9.9 miles of hiking • 2750' elevation gain •
This trek up a virtually barren ridge on the south side of Coldwater Lake, just north of Johnston Ridge, could be spectacular! On a clear day. Today we climbed into the clouds and near-whiteout conditions, at times almost surreal. It was another good test of the new snowshoes. We wandered through and past much blowdown from the 1980 eruption, and even passed by some old logging equipment that got destroyed that day as well.
Although we had hoped to make it all the way to the Boundary Trail, where it overlooks Saint Helens Lake, we turned around about a mile or so short of that as we felt the view there would be pretty much what we had where we were. That is, whiteness. Very white whiteness, punctuated only momentarily by the briefest of clearings as 30-40mph winds whipped the clouds all about us. Temps were in the upper 20s most of the day.
