*This post should actually be after one I will post soon, I'm working on gathering photos...
'Mars' you say?! Yes, Mars. We went on a camping and mountain bike riding trip this weekend at Mt. St. Helens. It was our first trip down there and took roughly 4 hours to get to our destination. We left on Friday after work and drove into the night, got there around 10 pm and set up our little two-man tent (for the first time, I might add) with no trouble. I was pretty proud of us I must admit... first time we'd ever put up that tent, it was dark, and it was only my second time putting up a tent ever!
While sitting in our camp chairs, enjoying the clear night, we started seeing stars shoot across the sky in the distance. At first we thought they might be planes but decided against that then saw some with long tails shoot quickly in the dark. Turns out there was a meteor shower while we were there, so we were indeed seeing shooting stars!
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| Eating hot oatmeal in the morning in our little tent. |
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| By the stream we camped at on the first night. |
The next morning we got up early and went out for a (LONG) bike ride. Roughly 20 miles to be exact, on a mountain bike. Will was bummed because he wanted to go 22 but we couldn't due to the path, I wanted to go 10, so I guess we compromised?? Even though it was a long trail, I must admit that it is one of the coolest places I've been. We started in old-growth forest on a nice uphill trail, Ape Canyon, then it breaks out into the Plains of Abraham, where Mt St Helens erupted back in 1980. It's absolutely fascinating. You go from old forest to basically desolation that's barely re-grown after 30 years. From the flats, we rode all the way out on Ape Canyon. It's roughly 10 miles of pumice stones and small re-growth from where the lava rolled down years ago. There are some flowers and trees here and there that were missed, so it's very obvious of the damage that was done by the volcano. But it truly feels like another planet out there, and it's called 'Ape Canyon' because the rumor is that Big Foot lives out there. If I had to pick a place for him to live, this would probably be it.
The trip back down through the old-growth forest was awesome because we did all the climbing (+3,000 ft total) on the way up so we sailed down the mountain. The sun was shining and other than a few technical mishaps with my bike, the day was great
(except I wish it had been 10 miles vs 20...but then I wouldn't have seen all that I saw... it's a catch 22).
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| Lava rock and tiny vegetation after 30 years! |
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| Mt Adams in the distance. |
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Cutest puppy - a Wheaten Terrier - we met in the parking lot
after the ride. He was precious!! |
After the ride, we enjoyed a peaceful evening at our tent. We cooked dinner and enjoyed jambalaya with shrimp... not bad for camping out! The next day Will rode on the Lewis River Trail before heading home. I decided to read magazines instead :)
While I was off camping this weekend, my friend and her husband found out they were getting three kids from Ethiopia! They've been patiently waiting for the past two years to be matched with a child/children and just got the good news. Check out their amazing journey here: http://movebeyond.me/
