I N T H E N I G H T K I T C H E N
PrepT. and I are preparing for a two-night stay out in the Wallowa's. We're staying at a hut which is fully stocked with all the major supplies. All we really need to bring are our sleeping bags and food. It's a four-mile ski in and, while it is uphill for some of the way, it's supposed to be a pretty gentle grade. We're taking packs but will put most of our stuff in a sled which T. will pull behind us. I'm pretty nervous. We have been real slackers for the gym the last few weeks with our evenings being quite busy and his Mom visiting for a week. I feel pretty blobby right now. I can't wait to start working out regularly again. I never thought I'd be a person who says that but I just feel so much better when I'm working to stay fit.
If I never update again you will know I have been eaten by a bear, buried in an avalanche or have decided to abandon my current life to howl at the moon.
Aroooooooo!
11:09 AM link
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Mount St. HelensT.'s mother was visiting for a week. Portland looked to be offering up a pretty traditional winter weather experience: dreary, grey, rain and cold. However, for the last three days of her visit it's been really beautiful so T. and I took her out to Mount St. Helens on Monday and had a look around.
He and I haven't been up there yet and the observatory we wanted to go to, Johnston Ridge Observatory, was closed. So, instead we headed to Coldwater Ridge Visitor's Center which is a bit catty-corner to the blast zone. This visitor center is focused on the return of flora and fauna which was destroyed in the massive landslide created by the eruption of St. Helens. The whole area in front of the blast is a national monument and protected. You can get nicely fined for so much as disturbing a rock.
We stayed for hours just poking around at their cute little exhibits. Watching their cute little movies and gawking at the view.
Despite the beautiful day, it was a pretty wind-whipped location and T. and I froze ourselves silly following the quarter-mile "Winds of Change" interpretive trail. Inspired by this descriptive text at a signpost --
"Large, angular rocks... tumbled and leaped in a dance that splintered trees and removed soil" -- I give you my interpretive dance of the interpretive trail:
1. The mountain erupts! A column of ash rises thousands of feet skyward in a massive blast turning day into night.
2. A landslide! Just as suddenly, the north face of the mountain collapses sending thousands of tons of rock and depris sliding at over 300 miles an hour into the valley below.
3. Run for your worthless little lives! (Actually, this photo was not taken on this day but it works.) (And, you should know, people did die in this eruption which is no laughing matter.)
4. Smash! Debris slams into opposing rock faces, imbedding all manner of material into its surface and stripping it of all vegetation. The look and life of the area is changed forever.
So now you know.
11:07 AM link
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