[Paul M]

Craig W and I headed south on Saturday for a mellow ridge hike of a T200 prom peak near Mount St Helens. It was a welcomed break from the prior weekend in the North Cascades where the smoke was very bad. The weather on Saturday was cool with layers of thin clouds above and below at times. Definitely fall like which made for pleasant hiking. The berries were still out along the ridge but seemed a bit beyond prime as compared to what we found last weekend. We started this hike at the Bear Meadow view point on FR99 where Gary Rosenquist was camping when he took his famous photographs capturing the collapse of the northern flank of St Helens during the opening moments of the massive eruption of the volcano on May 18, 1980. We followed the well maintained trail north to our objective making a short detour to visit the Strawberry Mountain lookout site (5464ft) 2.25 miles from the trail head. This lookout had an outstanding view looking towards St Helens some 11 miles SW of the site. The ridge continued along the length of Strawberry Mountain proper sometimes on the ridge and other times bypassing bumps on the right or left of the ridge top. We left the trail at the highest approach of the trail and walked through the steep woods the final 300 ft to the small treed summit. There is a road that reaches the ridge at ~4800 ft about .75 miles north of the lookout site. We counted 10 vehicles there but strangely encountered no people during our hike. I noticed on the return that a number of the vehicles had berry buckets inside so perhaps folks were out picking huckleberries and blueberries? It was odd because a few times we though we heard voices along the trail but again we never saw a sole. It was dry all day with some sprinkles during our drive back to Puget Sound. 12.3 miles RT and ~3,100 ft total elevation gain A few washed out pictures follow.

Interpretive Sign at Bear Meadow View Point. St Helens is only 10 miles from this spot

A hazy St Helens from Strawberry Mtn lookout site

Looking north along the ridge to Strawberry Mounting main summit

Craig along the ridge

Pleasant ridge walking

Craig at the treed summit

[Redwic]

Fun trip to a nice area. I enjoyed a yummy strawberry milk at the summit. Seeing the eruption from this ridge would have been a blast.