MT ST HELENS

 

So, on a Saturday (7/9), Carolyn and I departed the Willows bright and early, heading for My St Helens and a rendezvous with Carolyn’s Portland family, headed by her eldest son, Kiley Henner.  The trip should have taken no more four hours, but owing to highway construction in Seattle was substantially longer.  Really, a reasonably fit person could have WALKED from the King County line to Boeing Field nearly as quickly as we made it by car!  (An aside:  there are just too damned many cars in this world – and most of them seem to be on the road at any given time.  Even with gas at $5.50/gallon!)

So, anyway we got to Kelso eventually, met up withKiley and his crew, had a fine Mexican dinner (I had a margarita so big I couldn’t finish it! ), then returned to our motel for the usual restless motel overnight experience – and next morning headed out for Johnston Ridge Observatory.  The picture above was taken from somewhere near there, and not by any of us.  Glorious, clear weather but – too have something to bitch about – too many people. 

So, the place is named for David Johnston, the USGS guy that was killed in the initial blast.  It so happens that I once played touch football with Dave.  In fact, he caught the finest forward pass I ever threw!  And I once rented a cabin from Harry Truman, who briefly became famous for refusing to leave Spirit Lake.  He was as drunk as a lord, as they used to say.  What is left of Harry now lies somewhere beneath many meters of volcanic effluvia. Johnston, too, I surmise.

Anyway, anyone who can should visit Mt. St. Helens, and maybe even do some hiking.  It is a glorious place!  Thank you, Carolyn, for taking me there.