(What I predicted in this post has come true--the USFS resuscitated their previous restrictions in April of 2024). For decades Forest Service land along the Spirit Lake Highway has been heavily posted with government "no trespassing" signs. People hopping out of their cars to get a better view or find a place for their kids to play in the snow, were confronted with these infamous brown signs.  The signs are also liberally placed around the visitor centers and along Coldwater Lake.  They are still there, but the "administrative closure" behind them has been finally allowed to mercifully die after being kept artificially alive for nearly 30 years.  

So for now, I will celebrate.  And plan some new adventures.  

I've been fighting these improper closures this whole time.  (oops, there slips my age!)  I started with a petition back in 1993 to allow snow travel on logging roads on land that had just been acquired from Weyerhaeuser.  These lands were located between the (then new) Spirit Lake Highway and the original Monument boundary.  The public agency acquired them, then immediately posted them closed to the public. These lands were deemed so sensitive that no entry was allowed, despite the fact that since the eruption this land had been salvage logged, replanted, and used as a highway construction site!  The USFS said "NO" to my petition.  I knew it was simply heavy-handed crowd control.  Thus began my long fight to improve access at Mount St. Helens. 

I studied the Monument's 1985 management plan, and what I found was stunning: None of the land accessed by the Spirit Lake Highway was ever supposed to be closed like this.  In fact, 30,000 acres was improperly (via the back door) placed under an "administrative closure".  These type of closures are designed for short term emergencies like fires or floods, but Mount St. Helens used them to circumvent the guidelines of their own plan.  

In earlier blogs I hinted that the Forest Service might have let some of its "administrative closures" lapse.  This appears to be the case. It turns out, that those longterm closures were illegal.  If you check the Forest Service website here Gifford Pinchot National Forest - Alerts & Notices (usda.gov) you can see the current closure orders.  

What this means:  It is LEGAL to explore the public lands of the Monument, off trail, as long as you stay off the volcano itself and away from the construction sites by Spirit Lake.  This is the current condition, but the Forest Service could revert back to more short-term closures if they want.  To prevent this, the public must not create user trails or cut switchbacks as they roam.  Stay on the trail is still good etiquette in highly popular areas.  Off-trail travel away from developed sites is now not illegal.  What this means is experienced off-trail hikers can walk from the Spirit Lake Highway to Castle Lake (or Spirit Lake) if they choose.  Coldwater Lake is more accessible.  The Forest Service, however, doesn't want anyone to really know about this change, so the signs are still there and you will find no PR announcement that 30,000 acres is now open to cross-country travel.  I'm the only one talking.  (It should be noted that disobeying a sign is still illegal, and the USFS has not removed any signs.)

UPDATE--I hope you all had a chance to explore for the single year that the regulations were lapsed because they are back and as restrictive as ever. 

The Gifford Pinchot National Forest, which includes all of the Mount St. Helens area, is asking for comments on its trails system.  I have been thinking and discussing and planning and considering trail improvements in the Toutle Valley for decades, so I am pretty excited about this opportunity to engage.  However, I have approached the Forest Service before, so I have pretty low expectations about any on-the-ground improvements happening quickly (or at all?)  The comment period just closed.

KEY IMPROVEMENT IDEAS

• Official trailheads on the west side of the Monument (213, 217, 216G, Castle Lake road route) NEED public access easements.  To access these trailheads you must purchase a $350 Weyerhaeser permit (213 and 217) or rely on the "generosity" of the company to keep roads open (216G and Castle Lake).  
• A great new trail could be created parallel to the Spirit Lake Highway just inside the Monument Boundary using old logging roads.  The trail would start at Coldwater Lake, link with the Castle Lake and Elk Rock Viewpoints, and then drop down to the Mount St. Helens Wildlife Area in the valley below, all on old logging roads.  It could then continue on public land to the sediment dam and exit near the Green River.  What a great opportunity for a multi-use trail for hiking, biking, cross country skiing, even horses and ebikes.  
• Castle Lake Trail 221 needs to be re-built and re-routed.  It's abandoned and unmaintained.  The closed and blocked gravel road to the lake needs to be converted to an official trail.
• Re-connect Coldwater Ridge (and the Mount St Helens Institute) with the Mount Margaret backcountry trails system using the Minnie Peak route (historic Trail 212) . Before the eruption several trails here connected to the Mount Margaret area.  The existing route along Coldwater Lake and up to Snow Lake is brushy, steep, long, and prone to landslides.  The historic route is much more stable.  This link would also create a great loop opportunity, and provide a winter snowshoe or crosscountry ski route on logging roads near the Coldwater Complex.
• Build the Falls Creek Trail as planned.  Before the eruption THREE trails (212, 246, 213) connected the Green River trails to Mount Margaret.  After the eruption, none of these connections were rebuilt.  Instead the access was supposed to be replaced by a new trail along Falls Creek, but the trail was NEVER BUILT, leaving the north side of the Monument isolated, and the trailheads landlocked by private timber companies.

Southwest Washington has a spectacular opportunity to convert the old Columbia & Cowlitz Railroad into a centerpiece trail.  This 7-mile route would connect Longview and Kelso with Interstate 5 and Castle Rock at Ostrander.  The trail's stunning features would attract visitors from far and wide. Much of the route borders the Cowlitz River, and it crosses on a high bridge with abutting trestles and views galore. This crowning jewel--the bridge across the Cowlitz--is also the main obstacle keeping the trail from becoming a reality.   No single agency wants the costs associated with the structure (The line itself would be donated).  In a county with high obesity rates and low activity levels, a place to walk, run, bicycle, or enjoy the outdoors is drastically needed.  This opportunity of a generation could slip away if people do not care to improve, and are satisfied with the "status quo".    A few elected folks are actively against the trail.   Yes, there are challenges with such an undertaking, but rail-trails abound in the state and across the country, even in similar communities, bringing economic diversity, health improvements, and quality of life.  If you are in Cowlitz County, contact your Commissioner and urge him to support the rail to trail proposal. Do not forget to contact the state senator for the Longview area. Tell these representatives we do not want to be known as an unhealthy and undesireable community.  We must start moving toward a better future.  

Cowlitz County Board of Commissioners | Cowlitz County, WA - Official Website

Washington State Legislature - Member Email

The final comments have been tallied, and the answer is "More Fees and Higher Fees" to enjoy our public lands.  (Is anyone surprised?)

Gifford Pinchot National Forest - Home (usda.gov)

However, it could have been worse.  Last fall, I encouraged folks to comment on the ills of fees, especially the chaos and confusion that will come with having two different passes on the stretch of road between Coldwater Lake and Johnston Ridge.  The Forest Service seriously wanted a per vehicle parking pass for all the trailheads and a per-person entry pass for the visitor center, or something along those lines--it was so confusing I can't even remember exactly. 

That has been toned down a little bit.  It looks like they are going to increase the entry fee at Johnston Ridge to $12 per person, and require a NW Forest Pass or America the Beautiful Pass or a $5 daily parking pass at Coldwater Lake, the Hummocks Trail, and the Science and Learning Center. They also want to charge you $7 per person per night to camp in the Mount Margaret backcountry,  and they upped the price to $20 per person to climb our volcanoes (Adams and St. Helens).  The law that allows these passes actually requires sites to have facilities like restrooms or picnic areas with garbage cans.  A few commenters (like me) pointed this out, some with lawyer-like detail, so that might have saved South Coldwater trailhead and a few other places without facilities.   I don't know of any plans to add a restroom to the Hummocks Trail as required, but hey, laws usually don't slow the Forest Service bureaucracy down.  Oh, and the restroom at Coldwater Lake has been out-of-order since the fall.,,,

P.S. The best way to skip some of the fee hassle is to purchase a yearly $80 America the Beautiful Pass.  These can be bought at Johnston Ridge when you arrive.  It can be used to get into the Johnston Ridge Visitor Center and as a window parking pass all through the USA at nearly any federal fee site.  Better yet, bring up a senior citizen to purchase their lifetime pass, and take grandma to the mountains.  Each pass lets in three people (at least it did--I wouldn't be surprised if they got rid of that, too.)

Back when I was a kid, I testified in front of a Colonel Friedenwald of the Army Corps of Engineers in Longview, Wa.  My Grandma stood up, too.  Cousins, my mother, and other Toutle citizens, bravely testified against a project that was popular in that city.  We were fighting to save our river.  The Army Corps was proposing a huge dam across the North Toutle River to trap sediment that was washing into the Cowlitz and Columbia Rivers.  The dam would irreparably alter the Toutle Valley, force out one of the last homestead families, and cut off salmon and steelhead from vital spawning streams.  Yes, the eruption had damaged the river, but we could see, even back then, that the river could heal itself.  A local engineer and author, Alden Jones, gave tours to officials to highlight the natural recovery already taking place in the early 1980's.  Nature had done it with past eruptions, and it was fully capable of recovery if given a chance. 

But the needs of downstream shipping channels and towns were much more important that the future of the upper Toutle watershed. 

We put all our efforts into stopping the sediment dam, and (not recognizing our own impotence and insignificance) the Toutle community didn't push for mitigation for the permanent impacts of the dam.  The Reagan administration specifically refused to fund any mitigation, so it was passed onto the state and local partners, then ultimately mostly ignored.  (see my post Timber Giant Blocks Legal Public Access, June 2021)

Today you can hike across the dam and see first hand the huge sediment plain that was once the Toutle River Valley.  My previous post 'sediment dam hike' has the details.

Our fruitless battle was fought before some of the region's salmon, steelhead, and other river-dependent species were listed under the Endangered Species Act.  I would like to believe that things would be different today.

We may have a chance to find out.  The law that guided the Army Corps is set to be reviewed in 2035 and a new "cooperative" approach is being tried.  The idea is to bring all parties together and work toward common goals that take into account community, economic, recreation, habitat and safety needs.   The group is managed by the William D. Ruckelshaus center and it is called the SLTCRC:  Spirit Lake/Toutle-Cowlitz River Collaborative.  I'm not part of the group, but I'm keeping a close watch on their activities.  Hopefully, this time around, the future upper Toutle River will not be sacrificed further, but I'm not holding my breath.

April 2023 update: I attended a two day workshop with the group to comment and advocate for recreational access, but am not a part of it...yet. May 5 update:  opps, I lied.  Now I am involved in a workgroup.  

Check it out:

 Spirit Lake/Toutle-Cowlitz River Collaborative (SLTCRC) | The William D. Ruckelshaus Center | Washington State University (wsu.edu)