Volcanic Eruption!...and then food

It's 10:00AM on Saturday. Natalie calls. We're going hiking in Mt. St. Helens. Meet at Winchel's donuts and head up together. Deal.

I have postponed my Adams climb because my leg is not feeling so good. So what better way to heal than...go hiking. By 12:00 Rebecca and I are at the donut place, ordering a'plenty. The drive up is very scenic and the day is perfect for hiking; crisp, cool, low humidity, all the things I like in a day.

We get to Johnson ridge and are treated to a new view of the lava dome, with clouds of steam emenating from it.
Apparently it just experienced a 3.1 earthquake an hour before we arrived. At its current rate, it will completely rebuild itself in 42 years.

Science geeks everywhere rejoice.

After a few moments inside the observatory, a viewing of the movie, and a look at the seismographs recording the recent activity, we head out for some hiking.


The trail was a short one; down to a viewpoint of the mountain and back to the observatory. Just around 4 miles total, but plenty for us to take in view after view of the valley below.

On the left is the valley floor and the remnants of the Toutle river, where pyroclastic flows (coolest word ever) tore through the valley and erradicated the landscape around the river. There used to be a forest all throughout the valley.


Overlooking Spirit lake with a view of Mt. Adams, where some friends were climbing that very day. There are still dead trees floating in the lake, which is a few hundred feet higher than it was before the 1980 eruption that filled the 150ft deep lake with debris.

After our short hike we ate some food, converted Brady and Natalie to buy Trader Joes peanut butter filled pretzels as soon as they got back to PDX, and headed down to the hummoks, which are giant debris piles of mountain left on the valley floor after the eruption.


The hummoks trail was interesting mainly because a completely new forest was growing out of this barren landscape. Near creeks and streams flowing into the Toutle, trees and moss were plentiful. A good sign the forest is regenerating itself. Along the trail you can see huge piles of debris, some with tree trunks sticking vertically out of them.

After the hiking, and a coyote sighting on the way back, we stopped and ate tons of food at the local diner. Sorry, no pictures of the huckleberry cobbler.