Mt. St. Helens - Part 1

Greetings, Jake here. I can't believe its been over a whole month since we've posted. I just went on an amazing get away in my own backyard of Washington state. As you may recall, Mt St Helens blew in 1980 and knocked almost 2000' vertical feet off its top in less than 30 seconds. Today it makes for a spectacular national park in which to frolic in...and thats just what we did. I went on down to southern Washington to romp around and explore with Jeff and Kelsey, friends in the UW physical therapy program, in celebration of finishing all our bookwork for the whole PT curriculum (we are off to the clinics in the fall and go our own separate ways). I will try to keep the verbiage to a minimum and let the pictures speak for themselves.

Wednesday: Jeff and I leave Seattle to go for a once-in-a-lifetime bike ride on Windy Ridge on the NE side of Mt. St. Helens. The experience lived up to the name...WINDY. Yet, with a backdrop as stunning as Mt St Helens coupled with the fact that there was no cars (road closed to cars due to maintenance), the ride was purely divine. This is Jeff (left) and I (right) getting our first jaw-dropping glimpse of the mountain.










This ride was full of ups (notice Mt. Adams in the background(12,227'))...



...and downs.



Finally, we neared the end where there was a spectacular view of Spirit Lake. This lake instantly rose 200' in elevation when the volcano blew because the whole mountain relocated itself directly into the lake basin. You can still see that thousands of trees remain in the lake from the day of that cataclysmic explosion.










Thursday: Kelsey, Jeff, and I embark on a truly awesome hike to the rim of Mt St. Helens (8,365'):



We had plenty of time to goof off on the way up while we were catching our breath. Doesn't Jeff look like he is on top of the world (left)? Just wait until we get to the top, buddy (Mt. Hood in the background (11,249'))...










This was my Paul Bunyan pose, but since I didn't have a blue ox I coerced this squirrel into being my sidekick:















Climbing, climbing, climbing. This is us being strong (left) and staying together (right).










And, finally after about 4 hours of this...



...we made it and danced on top of the world! (notice Mt. Rainier in the background (14,410'))










Unfortunately, this is right about the time the Jeff's camera battery died. Stay tuned for pictures from the decent from the top, camp life, and romping around in the underground lava tubes. Adieu.