Posts Tagged ‘mt st helens’

Forest Hosts Tenth Annual Pick Up the Pinchot, Public Lands Day Events

VANCOUVER, WA – Join us this fall for the Gifford Pinchot National Forest’s tenth Annual Pick Up the Pinchot (P.U.P.) clean-up events.

There are three P.U.P. events scheduled for Saturday, September 27. These events are part of National Public Lands Day events scheduled across the country in late September.

“On National Public Lands Day, we all have a chance to contribute to the well being of our public lands for this and future generations of Americans,” said Al Matecko, Acting Forest Supervisor. “Last year, more than 150 people participated in PUP events, and worked on projects to remove trash and help restore the East Fork of the Lewis River. We hope that people will continue to join us and volunteers around southwest Washington this year.” Read more…

Where Were You On May 18, 1980?

What were you doing the day Mt. St. Helens blew it’s top?

I realize that anybody under the age of 28 wasn’t even born so this question does not apply to you.

I was 16 at the time. I was with my dad and cousin Frank at a bass fishing tournament with the Evergreen Bass Club on Silver Lake in Cowlitz County (only about 30 miles West of Mt. St. Helens). It was a beautiful clear sunny morning (much like it is this morning as I’m writing this). All weekend, we were hoping to see a puff of steam or a small ash plume, but all was quiet. I has witnessed several before on my frequent trips to Kelso.

Sometime around 8:30 AM, my dad had to head back to the resort to use the facilities. So he powered up the motor and we were heading back to the resort and he pointed at the mountain and when I looked up, we watched the initial blast and then Mt St Helens disappeared (just like the footage you always see of the initial eruption and landslide).

So we continued heading back to the resort. When we arrived, a lot of people were freaking out that they were going to die. My dad just calmly observed the chaos and decided to wait a little while until all the drama died down. Eventually word got to us about the I-5 bridge over the Toutle River was closed. That’s when my dad made the decision that we were staying for a while longer.

So what did we do, we motored the boat over to a store on the lake where one could dock a boat, he went inside the store and bought a case of beer, and we motored the boat into the middle of the lake and watched the ash plume (obviously this is nothing I would recommend doing today – time were different then).

After a few hours, we eventually got word that the Toutle River bridge was open again, and that’s when we loaded the boat on the trailer and headed home.

We never got any ash on us. I think most of it ended up in eastern Washington. The sky got dark (because it blocked out the morning sun) and the coolest part was all the lightening in the ash cloud. We never heard the explosion from our location. I’m not sure if that was because the motor idling or not.

This experience is something that I’ll never forget. I feel very lucky to be in the right spot at the right time to actually witness history and see the actual initial explosion and landslide occur.

What were you doing that day?

Burley Mountain to Mt St Helens Tour 10.13.07

Each time I venture to the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in the South Cascades of Washington state, I am simply amazed at the beauty of the country. In this region, not only are you are surrounded by four major peaks of the Cascade Mountains (Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Adams, and Mt. Hood), there is an extensive variety of terrain ranging from deep valleys and canyons to exposed buttes and cliffs, alpine meadows to old growth forests, and of course, the Mt. St. Helens blast zone. I could easily spend days or even weeks just exploring the region.

With that in mind, I decided to host a Backroad Drivers Northwest tour in the area just south of Randle, Washington. This region is an area which I am fairly familiar with having spent a lot of time hunting, camping and exploring with my father while growing up. The tour would follow one of my favorite routes in the area, Forest Road 77 from the Burley Mountain Lookout along the ridge past Pinto Rock and Mosquito Meadows. From Mosquito Meadows, we would would take FS 99 to the Windy Ridge Viewpoint at Mt. St. Helens and follow FS 26 back to Randle.
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Tour Announcement – Burley Mountain to Mt St Helens 10/13/07

In case you missed it on the forum, I posted an announcement for a tour of the Mt. St Helens area south of Randle, Washington.

The plan is to visit the Burley Mountain Lookout, drive the ridgeline between Greenhorn Buttes and Mosquito Meadows, visit Windy Ridge at Mt St Helens and more depending on time.

Read more of the trip details at Burley Mountain to Mt St Helens Tour

Cascade Overland Adventure – August 2006

Our first goal was to travel from I-90 near Cle Elum, Washington to Highway 410 near Cliffdell, Washington via logging roads. Our second goal was to travel from Highway 410 to Highway 12 over logging roads. We would then travel Highway 12 over White Pass to Packwood. From Packwood, we would head South on logging roads towards Mt. Adams and locate a campsite for the night.

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Photos from Cascade Overland Adventure – August 2006

I just completed an overland adventure by Jeep from Cle Elum, WA (I-90) to SR410, to US Highway 12, to Mt Adams, to Mt. St. Helens and posted the pictures.

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WEROCK Western Series Rock Crawl #3 – Goldendale in Review

This year (2006) marked the second year I attended the WEROCK Rock Crawl competition in Goldendale, Washington. Last year, I learned a few things not to repeat. First, don’t drink heavily and expect to function well without sleep and in the heat. Second, bring a lot of water when working on the course and stay hydrated throughout the day. I must be getting old because my body can't handle the abuse that it used to.

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