G.A.S.P.

The following day was my one-day to visit Mt. St. Helens, and the weather turned out perfect – sunny, warm and clear as a bell. It was, however, one of the most difficult riding days of my entire journey. First off, I had a 6 mile climb right out of the chute (about 1 hour), then 4 miles later another steep 5 mile climb at the beginning of the Windy Ridge Road to Mt. St. Helens. After that, the road to Windy Ridge was as much downhill as it was uphill, which meant that I had to climb coming back out as well as going in. Later in the day, I had another 1200’ climb as soon as I got back on the main road. I figure for the day I climbed about 7000’ overall. Whew – was I tired or what! Late in the day, I had just about decided that I was going to have to pull off the road and camp in the woods when I came upon one of those wonderful downward sloping truck signs (steep grade) with the words "next 6 miles" under it. Fifteen minutes later, I was only a half-hour from a campground and I made it (Swift Campground).

It was all worth it, however. This was one of the greatest days of my journey – ranking right up there with the ride through Glacier National Park. The basic scenery of mountains and forests amidst the solitude of a nearly deserted highway was a lot in itself, but the volcano and its zone of destruction are literally awesome.

For those not old enough to remember, Mt. St. Helens erupted May 18, 1980 with a catastrophic fury seldom seen and never before recorded by mankind. What you see today is a mountain with a very large crater where its North face used to be, surrounded by thousands of square miles of various levels of destruction. Everything in the inner zone was destroyed, while further away millions of toppled tree trunks remain scattered like matchsticks. Further away yet, a standing forest of dead trees remains. You also see (19 years after the event) that the land is recovering. Everywhere, even in the inner zone, plant and animal life are returning – grasses and shrubs abound and small trees are taking hold.

At the Windy Ridge Observation Point (only two miles from the crater), a National Forest Service Ranger gave a informative and entertaining talk on the events of May 18, 1980. Scientists (Volcanologists) had been watching the activity at Mt. St. Helens for months in early 1980 and had noted a significant bulge in the North face in the few days before May 18. On the morning of May 18 (8:32 am), a large earthquake (5.8 magnitude) occurred under the volcano, which caused the entire North face (over one-half cubic mile of material) of the mountain to slide. The mountain shrunk from 9677’ to 8364’ in a matter of seconds. The loss of that mass was all that the volcanic forces needed to explode, and they did so just seconds later. The lateral explosion hurled rocks and debris in a "stone wind" at up to 700 miles per hour that obliterated everything nearby and knocked down 230 square miles of forest in just 3 minutes. The volcano then blew ash for hours – about 540 million tons of it, enough to cover a football field to a height of 150 miles. Lastly, a pyroclastic flow came down the side of the mountain, forming the pumice layer now at its base and clogging streams and rivers for hundreds of miles.

Postscript: I have written an absurd short story to help those who can’t be at Mt. St. Helens first hand help appreciate the immensity of the crater that exists where the mountain once stood. Credit is hereby given to the Forest Service Ranger at Windy Ridge for the general concept and some of the numbers; I have embellished his story a large amount. This is also a good math lesson for anyone who wants to "check" my numbers. The question is, "Can mankind fix what nature has rendered asunder?" The answer is, "Yes," and here’s how it can be done -

The Philip Pitt Company of Walla Walla, Washington has decided to return Mt. St. Helens to her former height (and glory). In order to make this a truly human versus nature event, Pitt has decided to use only manual labor. Pitt also wanted to involve "everyone," so has hired all humans on Earth – approximately 5 billion of us. Your job is very simple: 1. Come to Washington; 2. Get in line (alphabetically) at Mt. St. Helens; 3. When your turn comes, grab a bucket, fill it with one cubic foot of rock, mud or whatever else slid off the mountain; 4. March up to the edge of the crater and dump your bucket into the hole; 5. After a short restroom break, get back in line. If you didn’t quite get it right the first time, don’t worry, we will each get 15 turns at doing this.