I called mom and asked her if she wanted to go with me and she said yes. Ben was still gone with the fires in southern Oregon. July was the perfect time to go because the weather would be decent (I will not go to the mountains if the weather was going to be cloudy) and it worked out this year (even though this summer was a rough one for us). We seriously have not been to this side of the mountain since the mid 1990's. I am sure a lot has changed. I got my stuff ready the night before and made sure to check and download all of the caches I wanted to get. There was a virtual I really wanted to get and made sure I definitely had that one written down.
I got up at 9:00, packed up the stuff I would need, some snacks and drinks in the cooler and put it in the Escape since we were going to drive my vehicle down there. I drove into Rainier, picked her up (thank goodness she was ready to go and I didn't have to wait for her) and took the backway to Hwy 12 via Hwy 702, into Eatonville, Hwy 7 and into Morton because we had to stop for gas in Yelm and Walmart for a few things since we got new phones (Galaxy 9+) last week. We got onto Hwy 12 and we were pretty lucky...we didn't have to follow anyone for a while. When we got to Randle, we turned onto the 131 and then onto NF25. The last time mom and I were out here was November 2016 and we were trying to cross off some of the Rainier100 cache series while the weather was nice. We went as far as the Iron Creek campground before we turned around.
NF25 is paved but it endures some pretty harsh weather throughout the year so there are spots where the road is pretty chunky in some areas so your really couldn't drive very fast. The road wasn't super busy either which made it nice while driving even though it is a pretty windy road. We were coming up on our turn, NF 99 to take us towards Windy Ridge.
In a few miles there was going to be a pullout for a first view at Mt. St. Helens and our first geocache of the day which happened to be an earthcache. I'm On the Edge (GC7CV55) took us to the edge of the blast zone to where we had to answer a series of questions about destruction and rebuilding of an entire ecosystem. We took our picture to verify we were there as well.
A little further up the road we made another pit stop at Meta Lake and Miner's Car. I remember visiting these places in the mid 1990's. I can't believe I haven't been up this way since. We parked and got out.
Mom wanted to walk around the short interpretive loop and I said sure, let's go for it! We read some of the signs as we walked past them. I vaguely remember being here but once we got to the lake I definitely remember being here. We came up on the small dock that gave you a great view of the lake. The trees, plants and animals were still recovering almost 38 years later. I walked along the cement sidewalk to an even better view. Because this area is under snow most of the year; a lot of the water from the snowmelt had not evaporated yet. There was still a lot of water on the walkways you had to avoid.
The water was so clean and clear. You could see tiny fishes and frogs swimming around in it. You also could feel the coolness and the warmness of the air because of the elevation we were at. It is an unusual sensation and similar to when we were at Crater Lake last summer. We spend a good half hour/45 minutes out here before we decided to go check out Miner's Car before heading to Windy Ridge.
Instead of driving, we decided to just walked there because it was a really short walk.
We had to wait our turn to read the informational sign because of the couple in front of us. Once they left we had it all to ourselves. It is really hard to imagine what this place looked like before the eruption since I didn't have the luxury of experiencing the area before it did (I wasn't born yet) but you could imagine though. Lots of dense forests, creeks, forest roads, hiking trails, shade, animals running around...you probably couldn't see the mountain as easy as you can now. We read the sign and it explained who's car this was. They parked their car here and walked up to a mine that wasn't that far away from the car. They thought they were safe from the mountain that morning. They all died within seconds of the eruption. As you can see the car endured a lot that day however, almost 40 years of weathering and people stealing parts off of it didn't help it either.
We stopped at the Smith Creek Viewpoint to use the restrooms and to check out the informational maps inside. There wasn't much to look at and I was disappointed. I would have liked to take one of the signs home though.
We stopped briefly and pulled over to check out Spirit Lake. When we stopped our phones blew up! Usually when we were out in the mountains our phones didn't work so it was very surprising when I got text messages and mom was getting phone calls. The phone call was from Doug and he was upset we didn't ask him to go to Mt. St. Helens with us. We just didn't think they would have gotten up in time to meet us out there since they were coming from north of Seattle. They would have had to come down the night before. It didn't mater because he and Jenn were on their way to Vantage to see the horses because she wanted to see them.
We made it to the Windy Ridge Viewpoint, found a parking spot and knew we had to pay a $5 recreation fee since I didn't get one before we left. I didn't bring any cash on me so I had to write out a check instead. I shoved it in the envelope and dumped it in the slot. We sat in the Escape, ate our lunches, put our shoes on and made our way up the 368 step sand ladder. It was a half a mile and we gained 200 feet in elevation as we went up. We had to stop a few times to catch our breath because that mountain elevation will get ya.
We spent a good hour up on the ridge overlooking Spirt Lake and a view of the crater. While we were up there I took the time to reflect on everything that has happened since January. This year was especially difficult and it was about to get painful because Grammie wasn't improving. It was literally breaking my heart. I also sat there looking at this amazing geology. The sheer fact that this mountain did so much destruction in such a little amount of time; but no matter how devastating it was it still is recovering with time.
We walked back down the sand ladder and did the virtual cache, Mount Saint Helens - Windy Ridge (GC5097) by the edge of the parking lot.
We walked by a group of Canadians visiting the mountain and they asked us a few questions. I answered them the best I could, they thanked me and went on their way to their next adventure in Washington.
We both decided it was probably time to head back towards Hwy 12. We meandered our way down FS99 and onto FS25. Mom saw a sign that said Iron Creek Falls so we stopped and hiked the 500 feet in. There were also a few sets of people, their dogs and kids also enjoying the falls and river on this hot summer day. I took my shoes off and waded across the river to the other side. That side gave a better view of the falls.
Mom asked me if I knew of any other places out this way that had falls. All I could remember off Hwy 12 was Cowlitz Creek Falls. We got back into the Escape and followed FS25 back to the main Hwy in Randle. I had to stop one more time at the Iron Creek Campgrounds for Berner on the Loose (GC4GEXC). I basically had to guess where it was because my phone reshuffled itself so I didn't have a clear view on this cache since I didn't have service here I used my car GPS to get me as close as I could and then used the hint I wrote down to find it. Victory was mine after checking a few places along the trail.
We got back to Hwy 12 and headed towards Cowlitz Creek Falls. We followed the signs off of Kiona and made it to the campground. Once we got to the parking lot and the boat launch we really didn't know where to go so we asked someone if they knew about any falls here. No one seemed to know. There was no falls here. Why do they call it Cowlitz Creek Falls if there aren't any falls. So misleading.
We got back into the Escape and headed back to the highway. Mom saw a lavender farm, Cowlitz Falls Lavender Company that was founded in 2014, on the way and wanted to stop. We really didn't have anywhere else to go that day so I said sure. We followed the signs to the back of the building and parked. We got out and we were instantly welcomed to the farm. We looked at their products that they make there on site. That included hand lotions, soaps, essential oils, edible lavender and lavender starts for your own garden. She explained the different kinds of lavender in the rows, handed us a basket and some shears and told us to have fun.
Mom and I picked a row and she asked how we were suppose to cut it. I have some experience cutting lavender so I told her where to cut the bundle. She cut quite a few pieces and shoved them in her basket and then asked me if that was enough. I didn't know how much she wanted so I asked her if she thought it was enough. She said sure. We went back to the building to pay for stuff. We saw the essential oils and decided to buy some for grandma. We thanked the family and drove back to Hwy 12.
I wanted to stop at one more cache called Surprise! (GC5WG73) because it had several favorite points. When we got closer I noticed that it could be a guard rail cache and I was disappointed. However, when I got out to actually find the cache I was indeed surprised. The container is what made it worthwhile sort of like a surprise snake that comes out of those joke plastic cylinder containers.
I put it back and got back in the Escape. It was getting about that time and mom mentioned she was hungry and wanted Papa Pete's in Centralia. We were about an hour out of Centralia. I texted my friend Liz to see what she was doing and if she wanted to meet us at the pizza place in about and hour. She was happy to see the invite but sadly she couldn't make it there due to her kids sports. I said since I was in the area I thought I would invite her out if she could but I would see her anyway at work on Monday.
We usually got the same thing when we went to Papa Pete's, pepperoni and black olives, a side salad to share and some drinks. We got the large size so we could bring home leftovers. We ate and chatted about some of the upcoming events. We had a trip to the southeast planned for the end of next month.
I dropped mom off in Rainier and then headed to my house for a quick second to change. I had promised my HR people at work that I would come to Joe's off site karaoke retirement party at Emperor's Palace. I basically went to support Joe because I do not sing in front of people. I hung out with his sons, Nick and Chris, for a little while since I basically grew up with them. It was fun to catch up with them for a while. I stayed for about two hours visiting with the other HR people until I got tired. I thanked them for inviting me out.
I went home, got cleaned up, chilled a bit watching Netflix, talked to Ben for awhile and then went to bed shortly after that. Today was a long but fun day.
Next Adventure: Mobilization: The Dalles and Taylor Creek Wildfires in Oregon
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