We plan to wake up at 5:30am this
morning, but Yellow is already getting up at 5am. After breakfast, we
leave the campground at 6:30am and drive toward Mt. St. Helens. The
morning fog envelops the countryside and the road is pretty bumpy.
And once we take NF-99 road, it gets steep too.
We stop at Bear Meadow for a first view
of Mt. St. Helens.
And as we are getting even closer toward the
volcano, we’re driving through blasted forests that are starting to
recover, more than 30 years after the big explosion. We didn’t
think that it would still look so devastated. We try to take the road
to reach the Norway Pass trailhead, but half of the road is missing,
so we park at Miner’s Car and walk to the trailhead, realizing that
the road is not that bad after all. The Miner’s Car is a demolished
car owned by the Miner couple, which happened to be too close to the
volcano on explosion day.
We then walk to Norway pass – 4.5
miles round trip – in the remains of the destroyed forest starting
to be very slowly taken over by the small regrowth. Mt. Rainier is
showing up, and Mt. Adams, another snow-covered volcano peak, is
emerging from the forest fire smoke. The area is dry and dusty. We
feel like we are walking on ashes.
Some people are around though, picking
some berries: huckleberries. And it’s true that the area is filled
with them, along with some Saskatoon berries. Once we arrived at
Norway Pass, the view on Mt. St. Helens, with its open crater, is
beautiful over Spirit Lake. The lake is actually still filled with
tree trunks.
On the way back, we start picking
huckleberries, and we end up with a quart of them. We get some pumice
rocks too, as the mountain is covered with them. As we get closer to
the trailhead, the mountain is swarming with people. Children are
being loud, and adolescents are running around. Everybody is picking
huckleberries. This sounds like a great spot! May be a little bit
busy on Saturdays.
After the hike, we drive a little bit
around, until Cascade Peaks viewpoint, as road NF-99 is closed passed
this point. Then, again, some more up and down driving on a bumpy
road in the direction of Cougar, WA. But right before the town, we
turn right to visit the Ape Cave. We actually focus on the lower
cave. In fact, we walk 1.5 miles round trip in a large lava tube with
our flash lights. It’s impressive, and even if it’s pretty busy,
we have the opportunity to stop at one point, turn off the lights and
be silent. It is pitch black, and we can barely hear other people
being loud. Especially that group of middle-schoolers, with the guys
burping and the girls giggling.
Anyway, once it’s done, we race to
the south, very good roads, trying to reach the Columbia river before
sunset. The breeze is warm in the gigantic river gorge, with Oregon
on the other side. We both have never been there before. But tonight,
we stay at Bridge RV Park in White Salmon, WA, right on the other
side of the bridge from Hood River, OR. The owners are originally
from southern Illinois, very nice.
Once settled down at campsite no. 8,
and while sharing a local beer, Red studies and Yellow takes care of
the meals for the next days. After a late salmon taco dinner, we go
to bed, with the window open, pretty close to the sea level again.
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