This past Tuesday, March 8th, I spent the day up at Bill’s Northwoods Cabin continuing the construction work. His son Matt is home for Spring Break, and he was also up there helping. We worked busily all day, everything normal. Around 5pm, we heard the sirens going off at the nearby volunteer fire department. Matt asked me if I thought there was a forest fire nearby, and I supposed that could be true, or maybe even a structure fire at one of the cabins. The siren continued for about 5 minutes, and after that we didn’t give it anymore thought. We finished our work at the cabin and packed up by about 5:45pm. As we were making our way back toward civilization (known as the Cougar Bar & Grill in Cougar, WA - and calling it civilization is a serious stretch!), we had a Portland radio station on in the truck. During the traffic report, the annoucer said that the Portland freeways were at a standstill while people were gawking at the Mt. St. Helens ash/steam plume from the eruption that had occurred about an hour earlier. WHAT?!?!? The mountain erupted?!?!? How could that be? At the cabin we are a mere 10 miles (as the crow flies) from the top of the mountain! We didn’t see, hear, or feel anything! Once we heard about the eruption on the radio, Bill floored the accelerator on the truck to try to get us to the only viewpoint of St. Helens between the cabin and Cougar. We made it to the viewpoint about 10 minutes after dusk, so it was really too dark for picture taking, but I gave it a shot anyway. I know that the photo is very unimpressive, but that’s the view we had. We were on the exact opposite side of the mountain from the eruption and the direction of the prevailing wind. Bill, Matt and I were considering coming up with some exciting story of danger and escape - but we knew we wouldn’t be able to tell the tale with a straight face! It just seems like the story should be much better than this since we were probably some of the closest people to the mountain on Tuesday during the eruption… oh well.
P.S. We determined later that the volunteer fire department sirens we heard were in response to the eruption. Little did we know!
I missed it too! So much for it being one of those “what were you doing when…” moments, huh?
WOW!!!
We know people who were there when it happened,you are famous!!
Great shot of the eruption even if it was after the fact! Also enjoyed your photos in the kayaks. Looks like fun, I can’t wait to try it.
I used to have one like that when I was growing up on the River Thames…I wonder if I can still do the paddling? I have been working out so should have muscles built up by then.
Love, Nanna
Mamma says…she wasn’t very impressed with the pictures…Ha, Ha, Ha!!! (I think that’s sick…Nanna!!)