Roger and Jennifer Colby ...Hiking and Backpacking in the Pacific Northwest: Mt Adams Backpacking

Mt Adams

...seen here with Indian Paintbrush, is a beautiful place to backpack. In the middle of August it is a natural flowerbed that impedes the days progress constantly due to all of the photographic opportunities.

I set out with my wife Jennifer and her mother Annie, to hike as much of the Round the Mountain Trail/ Highline Trail as we could. We dropped a car at Cold Springs on the south side and proceeded to Muddy Meadows where we began our hike. We proceeded up the trail and took in the views of Mt Adams across the flower filled meadows, unaware they would the last good views until we hit camp.
The trail was very dusty and heavily used by horse riders. It smelled like a rodeo and we passed countless 'piles' for the next 4 miles. At one point we got next to the creek 'Muddy Fork' we had been paralleling, only to find it was not muddy at all!

We hit the Highline Trail and headed East and left the rodeo behind for the most part. Our first good views came when we crossed a small stream and looked South across the high meadow to Mt Adams standing so massive in front of us. We were delighted when we went another thirty yards and found an empty campsite with a fire ring and a stunning view. We had made it to Foggy Flats and there was no fog! This is the best campsite I have had the pleasure to be in. from our camp you could turn in a circle and see Mt Ranier and the Goat Rocks as well. This camp is at 5700 feet and the water in the stream is as cold as any water I have ever felt.

our camp at Foggy Flats

The next morning, after a breakfast of coffee and oatmeal, we left camp. We also our tents up and much of our gear and headed out for Avalanche Valley. The hike up to the moraine fields were filled with flowers and a real nice campsite just before we left the trees.

We climbed up past Red Butte to Devil's Gardens at 7800 feet. Here we passed onto the Yakima Indian Reservation. While we generally went downhill from here, we had in the back of our mind that we would be coming back this same way this evening. Everything we went down we would come back up. This was the in and back portion of this hike as there is no trail past Avalanche Valley.

crossing the creek

On the way up to Devil's Gardens, upon passing a snow bridge, Jennifer commented that she would not cross it for a million bucks. A raging glacier fed stream disappeared under a patch of snow and reappeared about 30 yards later. Falling through that would be death. Instead we crossed the stream further up.

crossing a snowfield

We descended a steep snowfield after entering the Yakima lands.The trail was barely visible from here and many times not at all. Often we found ourselves stopped and searching for the next cairn or pile of rocks. We went over several small ridges, finally dropping into beautiful Avalanche Valley at 5700 feet.

Jennifer cools her feet in a stream surrounded by wildflowers in Avalanche Valley

Annie and post-crossing

Jennifer crossing the snow bridge

Our return trip put us at the stream crossings in the afternoon. The stream had swollen to twice its size in the warm afternoon sun. Unable to find a crossing spot after going upstream half a mile we returned to cross the snow bridge. Turns out Jennifer would cross it for dinner and a campfire.

the snow bridge

the evening fire

After a 12 mile day with a total of 4200 foot climb and 4200 descent we were all thoroughly exhausted. It was nice to come back to our camp already set up and settle in for a nice dinner. Food...any food....even dried food never tasted so good. Speaking of fire and dinner....I was relaxing by the fire on this night when I detected the smell of plastic burning. I announced to the girls, who were cooking dinner at the time, that something was burning and they should check their cooking situation for the source of that smell. They reported, from 10 feet away, that everything on their end was fine. I continued to sniff the air detecting an unmistakable plastic burn smell. We don't burn plastic so it seemed odd. I contemplated this for about 5 minutes when I happened to glance down and lo and behold it was me that was on fire! My fleece had caught a spark just below my chin and currently was burning around the edges of a quarter sized hole in my shirt. It had burned through my second layer, a long sleeve wicking shirt, and was working on my final layer. It truly was embarrassing and we all laughed real good.

the waterfall at Killen Creek

The next we left Foggy Flats after breakfast and coffee and headed west with our full packs. We joined the Pacific Crest Trail eventually and stopped at that junction to fix blisters on the girls feet. We met a real nice fellow hiker then, the first of several we would see over the next couple days. We passed Killen Creek with it's amazing setting it was predictably full of hikers. It boasts beautiful meadows, views, a waterfall and ponds. We took our lunch of PB and honey on a tortilla at Adams Creek.

Roger, Jennifer and Annie

Pausing for a break at the headwaters of the Lewis River I was amused to watch the girls hop over it.

hopping the Lewis River

We soon got our first views of Mt St Helens in the distance and at one spot could walk 10 feet and see Mt Ranier, Mt St Helens and of course Mt Adams.

Horseshoe Meadow Camp

We finally made it to Horseshoe Meadow where we found another amazing campsite. The evening was windy but the view of this west side of Mt Adams was amazing. We decided this night to drop the sides of our Seedhouse tents as last night was cold. At 5700 feet it is cold at night even in August. The sundown treated with an amazing view of the mountain, a treat for the 12 miles we hiked this day.

Mt Adams in the sundown light

breakfast view

The morning dawned windy, cold and overcast. As we had breakfast and coffee the clouds began to part and once again we were stunned by the beauty before us.