Mt St Helens Circumountaineering Backpack

August 20-23 (Thursday evening to Sunday)

Moderately strenuous, 29 miles, 10,000 ft elevation gainMax 12 people.

This 3-day, 29-mile loop around Mount St. Helens links old-growth forests to alpine lakes and meadows and offers a front-row look at the leftovers of this volcano's famous eruption on May 18, 1980. Despite the difficulties involved with hiking the Loowit Trail, a circuit of Mount St. Helens is one of the most spectacular hikes in the Northwest. The treeless plains offer broad vistas, including steam rising out of the crater, rocks falling from the precipitous slopes, the barren Mount Margaret ridge, eerie Spirit Lake and the 150-foot Loowit Falls as it plunges from the breach in the crater.

Preregistration required by August 10th at http://www.meetup.com/Portland-Hiking-Group/calendar/10818605/ $15 refundable or donatable deposit.Leader: David Burdick david.burdick@oregon.sierraclub.org, or 503 654-2070