2011 Edition
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Friday. Labor Day weekend. Hasn't been much of a Summer and we never did really
have any Spring. I'm guessing this weekend and possibly next week is about it for
the nice, warm, sunny weather. And with Julie in the hospital, that pretty much
puts the kibosh on all of the plans we've made.....
Getting there: Directions to Windy Ridge are
HERE.
About 8 miles after you turn on to the Windy Ridge access road, you'll see F.R. 26
on your right. Go down FR 26 for about a mile and you'll see the Norway Pass trailhead
on your left. It has a very large parking area. A day use pass is required (except
for motorcycles).
You can click on these images to enlarge them.
Almost immediately, you start getting good views of Mount Adams, and, of course,
Mount Saint Helens. Later on the trail you'll see Mount Rainier and Mount Hood.
This is Mount Rainier. Still pretty frosty for early September especially since it
will be snowing up there (and down here) in a few weeks.
This trail is well marked, at least starting out. Nice views at the turn off to
go back to Independence Pass. This trail is closed due to a slide or something.
It's 1.2 miles from the trailhead to this cut-off, which goes off to your left.
It's another mile to the Norway Pass cut-off, which also goes off to your left.
Nice view of Mount Adams at this location. The mountain views improve the further
along the trail you go.
Nice view of Mount Saint Helens and Spirit Lake.
About 3 1/2 miles from the trailhead, you'll come up to the Lakes Trail cut-off
(top, left) that goes up and to your right. At about 4 1/2 miles from the trailhead,
you'll come up to this weathered "restricted area" sign. It was right around here
that the boundary trail disappeared (if you can believe that!)
Just past this restricted area sign, the trail took a sharp turn to the right,
although in retrospect, this may have been wrong. Within a quarter mile or so, I
was in Bear Camp where the trail abruptly ended. I went across this snow field
(in early September, at only 5,200' elevation!)....
Note the solar powered "potty" in the enclosed structure straight ahead.
There's a good view of Mount Saint Helens behind me.
Just past the solar potty is the first of two campsites called Bear Camp. I
think I must have missed a turn before getting this far. I did backtrack but
just could not find anything that looked like the boundary trail....
I'll have to ask a Ranger which one of these is Mount Margaret... I was less than
a mile from the summit which means it must have been one of these two. It's also
probably time to buy a VERY detailed Forest Service map, which would have been very
helpful at times like these.
UPDATE: In the above left picture, you can see about 1/3 of Mount Margaret
at the very left of the frame. Below is a picture of the whole mountain (on the left
side of the frame). Apparently, the boundary trail goes over towards the rocky
peak in the center.
Roy on Portland Hikers was kind enough to send me the two pictures above
of Mount Margaret.
Great 360 degree views up here... Mount Adams..
Mount Saint Helens....
And Mount Rainier...
And a couple more nice views on the way back...
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