Portland Pinch

Poor Jeep.  She was brazenly broken into this afternoon in a parking garage in downtown Portland.  Thieves broke out the driver door lock and took a few items - including, sadly, a favorite work briefcase.  Portland police were nice but claimed "we see hundreds of these a month."  Parts were ordered at a local body shop and hopefully she will be all patched up by Friday.  Luckily we have some camouflage black tape covering the key hole....the perfect disguise.  Sigh, welcome to Portland.

PS - if you see any suspicious characters walking around with a blue NS golf shirt or NS hat on, let me know ASAP!  My great customer handouts were even taken....including NS golf balls.

Mount St. Helens, Ape Cave Lava Tube

Look closely, there is a deer right in the middle of the picture.  She hung out by our camp site in Cougar, WA.

Lava flows near Mount St. Helens

Mount St. Helens Ape Cave Lava Tube is the longest lava tube in the continental United 
States at over two miles in length.

About 2,000 years ago lava poured down 
the southern flank of Mount St. Helens in streams.  As the lava flowed the outer 
edges of the lava stream cooled forming a hardened crust which insulated the 
molten lava beneath.  This allowed the lava to remain hot and fluid encased in this 
“lava tube” and continued flowing months during the eruption.  The end result was 
the creation of this spectacular 13,042 foot long lava tube.  This formation is especially 
unusual at Mount St. Helens as this type of volcano usually erupts lava of a much 
thicker consistency which tends to block flow and build up pressure resulting in 
explosive eruptions like the blast of 1980.  

Going down into the cave - where the average temperature is 42 degrees F.

Headlamps - check, supplemental light sources - check, warm hoodie - check!

Let's go cave exploring!!

The lower Ape Cave is approximately is .75 miles long and can be hiked down and back in about an hour.  It is most famous for the “Meatball” - a block of cooled lava which fell from the lava tube ceiling while lava was still flowing through the cave.   Floating on the surface of the lava flow it was carried downstream until it became wedged in a narrow spot above the present cave floor.  

Warning - do not touch the walls - cave “slime” lives on the cave walls and is an important food source for cave life.

Seams in the lava...makes one a little nervous when you are a mile underground.....

The rocks sparkle beautifully when you shine a light on them....like an underground starry sky.

Cave self-pic

Huge lava-dimpled rock in the cave

Mount St. Helens has long been famous as an 
area frequented by Bigfoot, Sasquatch or “Hairy Ape” sightings.  We didn't see any this weekend unfortunately.

Beautiful green moss covers the trees in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

Summer in the Pacific Northwest - beautiful

Mount St. Helens

Camping!  Getting ready to make some s'mores!  There was no cell or satellite TV service in the forest, so we had to get outdoors for some woodsy fun.....

Mmmmmmmm......

Moonrise over the mountains.

Tacoma, WA -to- Chehalis, WA -to- Mount Saint Helen, WA -to- Cougar, WA

Dash Point State Park - Federal Way, WA

Great walking trails at Dash Point

Port of Tacoma

Heading back into downtown Tacoma

Cloud pic

Hawk at campground in Chehalis, WA

Walking trail in Chehalis

Chehalis daisies

"Absolutely NO Trespassing For Any Reason Whatsoever" - a welcome sign.  Note the hawk with the squirrel at his feet.

Golf course RV park -  we were going to take lessons, but the weather wasn't conducive.

On the way to Mount St. Helens

Maxie snoozing in the front seat while Mom is in the back office working

Entering Blast Zone

Too foggy to see the Volcano

Model at the Visitors Center

Eagle claw - wow

Mount St. Helens is most notorious for its catastrophic eruption on May 18, 1980, at 8:32 a.m. PDT, the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in the history of the United States. Fifty-seven people were killed; 250 homes, 47 bridges, 15 miles of railways, and 185 miles of highway were destroyed. A massive debris avalanche triggered by an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale caused an eruption that reduced the elevation of the mountain's summit from 9,677 ft to 8,365 ft, replacing it with a 1 mile wide horseshoe-shaped crater.

The magma in St. Helens burst forth into a large-scale pyroclastic flow that flattened vegetation and buildings for over 230 square miles. For more than nine hours, a vigorous plume of ash erupted, eventually reaching 12 to 16 miles above sea level. The plume moved eastward at an average speed of 60 miles per hour with ash reaching Idaho by noon.

Mount St. Helens showed significant activity on March 8, 2005, when a 36,000-foot plume of steam and ash emerged that was visible from Seattle. This relatively minor eruption was a release of pressure consistent with ongoing dome building. The release was accompanied by a magnitude 2.5 earthquake.

Campground in Cougar, WA (lower base of Mount St. Helens)

Giant PNW trees