Mt St. Helens +40 Years

[Unicykle]

About 10-15 years ago i took a bike ride ( pedal) up the tootle river down the old washed out hwy and the power and devastation was incredible, huge trees mowed down for miles, short sections of highway coming out of mounds of earth, herds of elk, beautiful milky blue river it was a pretty epic ride and one that stands above the rest.

 

[MountainBear]

The day it erupted was the day I was due to be born. I stayed in another three weeks. I must have known better than to come out during that mess...

 

[Kid@Heart]

I have a few souvenirs from the mountain...



This is a piece of pumice from St. Helens. It is so light it floats in water. Way back when, we used to carve them into little boats at the Spirit Lake Boy Scout Camp. The whole area was made of this stuff. When the mountain blew, big pieces of the mountain were broken off and became part of the landslide everyone sees on TV. This piece went down the Toutle River, into the Cowlitz, then the Columbia and into the Pacific Ocean. We were picking them up all over Long Beach. It is very soft, you can crumble pieces off with your thumbnail. This piece is 5 or 6 inches across and was tumbled down all of those rivers in a slurry of ash and rock. How big was it when it started the journey?

 

[RicInOR]

Anyone have a week or more at Sprit Lake Boy Scout Camp. Was the worst of the PDX area summer camps to earn your swimming badges - very cold water.


Longview newspaper, 10 years ago, asked for memories of Spirit Lake.
Part one here

Spirit Lake Memories: Part I

Editor's note: Last month we asked readers to share stories and photographs of Spirit Lake prior to the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. Here's part of the collection we

tdn.com

 

[Kid@Heart]

I spent little time in the area north of Mt. St. Helens before it was ruined. For those of you who never saw it...

In the foreground, left to right- Me (The tall teenager), my younger brother and on the right our hunting partner. He owned a cabin on the lake.
In the background is Spirit Lake and Mt. St. Helens.

1970 or so.

 

[RicInOR]

Name those peaks ...

1 - 4394m Talol, Tacoma, or Tahoma. AKA Mt. Rainer

 

[sobo]

1 - 4394m 14,411 ft Talol, Tacoma, or Tahoma. AKA Mt. Rainer

Fixt it fer ya.
This is 'Merica...

 

[QualityControl]

We lived in Bellevue at the time, I think I was in jr high. I was laying in bed on a Sunday morning when I heard a loud BOOM. I got out of bed and grabbed some breakfast and then turned on the tv and found out what was going on. I put some clothes on and then went out and climed the tree on the side of the house to get up on the roof. I could see the huge plume that seemed to be shooting miles into the sky. I had spent a bunch of times with family and freinds hiking and camping around the base of St. Helens so I remember intimately what it was like to be there. As everything unfolded it was so hard to get my head around the fact that those places where pretty much gone.


Not my photo but one that always strikes me and brings me back when I see it...

 

[sobo]

Pretty awesomely powerful pic.

I had a trailer hitch like that for my CB750 when I towed it behind the ol' Volvo.
Damn bike was so heavy, I had to pop a wheelie to get the tire into the cradle.
I was 19 or 20 back then and pretty skinny. Some things have changed...

 

[thorborg]

I learned to sail in Spirit lake, I used to miss it but came to realize today, would just be another overcrowded state regulated fee destination. I'm glad its pretty much left to the elk and chipmunks now.

 

[RicInOR]

We lived in Bellevue at the time, I think I was in jr high. I was laying in bed on a Sunday morning when I heard a loud BOOM. I got out of bed and grabbed some breakfast and then turned on the tv and found out what was going on. I put some clothes on and then went out and climed the tree on the side of the house to get up on the roof. I could see the huge plume that seemed to be shooting miles into the sky. I had spent a bunch of times with family and freinds hiking and camping around the base of St. Helens so I remember intimately what it was like to be there. As everything unfolded it was so hard to get my head around the fact that those places where pretty much gone.


Not my photo but one that always strikes me and brings me back when I see it...

View attachment 699138

I remember those Pintos were subject to exploding, but an entire mountain! Wowser!

 

[sobo]

Buddy of mine had one. He stuck one of those big, red "FLAMMABLE" stickers you see on fuel storage tanks across the back of it.

 

[Ura-Ki]

Buddy of mine had one. He stuck one of those "FLAMMABLE" stickers you see on fuel storage tanks across the back of it.

I lost 2 cousins and their friend to a Pinto, and one who is so badly burned it takes her 3 hours a day to get going, and FORD will continue to pay that debt!

 

[sobo]

I'm very saddened to hear that, @Ura-Ki. I meant no disrespect by my post.

 

[Ura-Ki]

I'm very saddened to hear that, @Ura-Ki. I meant no disrespect by my post.

No worries!

 

[Geardo]

Merwin reservoir creeps me out. In-laws used to water ski there.

Why?

 

[QualityControl]

I remember those Pintos were subject to exploding, but an entire mountain! Wowser!

Our family had one back in the day as well. Luckliy the back end never got tapped while we had it.

 

[QualityControl]

Hard to understand the magnitude of the destruction if you've never been there...

 

[Diamondback]

I was born an hour to the minute before Big One #2, the June eruption that ashed Portland.

See, such a big deal the Earth itself celebrated my arrival with fireworks... LOL

 

[sobo]

Oh, brother...