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: Travel Washington
Ross Dam Hike
The short hike starts from milepost 134 on highway 20 and descends around 500 ft of elevation in 1.5 miles. The trail is well maintained and should take no more than 30 mins for an average hiker (times may vary). Recommended season is early thru late summer. The Ross Dam offers yet another short hike to the Ross Lake Resort which can be seen at a distance from the dam and the Ross Lake Resort ferry launch.
Colonial Peak and Pyramid Peak stand out across the range from Ross Dam.
Diablo Lake North Cascades
Few things are better left unsaid… especially when you know there is every chance to go overboard and make it verbose. All I can say is if you live in the northwest, you may want to make every effort possible to visit this place before you head to a distant place in your nomadic life, this beauty called North Cascades National Park.
The Colonial Peak, Pyramid Peak and Davis Peak fill the background in this almost perfect picture.
The area offers many hikes, and I ‘d like to have some favorites but the one I highly recommend is a short hike to the Ross Dam which shall be covered in my next post.
Close to the Colonial Creek campground. Absolutely beautiful… The science behind the green waters can be better summarized as glacial sediments but is best googled.
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
Dog Mountain Hike
One of the more strenuous hikes for the average hiker, but you gotta earn the breeze and views at the top of the mountain. You gain an elevation of 2800 feet in around 3.8 miles and may well take you more than 120 mins to reach the summit (times may vary). Be sure to carry enough water on a hot day but I personally recommend May/June for the best scenery (wildflowers). These pictures were taken in July.
A lovely hike…
Just got lovelier…
Video
2018 Update:
Last Man On The Trail 