Elevation Gain: Less than 200 ft.
Time: 12:00 pm - 1:45 pm
Weather: Overcast, cold, rainny/snowy
Well, this weekend was a major bust. I normally don't pick a hike mid-week, but this week I did. I wanted to go to a place called Norway Pass. It is just north of Mount St. Helen's above Spirit Lake. I can only imagine how awesome it would be, because this morning, I could not make it to the trailhead.
I found the hike using the wta.org hike finder. I looked for a hike in an area I had not been yet, and that's why I went further south than usual. It was going to take about 2 and half hours to get to the trailhead. Calling the phone number listed in the trail's description got me to a recording saying, "National Forest Road 99 is open." I guess open can also mean, covered with snow. I got to less than 10 miles away from the trail head, but had to turn around due to the snow on the roads. I guess it is too late in the year to be going into the high country. At least too late without chains and a more jacked subaru.
After I turned around and got back below the snowline, i saw a sign pointing to Iron Creek Falls and just decided that this was going to be my hike. I geared up and started walking. I only was walking for about 3 minutes before I reached the falls. The falls were pretty, but I was majorily bummed to not have a very long hike. I stuck around the falls for about an hour. I had lunch, climbed above the falls a bit, and tromped through the river in my waterproof boots+gaiter combo.
As I walked out, I was really unhappy with the length of my hike. I was definately in the backcountry, but if there were no falls, I would have been able to still hear the traffic from the road. As I was driving out, I saw another Iron Creek sign and found a huge picnic area. The area looked like an old car camping campground, but all the signs said no overnight camping. I walked around, found a trailhead bulletin board. The board had a map of the pinic area, and there was an old-growth forest trail around the perimeter. I finally got a more serious walk in; it took about 35 minutes to complete the loop, and I felt a little bit better about the day.
Orchid: Hiking through the river, keeping feet dry.
Onion: Snow, forcing me to turn around.
Picture:
Google Map
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