It’s hard to believe that it’s been less than 2 months since I agreed to climb Mt. St. Helens with Snesha and then proceeded to talk Chris into the same slightly crazy idea. I still can’t believe we did it. I can’t tell you how amazing it was. How breathtakingly gorgeous the views were!!! How challenging and painful certain portions were. But I can tell you that after we got back I was thinking I have no regrets but I’m never doing that again and now I’m thinking about doing it again next year.
Getting to the Trailhead
Our permits were for Friday and our hiking agenda required an alpine start (read really freaking early) so we decided the only logical solution was to camp out at the trailhead. Under normal circumstances, it takes 3.5 hours to get from our house to the trailhead. I don’t have vacation time and had to work all day Thursday so we got the dubious pleasure of leaving during rush hour.
The drive is mostly along the interstate and rather dull. Things got more interesting when we got to Cougar, WA which is the closest town to the trailhead. Hikers had been reporting that the toilets at the trailhead were out so we detoured to a rest area in Cougar. Unfortunately, this wiped out our navigation to the trailhead. Neither the car nor either cell phone had service so we got to wing it in the dark. Thank goodness there were signs!
The last few miles were the best and the worst. At one point we had a crystal clear view of Mt. St. Helens lit up by the full moon. Shortly after that, the road was flanked by tall, tall trees on either side but a lovely view of the stars and clear sky directly above. After that, we got onto a super bumpy gravel road that jostled my bones. It was at this point that I was the most nervous because the road was far too narrow for me to feel comfortable turning around on and, silly me, I didn’t stop to read whatever it was that the sign taped to the construction sign at the end of the road said after “STOP if you’re following Google Maps”. I legit have no idea what else it said. I turned onto the road because there was a permanent sign that said “Climbers Bivouac Trailhead” but I spent the next 2 miles wondering if I’d made a huge mistake.
We made it in one piece. The permanent sign didn’t lie! It’s nearly 10 o’clock by this time and we start to slowly drive around the parking lot looking for Snesha’s car. She’d arrived a few hours before and set up camp.
Setting up Camp
Campsites are pretty limited at the trailhead and we knew we’d be arriving pretty late in the day so we assumed we wouldn’t get one. Therefore, the plan was to sleep in the car. We brought the tent just in case and Snesha had been able to snag a huge campsite. I think it helped that we were hiking on a weekday instead of a weekend.
Have you ever set up a tent in the dark? Me either. Quite frankly I was pretty useless by this point. I was tired and my brain and been focused on sleeping in the car and it just couldn’t pivot to set up camp mode. Chris set everything up and I got to enjoy the fruits of his labor. Well. For a few hours. Alpine start remember?
The walls of our tent are made of screens. There’s a rainfly you can add on top that protects from rain but we didn’t need it. This means we had full visibility to the full moon, star-filled sky, and lovely night. Divine.
Alpine Start
My alarm went off at 3AM. We rolled out of bed, changed clothes, packed our stuff into the car, chugged some cold brew (thanks Snesha!), and hit the trail.
Oof. That sounds rough!!! I didn’t realize you slept there before you hiked! I bet the stars were incredible!!!!