Helen Thayer wrote in her account of Walking the Gobi about the endless wind carrying sand and rocks into every crack and crevice. I could almost sympathize after a hike along the Boundary Trail from the Hummocks to the Loowit Viewpoint on a particularly windy March day.
The volcanic landscape of Mt St Helens lends itself to this type of a comparison as life has barely taken root in the ash and pumice on the wind-swept slopes. As the winds whip around the tree-bare hills, it picks the tiny and not so tiny particles left from the last eruption 30 years ago.
The trail leads you through hummocks, mounds of ash and earth from inside the volcano deposited when the mountain blew out the north flanks. Then up the hill to Loowit Viewpoint - an perfectly unobstructed view. However the hiker will have magnificent views all along the trail. Along the way you will also find evidence of the forest's past when lumber was the primary industry - now industry belongs to tourism. From the Loowit Viewpoint, you can continue on the Boundary trail east into the Cascades.
Go before the Johnston Ridge Observatory is open in May and you are fairly guaranteed solitude.
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