12.5 miles of hiking • 3000' elevation gain •
Took off from the Blue Lake trailhead a couple hours late, due to car failure in Woodland. (ugh!) But managed to salvage the day, and have a wonderful hike in glorious November weather! Followed the Toutle Trail to its intersection with the Sheep Canyon Trail, at which point we turned uphill and headed towards the Loowit Trail. Once at that next junction, we proceeded clockwise on Loowit, as the big views opened up. As beautiful as Sheep Canyon was, we took the chance that we'd have an even better view on top of Crescent Ridge, so we pushed through. Our wish was granted, with a superb giant boulder to take a lunch break on. From this vantage point, we had marvelous views of the Toutle River Canyon, Mount Saint Helens (of course), Mount Rainier, the Mount Margaret Backcountry, and (believe or not) we could even see the Olympics! After lunch, we continued on Loowit, soaking up awesome canyon views all along, until we met up again with the Toutle Trail. With under an hour until sunset, we just put it in cruise control and headed back to where we'd started once we hooked back into our "in" route. Another great day on the mountain!
