May 23, 2019
The next morning we packed up our wet tent and drove to Seaquest State Park in Castle Rock, Washington. The park is nowhere near the sea.
The first day we had an early fire with wet wood that Amy lovingly cajoled into burning. The next morning we headed to the Silver Lake Visitor Center for Mt St Helens just across the highway (we drove, but there is a tunnel you can walk through from our campground) which is run by Washington State Parks. There was a brief video and some pretty cool interactive exhibits. The video taught me that Mt St Helens started to rumble with frequent earthquakes on Mar 20, 1980 and it wasn’t until May 18th that it erupted. I’d later learn that 53 of the 57 people that died were outside of the evacuation zone the government had set up. So clearly no one was anticipating the eruption to be as immense as it was. The blast zone levelled everything with 500 MPH (800 km/h) force.
We then drove (about 1h) to the Johnston Ridge Observatory run by National Parks Service. It was named after a geologist who was tasked with monitoring the volcano and died when she blew on May 18, 1980. We heard the audio of his transmission to nearby Vancouver, Washington: “Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!” The visitor centre is lovely, featuring a movie theatre in which every performance ends with the curtain moving aside to reveal Mt St Helens herself. There are also great exhibits and walking trails outside. Unfortunately, it was cloudy so we never got to see the top of the volcano ourselves. We did take a little video outdoors to send to my mother her at the time upcoming birthday on May 23rd.
It was perfect because my mom’s name was supposed to be Helen (Helena in Polish) if not for my mom’s dad forgetting what his wife had told him to name their daughter on the way over to where one registered births. The story goes like this: When my grandfather arrived at the birth registration place the following exchange took place with the official there (translated from Polish):
My Grandpa: I’ve forgotten what my wife said the baby is to be named.
Gov’t Official: Can’t help you there, sir.
My Grandpa: Well, can you tell me what’s popular these days?
Gov’t Official: What do you mean?
My Grandpa: I mean, what are parents naming their newborns these days?
Gov’t Official: Boy or girl?
My Grandpa: Girl, decisively. That I remember.
Gov’t Official: Well, let’s see. There’s GRACE that’s chosen a lot these days, and also quite popular is —
My Grandpa (interrupting): Perfect! I’ll take it. Grace sounds like a really name. My wife will love it.
Gov’t Official: Shouldn’t you check with your wife first, sir? Before registering?
Grandpa: No need. My wife will love GRACE.
As it turned out, my grandma didn’t love the name Grace as much as my grandfather had thought she would. And so my grandpa was forced to walk back to see if he could change the name from Grace to Helen. It turned out to be too complicated to do, so he added HELEN as a middle name instead. Now there’s a story of what men are like, if I’ve even heard one.
We saw 2 great short films (~20 min ea.) on biology (ecology) and the other on geology as they relate to the volcano.
The next day we headed to Olympic National Park Hoh Rain Forest campground (~4h drive). First though we stopped for laundry and shopping in the town of Chelalis.
Olympic, as we’ve come to expect from the US National Parks is of course incredible. There are several beaches along Highway 101 are perfect. Our campsite has a fallen tree with a trunk of diameter ~5 ft that had a piece cut out to make a path to the campsite. It forms a majestic gate. Amy quickly counted the tree rings and it was about 200 years old at the time of its demise.
Last night we had a campfire with wood we collected because that’s allowed here and campfire wood to buy is 8 miles away.
May 24, 2019
Yesterday afternoon we hiked the short Hall of Mosses Trail and one other. I learned that a nurse log is a tree that has died as is providing nutrients for trees to grow along its length. We got a pic of a nurse log with 3 big trees in a line on it. The moss makes the tees (and the whole forest) look wise and mystical.
This morning we visited the visitors center and then went to hike some of the Hoh River Trail. It is 17 miles all the way out but we went about 4 miles out (around Mt Tom Creek group campground), had lunch on the rocks along the river and headed back. About 1.5 miles before the end a human couple stopped us to let us know there was a mama black bear and her cub right on the trail. I snapped a pic of the bears. The girls had gone ahead so they missed the bears. Amy and I think that perhaps the bears were getting a drink from the river and were now crossing the path back into the forest.
May 24, 2019
Yesterday afternoon we hiked the short Hall of Mosses Trail and one other. I learned that a nurse log is a tree that has died as is providing nutrients for trees to grow along its length. We got a pic of a nurse log with 3 big trees in a line on it. The moss makes the tees (and the whole forest) look wise and mystical.
This morning we visited the visitors center and then went to hike some of the Hoh River Trail. It is 17 miles all the way out but we went about 4 miles out (around Mt Tom Creek group campground), had lunch on the rocks along the river and headed back. About 1.5 miles before the end a human couple stopped us to let us know there was a mama black bear and her cub right on the trail. I snapped a pic of the bears. The girls had gone ahead so they missed the bears. Amy and I think that perhaps the bears were getting a drink from the river and were now crossing the path back into the forest.
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