It's the July 4th weekend we headed down to Mt St. Helens. I planned this trip since April. Because of the permit system, I have reserved 8 permits for us to climb St. Helens.
We started our trip first stop at Portlant, Oregon. We spent a good few sunny hours there, and of course went our favourite toy store - REI.
We then drove back to Cougar, WA, where it is gateway town to climbing St. Helens. This evening, the fireworks in this small town was shockingly wonderful. First, they are having
their fireworks on the 2-lane highway main road. Local residents bought thousands dollars worth of fireworks and share them together. The most ironic thing was that the main fireworks
display was in front of a gas station.
The next morning at 5am, it was raining anf foggy. Cloud ceiling was at about 3500 feet. We still started our climb as planned, but situation turned worse when we get to about 4000 feet elevation.
It was too foggy that we did not feel comfortable to go up further, worrying that coming down could be a safety risk. We turned back, knowing that we had made a good decision, ran into a rescue crew.
They received a call from 3 hikers saying that they were lost coming down.
We spent the afternoon playing board games at the "Resort" and planned for going up again the next day. It was still cloudy on Sunday morning, so we decided to give up the climbing part, and go to
the Observatory instead. We got the Obseratory and enjoyed a movie showing the history of St. Helens and her past eruptions. Then we did a walk with the ranger on the edge facing St Helens.
Although it was cloudy most of the time we were there, we were happy that we saw glimpses of her and were able to enjoy a July 4th weekend.
We stayed at the "Resort" at Cougar, WA.
Seriously, fireworks in front of the gas station.
Look at these big guns ! Gonna be very fun.
Everyone started playing fireworks on the main road.
The big guns were coming.
Getting darker.... and funnier
Yes, it was a gas station, no kidding!
Boom!.
The one and only one Cougar Store !
Didn't know you are there, hi!
Boom!
Yes, ... big fireworks in front of the gas station ...
Best Small town fireworks (4 MB).
There was always the aftermath ....
Our St Helens crew ...
The winter route marker ...floow the blue.
Unfortunately, it was raining and foggy.
Yes, it was wet !
Still a lot of runoffs ....
Still lots of snow ..going up!
We couldn't even see far ....
Who lugged that post up there as a trail marker ?.
We decided to turn back ... just too foggy that day.
Glad we made the right decision turn around on such a day.
Trail #216 is closed, but we didnt even see it at all.
St Helens is somewhere up there.
When we got down, there was a S&R team going up to locate a missing group of three who were lost.
I guess the pump manufacturer never see this high gas price coming.
Bye!
Guess what this room is for ?
This room is the City Hall of Cougar, WA
We played a game of Scrabble .... Robert won.
The moose Bench ...
The moose qulit ....
Johnston Observatory at Mt St Helens.
This tree was one of the remains of the 1980's eruption.
Some of these trees are 1000 years ago, can trace back to the eruption before the 1980's.
Not road kill, .. it's parking lot kill, pancake flat!
Stay on trail ....
Seed got buired by the 1980's eruption ashes, is now evolving out after years of erosion.
Ranger Terry was explaining the hisotry of the eruptions.
Seeing more and more St. Helens now
Memorial for people who died in the 1980's eruption.
Last glimpse of St. Helens before we headed back.
This is the last animal I would guess to be around a volcano ...
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