Top news to start : we saw a bear! He didn't hang around, sadly, but there he was : large, heavy-built, black and fast-moving up the hill away from the road.
That was at the tail-end of crossing over the Columbia into Washington ("The Evergreen State") to visit Mount St Helens volcanic park, which started with drizzle but ended with very decent views of the volcano. A daunting reminder of how small we are : trees ripped down or left bare and petrified, whole areas laid waste, rivers and streams clogged with tree trunks and vast boulders. To give you an idea, the eruption started at 08.32 on 18 May 1980 and cities miles away were dark with airborne ash at 3pm. Spare a thought too for Harry Truman who ran a lake-side bar close by; his wife Eddy had died some years before, and Harry was warned but refused to leave the bar - it's now 200 feet below surface level where the mudslide engulfed the lake and tree-trunks still clog the banks (and this isn't sand on the edge).
Anyway, back to today. We worried Helena was going to stay under cloud cover but, bit by bit, the clouds shifted and eventually (very cold - not Windy Point for nothing) we got our best glimpse.
And then the bear ambled by.
Overnight now we're in Packwood near Ohanapecosh (aka Middle of Nowhere, on the edge of Hicksville - there's a lumberjack statue outside and I don't think they're into irony) but we're halfway to Mt Rainier, tomorrow's destination.
Allegedly, elk wander through the garden on occasion - we're hopeful...
No comments:
Post a Comment