I am confused about the elevation gain for this hike as my altimeter often gave faulty reading on this trail. I believe the net elevation gain should be around 1000-1200 ft, however the cumulative gain could be in excess of 1600 ft. At around 5 miles into the hike, you reach the Loowit trail junction and the trail continues in both directions (left and right) to possibly circle the mountain upto Windy Ridge (to the right).
Mt Adams upclose from the Ape Canyon. It takes around 90-120 mins (times may vary) to cover the distance. I won’t recommend this as a day hike, only if you want a decent trail to mountain bike.
Tag Archives: St Helens
Mt St Helens Hike
The perfect end to a perfect hiking season – St Helens. A strenuously rewarding hike which gets extremely demanding in places, especially climbing and traversing boulders through the mid section and if that is not enough the last one mile is just loose gravel and ash. You gain an elevation of roughly 4600 feet in around 4.5 miles and takes around 240-300 mins for a motivated hiker (times may vary).
Warning: Carry plenty of water as there aren’t any sources of potable water on the mountain, next to none. The only running streams are available halfway through the mid section (that also if you are lucky and hiking in the right season i.e. when the glaciers melt) but these may carry loads of ash.
The gorgeous view… beautiful, beautiful, beautiful…
Silver Star Mountain Hike
Gorgeous views atop the mountain but you have to traverse through some of the most demanding patches at the start and midway through the hike. It offers an elevation gain of around 2100 feet in 3 miles and takes around 120-150 minutes for the average hiker (times may vary). The trail gets nasty in places (very rocky) and gravel and is partly responsible for the longer duration during ascend and descend.
Mt Hood at a distance…
Mt Adams is one of the mountains visible from the summit on a clear day…
Video
Last Man On The Trail 