A rocky roadbed switchbacks dustily up through the burn gaining about 700 feet before you are allowed to leave the crowds behind by hanging a right.

Evidence of the burn continues, although the next half mile or so brought us out of the worst of it.

Looking up the mountain we could see those climbers swarming up the snow fields and ice toward The Lunch Counter and summit. The sheer scope of their endeavor became apparent when I could not see them with my naked eye and their tiny specks were revealed only when zooming in with my camera!

The Round the Mountain trail is an easy walk! Turns out you are actually slowly losing elevation for the next couple miles. Along the way are some amazing geological displays!

At about mile 2.5 we found ourselves approaching the Aiken Lava Bed…what a sight! At first it appeared to be just a rockfall of some sort, but quickly we found ourselves wandering through a 20’ deep channel surrounded by some amazing raw lava rock and the flora which has managed to push its way up and through. It wasn’t until we popped out the other side of the flow that we realized the full scope. This pile of lava stretches a little over 4 miles down the slopes below you and appeared to be up to 50-60 feet thick at points.

And then we hit the meadows. WOW. There is no real way I can put into words the beauty of the next two miles. Meadow after meadow, bursting with all manner of wild flowers stretch one after another in a show that had us taking so many photos we were only moving at about a mile per hour. Babbling streams cross the footpath every couple hundred yards and cut their way through the meadow greenery in twisting snakelike patterns. Floral color sprays, mountain views, streams and mini-cascades falling trailside appeared with such frequency, that I began to wonder how it is that I have every hiked another trail!

Continued!

[zombie]

...continued

In the middle of this amazing display is a half-mile detour off the main path to see the lovely Crooked Creek Falls.

Five miles into the hike, we arrived at the Trail of the Flowers, a one mile loop that is supposed to show off the best of Mt. Adams wildflower displays. This is also where we began to run into the crowds. The funny thing is, the meadows prior to this point were infinitely more impressive and we hadn’t seen another soul since the South Climb Trail! We headed up the TotF just to reach a shortcut trail up to Hellroaring Viewpoint and join the jeans and sneakers crowd (from the Bird Creek TH) for the breathtaking views up Adams southeast flank.

I had heard of Iceberg Lake hiding somewhere up above us and that it never fully melts out, leaving floating chunks of winter’s freeze year round. I had also heard warnings that the trail up to the lake became faint at best and often non-existent. If we turned around now we would be looking at a 12 mile day with some awe-inspiring visuals, but the opportunity to take in even more of Adams’ wonders was too much to pass up. So up we went. For a short while the trail was quite evident and only went missing for small distances. We began to think the warnings were nothing to worry about…

But then things changed. The trail disappeared completely, and animal trails in the terrain led us on a few wild goose chases trying to re-establish it. Using my GPS as best we could, we looked for any “pocket” or “hollow” that could hold water and went for it (my GPS loaded topos do not show the lake). After working our way to a couple locations with no luck we were about to call off the hunt…but there was just one more scramble left to peek over.

Nope. It wasn’t there either, but now we could see sure evidence of foot travel, so we were off and running again! Up a few more rocky ridges and success.

I couldn’t believe how thick the ice cover still was! Nor could we believe the crazy colors of blue that were represented in this water. It was so peaceful up here and we snacked while watching small icebergs float around with the gentle push of the wind. I dumped out the contents of my Nalgenes and promptly filtered some of the best trail water I’ve ever drank! The entire time we were sitting lakeside, rocks were being released from the cliff across the lake in rumbling tumbles. Huge puffs of ash, sand and dirt billowed up from the mountain face, often before the sound of the rock fall had reached us. Iceberg Lake was fun to find and wound up being the highlight of the entire day.

As we headed back down the mountain to reach the Hellroaring Viewpoint and turn west for the return trip to the car, the sun decided to burn off all those clouds that had been hanging around and we were treated to a farewell from Mt. Adams and a candid view of the blunt edge of the Mazama Glacier.

All in all, this was one of the best days I’ve had on a trail in several years and has now rivaled this year’s Coldwater Peak trip for top billing. Totals for the day were about 15 miles and 3200’ of elevation.

[payslee]

Thanks for this great TR. I've been wanting to get back to Adams for far too long and I think I'm going to have to take a day off from work and just do it. And it's definitely true what you've found - step off the climber's trail and you have incredible alpine country more or less to yourself. I've never figured out why.

I think the burn you went through was from just last year. That whole part of the GP was closed until just this June.

-payslee

[kepPNW]

Great report! I'd like to do that one, too. Do you happen to post your track(s) anywhere? (I really enjoy doing a new hike virtually in Google Earth, before going, to have a better feel for the landscape I'll be traveling through!) That lake looks delicious!

step off the climber's trail and you have incredible alpine country more or less to yourself. I've never figured out why.

Such a zoo at that TH?

[scrambler2]

I think the burn you went through was from just last year. That whole part of the GP was closed until just this June.

And there was a fire in that same section about 5 years ago.

[Peder]

Great TR Zombie! That is a cool exploration and you seemed pretty determined to find that Iceberg Lake! What a great day out! I wonder why Karl needs a GPS track? I guess he does not wish for the excitement of searching for Iceberg Lake!

[kepPNW]

I wonder why Karl needs a GPS track? I guess he does not wish for the excitement of searching for Iceberg Lake!

HA! Busted.

It was the comment that it wasn't on the GPS mapset that got me wondering, actually. Just guessing that this (blue arrow) is probably it?

Iceberg Lake?

[zombie]

Do you happen to post your track(s) anywhere? (I really enjoy doing a new hike virtually in Google Earth, before going, to have a better feel for the landscape I'll be traveling through!)

I would love to attach GPS tracks to my trail reports, however I have no idea how to! I currently upload all my tracks to TOPO, but they aren't saved as .gpx anywhere that I can find. I have thought of using GPSfly, however I don't know how to get the tracks from my device to the site...my computer doesn't recognize my handheld as a drive when it is connected.

Anyway, I suppose that is all something for another thread (which probably exists if I just searched well enough!).

Here is a screen grab from TOPO that at least shows the location...the lake is clearly there on the NatGeo maps...just not my loaded Garmin ones.

In this shot, the lake is nestled behind the dark ridge between the arrows. Elevation is 7650'ish.

-Aaron

[retired jerry]

You can attach a gpx file just like attaching a picture. Someone would have to download it to a gpx viewing tool.

[retired jerry]

For example:

1tracksmthood.gpx

(203.48 KiB) Downloaded 257 times