Out of the ashes
Peak of hike is 4711
Total up is 1473
Total down is 1542
Today we were up at 5am, made breakfast to eat in the car, made some coffee to go and out the door. The drive to Mount St. Helens takes 2 and a half hours to drive. As the crow flies it is not far, but as the roads go it is a healthy drive. The drive was over cast and as we wound our way up the mountain roads the clouds were getting closer to us. Thought of comet creek are going through our minds, but neither one of us want to voice the thought. Not to much further we are in the clouds and driving slowly, as the clouds/fog was thick. We broke out of the cloud layer and into full sun at 3200 feet. As we drove along we were looking at the river of clouds covering the valley floor. Kind of cool and we stopped for a photo op. We arrived at the Johnston Observatory at 8:20. We changed out shoes and hit the trail. Kathi had pulled some trail info off of the computer. When we were here last , 19years ago, the trees were much shorter. We were much younger and fairly new at this hiking business. There was a hike that went down and a round a place called “Devils elbow”. It was a nightmare for me. Very thin, loads of exposure, and people on the trail. Of course you meet people traveling towards you and have to negotiate who is going to be on the edge while the other person is cliff side. We made it to the elbow. I’m sure Kathi had wanted to go further, I wanted no part of that! The park service has since rerouted that hike. Now it takes a way safer Trump through the over wash and hummocks of the blast zone. We took the 4mile trek out to Harry’s ridge. It was a roller coaster hike up down and around the hummocks and over flow. We made it to the top of the ridge to gain excellent views of Spirit lake with the large floating raft of logs. When the mountain erupted part of the flow washed into the lake causing the water to rush up the banks on the other side. As this happened the trees were ripped off of their feet up. All of the houses, lodges and what all were forever lost under the new level of the lake. One such loss is a man named Harry Truman (not the former president...). The lodges and lake home owners were evacuated well before the eruption. All except for Harry. He did not want to leave. The lake was his home, and he was going to live and die there. He did both.
Harry’s ridge was renamed for him.
Things change, even after the eruption the mountain continues to grow and change. It has an ever growing lava dome and glaciers growing in size inside the crater and around the growing lava dome. We also found the millions of trees that were laying like match sticks all tipped the same direction in way from the blast had been reclaimed by Mother Nature. Almost forty years since it erupted and the growth is stunning. The forest is returning. We even found some huckleberries.
We heard an elk bugle this morning from down below in the clouds. Apparently the elk herd is moving back in.. along with big game returning the coyotes were yipping up a good pack song when we were out on Harry’s ridge. Life is returning to the area.
I have included a minute by minute YouTube video of the event:
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