5.28. Saturday. Overcast and occasional rain. Lunch at Yale Park. Picked up permit ($22/day/pp, quota 100) and signed in at Lone Pine RV Resort at Cougar. Trail of Two Forests is a 0.3 mile interpretive loop at the bottom of a 2 millennium lava. Instead of destroy trees immediately, lava cooled around trees which decomposed later and left small tunnels and pits. Wheelchair accessible boardwalk, picnic tables. A small lava tube to crawl (head lamp!).Ape Cave is a bit further down the road with a ranger station. Possible to rent lanterns until 4pm. Guided walks. Very large lava tube, wet, chilly (42°F year round). From the main entrance, the cave heads in two directions. Lower passage is tall and wide, 3/4 miles long. Upper passage is 1.3 mile long with an exit, requiring climbing over rock piles and a small lava ledge. 1900 years ago, red flowing lava entered a stream channel, so its surface cooled quickly, insulted the molten lava beneath. According to the park brochure, eruptions of fluid lava (basalt) are rare in the Cascades because magma here has high silica content. Usually we get thick magma with suspended gases in it, leading to more explosive eruptions.
Parked at Marble Mountain SnoPark at the end of plowed FR83. Snowshoed in for ~1.6 miles & up ~700 ft. Snow-camped on a boulder next to the trail. Clear blue markings on the trees, and many signs. This is a snow sport playground. Slushy snow.
5.29. Sunday: the climb. Cloudy. 6 hours up, 3 hours down. Overnight, snow had hardened. Headed out ~6:45am in crampons. Many carried skis and snowboards up. Windy for about 1000 ft, not very cold. Partly blue sky (got sun burned). Warm. Chewed on snow frequently. The trail is straight forward. Not difficult, just long. We were the first group to reach the top. ~8300 ft is the rim. Most people stopped here. Retreated over 100 ft and treaded to the left (west) for the true peak. No wind, too cloudy to see much. The overhanging snow cornice looked quite pretty. Clouds intensified on the way down. Snow turned to slush. Had to use snowshoes. Met a ranger around the tree line (~3pm) going up to check upon hikers? Maybe 2 dozens of people attempted the climb today. I fell asleep shortly after 6pm, and woke up at 10pm all sour. Rained at night.
5.30. Memorial Day. Warm. Packing. Snowshoed to the car shortly after 8am. Met more skiers on the way. Back to Cougar on Hwy 503 (~12 miles) to sign out. Had a big breakfast at the cafe (the waitress is very nice). Back again east on Hwy 503, now turn right onto Hwy 90, passing the large Swift Reservoir, heading to Curly Creek Falls (2 levels with a rock arch), Big Creek Falls (tall) and last Lower Falls (wide). All very short leveled trails, all beautiful. There are more waterfalls long the Lewis River.
Return along Hwy 90 for ~10 miles. Turn south on to Curly Creek Rd. In the middle of the 5 mile stretch, a large turn out - McClellan Viewpoint - offers an 180° view of Mt St. Helens. Turn right on hwy 30 for ~30 miles to Carson on Columbia River. Turn west on Hwy 14 for ~5 miles (at mile 54): Dog Mountain trail head (100 ft), a gigantic parking lot (about ~1hr since the last waterfall). Up on Dog Mountain trail (3.2 miles). 0.6 miles of oak and pine later, keep right at a junction. Thick maples and pines, some little purple (pea?) and white flowers. At 1.8 miles, 1600 ft, the first grassy knoll. Balsam-root was splendid here. Most people rest and turn back at this point. Continue back into thick forest, now muddy trail for ~1 mile. Finally breaks out of the woods. Carpet of flowers, endless view: Wind Mt., buttressed ridges of Oregon's Mt Definance, Nick Eaton Ridge, Benson Plateau rising across the river... until the summit of 2945 ft. Backtrace 0.1 mile (~2800 ft) for junction to Augspurger trail: 3.7 miles to parking lot. Mostly forested, with some view of Columbia River at the last leg. Also very muddy the top 1/4 leg in forest. Augspurger Mt summit is 6.9 miles from trail head, with northern view of St Helens and Adams. For today, it was too much.Direction: I-5 exit 21 (Woodland) for Hwy 503 (Lewis River Rd). 35 miles to Cougar. 3 miles later, left onto FR83 for 2 miles. Left onto FR8303 for 0.1 mile for Trail of Two Forest, 1.5 miles on #8303 for Ape Cave.
Curly Creek Falls is 1 mile in on FR 9039, ~25 miles from Cougar. Big Creek Falls is ~6.5 miles east of Pine Creek ranger station (which is ~18 miles on Hwy 90). Lower Falls is a large campground, ~8 miles further east. There's a half mile bad gravel road 1 mile before the campground.
Dog Mountain: mile 54 on Hwy 14, ~12 miles east of Cascade Locks.
Cougar has the cheapest gas I've seen all weekend.
