Mount St Helens :: 30 Years Later

At 8:32 am on May 18th, 1980 a magnitude 5.1 earthquake “shook the ground beneath Mount St. Helens in Washington state, setting off one of the largest landslides in recorded history - the entire north slope of the volcano slid away. As the land moved, it exposed the superheated core of the volcano setting off gigantic explosions and eruptions of steam, ash and rock debris. The blast was heard hundreds of miles away, the pressure wave flattened entire forests, the heat melted glaciers and set off destructive mudflows, and 57 people lost their lives. The erupting ash column shot up 80,000 feet into the atmosphere for over 10 hours, depositing ash across Eastern Washington and 10 other states.” - - from The Big Picture which has a fantastic collection of photos of the volcano and its 1980 eruption.

The western side of Mount Saint Helens as seen from the Visitor Center at Silver Lake, 46 road-miles away.

From a viewpoint on the north-northwest side.
Clouds covered the upper half of the volcano for the entire afternoon with an occasional break, which briefly revealed the peaks. This, and the remaining photos were taken from the Johnston Ridge Observatory. Named for David A. Johnston, a volcanologist on duty nearby on that fateful day. His last words were “Vancouver, this is it!”

The lateral blast exploded to the north toward what is now Johnston Ridge and, quite literally, destroyed everything in its path.

The mountains and valleys were tall old-growth forest. Now all that remains are a few denuded logs lying about like pick-up-sticks.

A park service sign nearby tells a tale of the blast as “spoken” by this stump: “Step up and look at me carefully. Notice my shattered trunk, my missing top. I once stood 150 feet tall, surrounded by a beautiful forest of green and growing trees. When the blast exploded sideways out of the mountain, it plowed through the debris avalanche and swept across the landscape, picking up and carrying large chunks of rock, ice, and splintered wood.”

“Within a minute, I was struck and scoured by the stone-filled wind. My bark and branches were stripped and scattered toward the edge of the blast zone, 17 miles away. As trees that had stood for hundreds of years crashed around me, my upper trunk strained, then shattered in the nearly 700 mph winds. Only a small part of me remains as evidence of the blast's power.”

Down in the valley, the blast dumped 680 feet of debris, filling Spirit Lake to the east with logs and ash.

Johnston Ridge was completely denuded. Spirit Lake lies beneath the far ridge at left-center and St. Helens rises up from the valley on the right.

The early evening light emphasizes the ridges and the gulleys now being carved out by the flow of water.

Another view of cloud shrouded St. Helens from Johnston Ridge in the early evening. All photos were taken on Sunday, September 12th.

The Johnston Ridge Observatory, which is 5 ½ miles from the crater, has some really nice exhibits as well as a 16-minute movie about St. Helens. If you've never been there, it is well worth the 60-mile drive off of Interstate 5 on State Road 504.

A couple of the many websites about Mount St. Helens:

• The many faces of Mt. St. Helens
• Mount St. Helens Visitor Guide
• Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument

End of the Year Pickleball Tournament

Last week Nathan announced to me that he was going to host a pickleball tournament. I know the other wives out there will understand me when I say what that really meant was *we* were going to do a pickleball tournament. I'm so glad he did decide to do this, because it was great fun for us.



We had a great turnout! After a week full of a huge pickleball crowd, we were a little concerned we'd have so many players that it would take all day to finish. Instead we had enough people to do both a men's and women's tournament and it lasted a decent amount of time, without being all day long.



Here are the players:



Some of the action, starting with Ken and Austin. Ken always has that great smile on his face:



Regal Faye with Kim. This week is the first I've met Kim. She is a hoot. She makes the game so much more fun!





Here is Kim with Diane. Diane is a fellow South Floridian and is so cool. And she rocks at pickleball!



I've just met Kristie since we've been here too. She was on a hot streak today!



Me, and given the direction that it appears the ball is moving, I'm guessing it was not a great hit. I still get so intimidated and feel sorry for other people that they are stuck with me as their partner. And the only reason I am sharing that is because I want to give some praise to the other women that play. They are so gracious and sooooo encouraging to me. I appreciate them so much!



Look at that concentration:





Meet Donna and Barbara, who are both awesome players. And both so incredibly sweet and encouraging.





Here is another sweetheart Sheri, and lean mean winning machine Sally. Not that Sally isn't sweet, but she plays to win! I think that's the only shot I have of Sally. The rest are probably just a blur!



Wait a minute, I do have more of Sally. And here you can see the elegant Karen on the other side:



Karen looks dainty, but she can play a mean game!



Sitting on the sidelines:





You'll have to go to Austin's blog to see the men's games because I was too busy watching the women to tell you much detail about the men.

Winners: Sallie-1st, Diane-2nd and Barbara-3rd:



Mike-1st, Austin-3rd and Dave-2nd:



Way to go winners and everyone else that played. You made it tons of fun for us. We hope you had fun too!



You can see the rest of our pictures here: Pickleball Tournament

An Update...

After having arrived at my friends place in Louisiana last Friday evening, I've been off the road for a few days. I'll be here for a couple more days but am planning to leave on Sunday. Even though it has been cold here (highs in the 40s and lows in the 20s) I'm thankful that I'm not further north and that I don't have to endure the snow and colder weather! And even more thankful for friends that provide a place to stay out of the weather!

I've been taking advantage of the “down time” to work on a little project... I've decided to “dismantle” my website. It has been more than two years since I've added anything new so I think it is time to let it go. The Whitley County pages are going to be moved to the website of the Genealogical Society of Whitley County (which is now at its new location on the web) and some of the family data will eventually be moved here to this blog. Yesterday, I finished modifications to the Whitley County pages and got them sent off to their webmaster.

Now I've got to consider how and when family information will be posted to the blog. There is my Grandmother's autobiography, a series of 30+ letters written to the Berlin family in the 1860s and 70s, and a lot of obituaries that I've transcribed. Those things will keep me busy for a while ;-)

But mostly, I'm just takin' it easy.... and thinking of warmer days...

Rock in Road

I'm not sure why there were barrels around this rock that was almost in the road. Could have been just to causion drivers. But it looked as if the rock had slipped more toward the road or maybe the road crew was afraid that it might slip some more. We have seen lots of rocks in the road on this trip and others but never any this big.

Clermont FL to Summerton SC

Today was Aric's first official travel day. I think I was more excited than he was about that. We drove from Clermont to Summerton, South Carolina. We are staying at a very nice ROD park. Since we had a somewhat long driving day, we ate dinner at Cracker Barrel.

It is so nice to be back on the road again!

Celina OH to Gaylord MI

Today we left Ohio to head to Michigan. We have been counting down the days until this travel day because it was a very special one for us. We stopped off at Jackson to pick up our oldest daughter Ashleigh and my nephew Elijah. I was able to see two of my siblings and even have pictures of them...on my phone. As soon as I figure out how to get them from the phone to where I can use them, I'll share them.

I lived half of my childhood in Michigan and Nathan and I spent the first five years of our married life there. Still, neither of us had even been to Northern Michigan. So we were very excited to be heading that way, especially with some of the kids with us.

As we drove further and further north, it became more and more remote. And it was beautiful. Then again, I seem to think every place we are at is beautiful so maybe it is more that it is summer beautiful!

That's fine with me because it's not a bad thing when the whole world seems beautiful to you.



We had an easy driving day and Elijah and Ashleigh did great! We are hoping to see some neat stuff with them and give them a glimpse into our life.



Living the life in Michigan!

Central California

Okay, now that I'm “caught up” with posts from before the Jamboree we'll get to the more recent stuff though now I'm even further behind because of the lack of internet access. (Rant: it's extremely frustrating when a place – any place – says they have wifi available but it doesn't work! Yeah, they have it, you just can't use it! Sigh.) Due to where I've been, I don't think that I would have had internet access even if I had an “air card” or some other techno thingy.

Anyway, back on June 15th I left the coast near Ventura and made my way north and east to central California. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that it was cool on the coast but it was hot once you got a few miles inland. A short stop in Maricopa left me drenched in sweat and the van was hotter than an oven after just 10 minutes of it sitting with the windows closed. Dry heat or not, it was still HOT.

That night I stopped at Kern River State Park just west of Bakersfield. In addition to the river, there was a lake in the park also, whose name I don't recall and didn't write down. The campground was huge. But it was empty except for one site, which had several adults and a bunch of kids of all ages. I selected a site along the river about in the middle of the campground a little ways from the occupied site. There were several cars that drove through the campground later in the evening but none of them stopped for the night.

I thought it was a little strange that with the heat there weren't more people at the campground taking advantage of the river and the lake. However, there were several groups of “tubers” that floated by. The river was high and the current was fast. The other strange thing was that no one ever came around to collect the camping fee and there was no self-serve pay station.

It was a pretty park, well maintained and clean and I didn't have any “bad vibes” about the place. Large trees provided plenty of shade from the hot sun and there was a nice breeze. All in all it was very pleasant.

The rather idyllic view across the river from my campsite.

The next morning I was up early and on my way by eight o'clock, going northeast on California 178. And what a beautiful drive it is! Following the Kern River to Lake Isabella the highway twists and turns, winding its way through the narrow Kern Valley with the river on the left and the mountain walls hugging the highway on the right.

Beyond Lake Isabella, Mountain Road 99 takes you up into Giant Sequoia National Monument. Now, why the government did this, I don't know, but it probably has something to do with how the land is used by the different agencies. We have Giant Sequoia National Monument and Sequoia National Forest. Then you have to drive 100 miles or more west, then north, then back east to get to Sequoia National Park, Sequoia National Forest (again), Kings Canyon National Park, Giant Sequoia National Monument (again), Sequoia National Forest (a third time), and finally, to Kings Canyon National Park (again). The latter “string” of Parks, Monuments and Forests are all connected, starting and stopping seemingly at a whim. It's very confusing! But it is an amazing and beautiful area of the country.

All of the rivers and streams in that area are full to brimming, flowing swiftly. There were quite a few waterfalls as well, many with several cascades, such as this one at South Creek Falls on Mountain Road 99 in the Sequoia National Forest.

A little further down the road, in Giant Sequoia National Monument, was the Trail of 100 Giants, which was a paved trail about a mile long that wound its way up, down, and through a forest of (what else?) very large Sequoia trees. It has been 30+ years since my last encounter with these magnificent things and I was impressed all over again.

There is no way that you can capture their immensity in a photograph. Of course, that didn't stop me from taking pictures!

At one time, these were three individual trees. I found it interesting that Sequoias gain their full height in the first 300 years at which time they aren't all that big around. As the years pass, they (like most of us humans) get bigger around. And, if they are growing close to others, they could, as these have done, join together. The boy standing between the two trees on the left is about four feet tall.

One of the things that surprised me regarding these trees is that the bark (or outer layer) is spongy. It gives when pressed upon. This tree has a portion of the outer bark layer missing, but it was still alive and growing.