REMEMBERING MAY 18th, 1980

Mt. St. Helens - Then & Now.

The May 18th, 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens fluctuated in height and veracity for 9 hours straight; the thickest layer of ash blanketed the areas closest to the volcano, as the powerful blast blew away a mile of the mountain's summit, sending a thick layer of ash east and north across Washington, northern Idaho and western Montana … and some traveled as far as Bend, Oregon – 150 miles away. As the ash fell, entire communities went indoors - and stayed there.

Harry Truman with his beloved Mt. St. Helens in the background: before she blew her top in May 1980.

Toutle River Bridge before Mt. St. Helens’ pitching a fit took it out.

Log jam debris (which included house, barns, animals, ect.) – and a powerful mud flow took out the bridge on the North Fork of the Toutle River.

Log jam & mud flow on I-5 Cowlitz River.

Ashy downtown Longview. A speed limit was imposed to keep the ash kickup as low as possible. People wrapped their vehicle’s air filters in pantyhose to guard against the gritty ash: it did not help.

Measuring the height of the mud flow as it raced across the landscape; following the devastating volcanic eruption of May 18^th, 1980.

We had significant earthquakes following the eruption; and ash falling in Cathlamet – the kids got a bang out of watching the “dirty snow” drift past their bedroom windows

In the early morning hours of May 19th, the eruption had for all intents, and purposes, stopped.

And the gray course, sooty, ash had drifted into the central region of America: and within 2 weeks tome, had drifted completely around Earth’s atmosphere.

Mt. St. Helen’s Eruption (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ifohb8_2WhE)

Bob was working for Durrah & Martin’s Logging Co, Inc., then – and was one of the first loggers to go into the Red Zone, when it was opened up for timber deadfall retrieval; he even smuggled his 12-year-old son, Alex, in with him one day when he had to do maintenance work on the Yarder, and told him to “get out of sight and hunker down” when a helicopter flew into the air space – they laughed about that incident for years … even up to the day Bob was placed in Comfort Care in December of 2018.

Bob's lungs were scarred from working in the Red Zone ash.

Bob said there were different brilliantly colored lakes that had been created by the eruption (red, yellow, varied hues of blue & green).

Spirit Lake had literally been sucked up by a surging wave of volcanic momentum, and displaced miles away from where it originally had been: and it is despairingly ugly, now.

Mt. St. Helen's was Bob's Mountain; and he knew every road that cut through her forests (forests and roads that are no more - they are buried under 400 feet of muddy debris). He loved her. Even when she was just a shabby ghost of her beautiful self ...

When Mt. St. Helen's was finally opened to the public, and Bob took me into the Red Zone, it was eerily creepy: total devastation was everywhere - no life, at all: not even a breeze. Just wreckage. Ash-dredged timber lay like giant toothpicks (like the 'Pick Up Sticks' game) laid flat and spreading for miles and miles into the distance. They weren't even charred; they were just denuded and baked with coarse gritty gray ash. I couldn't wait to get out of there. For years I wouldn't go near Mt. St. Helen's because it was so unnerving.

I go back now, just to prove to myself that I can ... but I do not feel the 'love' that Bob did.

Sunday~Funday 2 (https://jeastofeden.blogspot.com/2019/09/sunday-funday-2.html)

Daytrip ~ Mt. St. Helens (https://jeastofeden.blogspot.com/2020/08/daytrip-w-trudy-ed-mt-st-helens.html)

A Walk in The Clouds: (https://jeastofeden.blogspot.com/2021/04/a-walk-in-clouds.html)

The mountain that walks in my soul is Mt. Rainier: which is also an active volcano.

Mt. Rainer peeking over Mt. St. Helens wilderness seen from Johnson’s Ridge area; August 2020.

Bob and I hiked the Sunrise Trail in mt. Rainier National Park; Mt. Rainier's top in the background; June 2015.

Mt. Rainer seen from high up on the Sunrise Trail - Box Canyon is just over that peak; June 2015.

Box Canyon – Mt. Rainer National Park; I LOVE this place. We enjoyed this place several times a year. For decades.

Mt. Rainer seen from Packwood Grocery Store; August 2020.

I know that Mt. Rainer “is alive” with unleashed chaos, like Mt. St. Helens is … and was – but somehow, I never feel threatened by that knowledge.

I suppose that is how the people, who died, in the Mt. St. Helen's blast felt.

MT. ST. HELEN’S MEMORIES

Mt. St. Helen's & Spirit Lake before her 1980 temper tantrum.

Bob and I both had ties to Mt. St. Helen’s area – my Uncle Don Anderson had built the bridge that spanned the river of Spirit Lake Highway leading to the then majestic mountain: we camped along the riverside that summer he was building it. Bob’s family had moved to Toutle and spent time camping and motorcycling at Spirit Lake Campground, and frolicking on the flanks of the mountain.

The Hargand Motor Brigade - 6 'cycles. Toutle, WA. Bob's siblings - Bonnie, Merry & Rosie: Bob & Ralph didn't have one because they were bachelors living in Cathlamet at this time. Not a very clear picture, but it’s the best I have given the film of those days.

Bob and I spent every other weekend of our dating time and married years, driving to Spirit Lake, or enjoying the scenic beauty of the mountain; and her forested backroads. We usually went on these drives in the ‘56 Ford … but occasionally, Bob would borrow his Dad’s full-dressed Harley Hog because I liked motorcycling and Bob was an excellent driver: I knew I could trust my life to Bob’s protective love and capable muscular build ;-)

The red-white '56 Ford Bob had when we met in 1974.

Bob Sr's Harley. We always borrowed it in 1974. Not a very clear picture, but it’s the best I have given the film of those days. Bob loved driving that thing; I loved being on it, with my arms around Bob ;-)

Those were fun times.

Mt. St. Helen's - 1979

I remember the day we drove out Kid Valley and visited with Harry at the Lodge, Bob's friend. I didn't recognize the significance of that friendship at the time - I just knew Bob wanted to introduce me to people who were important to him. I was happy about that. It wasn't until much later that I would realize who Harry was ... and how that friendship played into the tapestry of Bob's life.

I remember clearly the time we drove up to the mountain in the winter time. I was pregnant and had to pee, so I told Bob to find a restroom facility; quick … Bob said, “Okay, but you’re gonna have to go underground”. I wasn’t keen on that – but I had to go! The restroom was under snowpack, which meant I had to enter a green metal lidded-manhole type of laddered tube to access the facility (how I got my fat little body safely down/up that tube still mystifies me). It was lighted. I made Bob stand at the top of the tube and talk to me so I didn’t feel claustrophobic – he did; he stood up there in the freezing weather, talking to me nonstop and smoking cigarettes until I climbed back up that ladder: Bob was a good man; he loved me. He knew I hated heights … and I was unnerved being underground. I know it sounds like a sci-fi screenplay, but that was a real experience. It was never repeated. That time was not a fun time.

Stacey had her 1^st out-of-house diaper change on the blacktop at the base of Mt. St. Helen’s flanks :-D

There was a blacktop road that would take us right up to the flanks of the mountain where hiking trails would wind right up to the peak. It was very beautiful, serene, and magical.

I remember watching the 1980’s news flashes leading up to the disastrous and destructive explosion.

Mt. St. Helen's - bulging & venting before the major eruption. 1980

I remember standing in our livingroom in Cathlamet on May 18^th, 1980 – the morning of the explosive eruption – with a cup of coffee in my hands watching the news … and felt an earthquake tremor (caused by the explosion) so strong it jolted me, and I dropped my cup; shattering it on the floor. Cathlamet is at least 2 hours driving time from Mt. St. Helen’s – that’s how strong the earthquake tremors were.

Distance from Cathlamet to Mt. St. Helen's. We always drove up to the Mountain via Toutle access ... and it's a long drive, either way.

Bob was working. Down Longbeach way; Durrah & Martin Logging Co., Inc., had secured a logging contract in that area then, I believe. It was a long drive to work and back home every day.

I remember before the explosion day, Bob telling me, “Harry (Harry Truman) won’t leave the mountain, Val. That mountain is part of Harry – he’ll die there. His wife is buried there; he won’t leave.” Bob knew Harry personally - he'd known Harry almost all his adult life up to that point; Bob and his high school/young adult friends spent many, many hours talking with Harry at his Lodge and store. Bob liked Harry and said, "He's an okay guy - kinda rough around the edges, but he's alright, Val." I don't remember much about Harry; I was a shy teenager back then. But if he was okay with Bob ... he was okay with me.

When I felt that jolting tremor and heard the news caster saying the mountain had erupted … I knew Harry was no more. He had died with his beloved mountain and his wife. I knew the news of Harry’s death would be a blow to Bob, even though he’d been expecting it.

And I was caught up in the moment of the explosive eruption, the excitement of the historic happening, the weird thrill of real and present danger, and the changing excited misinformation being fed to the news broadcasters that had one newscaster (after realizing he’d given misleading feed to the public based on ever changing excitable moments) barking to his gopher while flinging papers at him, “Get ahold of someone who knows what the hell is going on!”

May 18^th, 1980 was a madhouse day. In more ways than one.

Mt. St. Helen's Eruption. May 18th, 1980

Mt. St. Helen's ash cloud went around the world. May 18^th, 1980. We woke up, May 19th - Alex's 10th Birthday, to see ash floating down around our home: fallout from the continuing eruption.

When it was safe enough to open for public access (meaning logging), Bob’s bosses’ outfit was one of the first group of loggers to get in there to log the fallen timber. Bob even smuggled Alex into the Red Zone one day when he went to work on the machinery. I wasn't keen on that idea, but Alex was Bob's son, not mine: I had little say. They talked and laughed about that caper until the talking and laughter died in December of 2018. It took Bob YEARS to talk me into going back into that region - it was freaky the way it looked like a lunar landscape and had NO sounds at all. No insect chatter, chitter, or buzzing. No bird song, trilling, or chirps. No elk bellows or snorts, no bear grunts. Nothing. It was eerily creepy. I didn't like the feel of it.

Mt. St. Helen's fell hills of timber like pick-up-sticks for miles, and miles, and miles …. 1980

Mt. St. Helen's May 18th, 1980 Eruption aftermath – ¾’s of her top was blown away, Spirit Lake was physically and forcefully MOVED to another location; and parts of the Spirit Lake Highway was reconstructed and rebuilt THOUSANDS OF FEET higher than the original highway - atop the 1980 mud-flow and lava plains.

Mt. St. Helen’s is still active today. The surrounding landscape is pretty much all new ground now (old landmarks don't exist anymore), and still dangerous ground to be on, in that area – people go there anyway: we did, even as recent as 2018; before an unknown illness blew our life together apart … and I recently revisited those haunts on a solo daytrip in 2019 – and the region still creeps me out. I basically went just to prove to myself that I could do it.

(https://jeastofeden.blogspot.com/2019/09/sunday-funday-2.html).

I live in the PNW.

I live roughly 1½ hours from Mt. St. Helen’s …

We always drove up to the Mountain via Toutle access ... and it's a long drive, either way. Mt. St. Helen’s erupted, but she didn’t move – she’s right where she’s always been: right where Yeshua created her to BE, despite scientists who think they know better …

https://www.newsweek.com/mount-st-helens-isnt-where-it-should-be-now-scientists-may-know-1104466

Since moving to Longview 24 years ago, I was struck with environmental asthma that nearly killed me until my lungs acclimated to the environment – even so, an ashy burp into the atmosphere can seriously affect me, personally; so, I keep up to date on her temper tantrums ;-)

I’m 63 years old this year – considered “elderly” and “fragile” by political stumpers who don’t know me and have no idea whatsoever what I have had to overcome to make it TO 63 years of age.

I’ve been living dangerously all my life.

Covid-19 doesn’t scare me - I trust Elohei.

And if covid-19 here to stay … people will learn to live with it; just like they do a host of other illness, and unpredictable volcanoes.