On May 18, 1980 at 8:32 am...

Mount St. Helens drank too many triple Starbucks espressos and went Kablooie. It was the worst geological disaster in America's relatively short geologic timespan. A 5.1 earthquake triggered a blast which reduced the mountain by 1,300'. The explosion leveled 230 square miles of prime Northwest forests. Fifty-seven people were killed, 250 homes were destroyed and 185 miles of highway went Bye-Bye. It was an expensive disaster. 

I remember washing volcanic ash off of my Dodge Dart in Fort Collins, CO. The fine grained particulates went further than that. The dust eventually circled the planet. 

Mount St. Helens is still considered the most active volcano in the vast Cascade Range.  It's an occasional puffer. There's a new dome building inside of the maw that the blast left behind. After thirty-six years, green things are returning. Animals are calling it home too. Remember, Mother Nature detests a void. 

In 1982, President Reagan set aside 110,000 acres as an National Monument. I've seen the steady comeback in 1986, 2012 and a few days ago. It's progressing along on a scale humans can notice. That's fast. 

The Monument is a laboratory of what nature can do if left to its own devices. Humans would only  hinder the inevitable. One day (not in our lifetime) there will be an old growth forest here. That is, unless Mount Saint Helens decides to blow it's cool again. 

You better check it out.

Jeff from Newport, Oregon

"It's so big, you can't see it from here."

Quote from Dr.  Sal Butera

This pretty much sums up Mount Rainier. By comparison, most other peaks look like the Flint Hills of Kansas. Or comparing Shaquille O'Neil vs. me, although we both sport above average smiles. 

How big is Rainier? Well, it's more than a 14,411' mountain. It's girth contains 25 glaciers. It's the birth canal of seven rivers. There's too many creeks calving off of its summit for me to count. It takes the Wonderland Trail 93 miles to go around the circumference.  This massif should have it own zip code. It's HUGE.

Geologists consider the volcano to be "episodically active." The last witnessed eruption was 1894. There's still stuff going on below and on the ice. Sit in one place long enough and you can see and hear rockslides and ice falls. Even now, trails sometimes go missing due to landslides. I've been on a few of them.

I had the pleasure of spending a few days and hikes in our Nation's fifth National Park. I came away with a feeling beyond awe. (And Aww). On a clear day, your eyes are naturally drawn upward. The views change by the minute and your angle of sight. I never had to stifle a yawn. It's so much better than watching so-called Reality TV.

But, there's trouble in Paradise. Last year, 1.85 million guests visited Mount Rainier. More than a few might have been guests from Hell. At the ridiculously popular Paradise section of the Park, trails are paved and roped in. It reminded me of going through an airport security line. Wildflower meadows beyond the passive constraints were trampled down. No blooms, just bare brown dirt. Very sad. 

The Park is 117 years old. In 1899, America's population was 63 million. Now there's 323 million who call the U.S. home. I can't and don't want to imagine what Paradise will look like in another 117 years.  

In Genesis 1:28 God ordered Adam and Eve "to be fruitful and multiply." Maybe Homo Sapiens are getting too good at duplicating themselves. I'm glad I was born in 1954 instead of 2004.

Enough somber thoughts. Come and see this amazing place while there are still untrammeled meadows and places of solitude. You will be glad you did. 

I'll be back for a more in-depth look at Mount Rainier ASAP. There's so much more to see here.

From Packwood, Washington 

Cheers,

Jeff

PS. The last photo shows what happens when the Fox Fear Network creates the signs for the National Park Service.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines...

The word "Enchantment" this way: "a feeling of being attracted by something interesting, pretty, etc."

This sums up the quest of my retirement. 

So it's no wonder why I pursued a Wilderness Permit to take a look-see into Enchantment Basin. 

The Basin is on the Bucket List of too many Wilderness Wanderers like myself. Scoring a permit is equivalent to winning both the Powerball and Megamillion lotteries within a week. In other words, highly unlikely. I tossed my name and money into the drawing and waited. I was rejected nine times. (About the same odds I'm having with women.) 

My last resort was to arrive in person for a walk-up permit. The Forest Service website information wasn't encouraging. "About 50 people show up daily for a few spots." Between the lines, I could almost hear a snicker. 

What the heck!  I was in the neighborhood of cheesy (faux Bavarian-themed) Leavenworth, WA. I would fit this stopover into my BUSY schedule. 

There were only three others hoping to "get lucky." The low turnout might have been the weather forecast of an 80% chance of precipitation. Who in their right mind wants to go up a mountain and get wet? Me. That's who. 

My name was called! I hadn't even packed. I went into hyperdrive. I threw food, gear and a rain suit into my backpack and headed uphill for 3,600' in 6 miles. Thank you Starbucks Coffee for the caffeine aided energy boost. 

By the time I arrived at Nada Lake, the 80% chance of rain became 100%. I set up my tent and threw me and my gear into it. The rain continued for four hours. I decided to stand down and see what tomorrow would bring. 

I peeked out at first light, and saw benign skies. Two Starbucks coffee shots and two Clif Bars later, I was on my way. 

I'm going to digress here. 

With all the the Hullabaloo about E.B, I reckoned it would be an easy stroll. Most folks don't have challenging items on their To-Do list. OY! Was I wrong. From Snow Lake, the trail ascended 2,000' in two miles. During the in-your-face climb, the trail crossed rockslides, creeks, mud holes, granite ledges and slick tree roots. This was no Sunday mosey in Central Park. BTW: this turned out to be the easy access. The hard way was a scratched out route consisting of 2,600' of straight up in one mile. Ouch. 

Now here's my second wrong assumption about Enchantment Basin. With a poetic name like this, I envisioned Julie Andrews pirouetting in a field of wildflowers. Of course, she would be belting out "The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music!" 

There were no wildflowers. There was nothing for them to grow on. It was all glacier scoured granite. The few tablespoons of soil were occupied by runty tamarisks/larch trees. They weren't about to share their precious substrate with some low life flowers. 

It was all very wild. It was also raw beauty. 

See for yourself.

I'll keep wandering. There is just too much to see. I'm getting frustrated by that thought. 

Cheers from the White River campground in Mount Rainier National Park,

Jeff

Waterfalls are Standard Issue

Waterfalls are Standard Issue...

in North Cascades National Park. 

There are plenty of Nature's other spectacles as well. This is a remote landmass where bipeds are and always will be a guest. 

The reason? The topography is too steep and inaccessible. The mountains rise anywhere from 4,000'-6,000' above the valley floors. The slopes are in free fall. There's nothing gentle about the place. The word rugged doesn't explain the situation.

The park boasts 312 or so glaciers. (Of course, they are mostly receding). A third of all the glaciers in the Lower 48 live within this half-million acre Park. There's about 300 lakes too. That melting ice has to go somewhere.

There are few roads penetrating the vast interior. Washington State Highway 20 (AKA the North Cascades Highway) wasn't punched through until 1964. Most of the trails take the path of least resistance and follow the many waterways. There's  a lot of territory that's never been squished down by a hiker's boot. 

Dense old growth forests were spared the plight of the Paul Bunyan crowd due to these intimidating features. There's easier game to cut and mill. Miners tried their luck with limited success. They too gave up, but left a few reminders of their earth moving ways. 

93% of the North Cascade Complex is designated wilderness. Now the Park attracts Seattle city slickers, climbers and folks like me. There's plenty of sightseers too, who only venture a few feet from the comfort of their Winnebago campers or sedans. 

On the trails, climbers strut by burdened down with ice axes, rope and other tools to challenge rock and glacier. Families amble by too. On a sun-kissed day, it's a happy place. 

Come by and see for yourself.

If you haven't figured it out yet, me and Barley the Van are on a great roll.

Cheers from Cle Elum's Whispering Pines RV Park. (Most of the trees are Douglas Fir)

Jeff

PS. Bring bug spray instead of bear spray. It's the Great North-Wet and it's buggy.

"Invalids Need Not Apply"

This very un-PC statement (almost Trump-like) was part of the Help Wanted ad the U.S. Forest Service posted in their infant days as a Federal Land Baron. (The USFS was established in 1905). The notice went on for its requirements for perspective Forest Rangers. A Ranger must be able to: "built trails and cabins; ride all day and all night; pack, shoot, and fight fire without losing his head." 

What! No mention of creating a frothy cappuccino? 

As you can see, the USFS was asking a lot of mere mortals. In 1908, the Coeur d'Alene National Forest hired Edward C. Pulaski. The fledgling organization then scored all they had asked for and a whole lot more. Ranger Pulaski was the right man at the right time in "The Big Blowup" or AKA "The Big Burn" of 1910. 

In the summer of 1910, the Forests of northeast Washington, the Pan Handle of Idaho and western Montana were "snap, crackle, pop" dry. There wasn't a can of beer's worth of rain in the month of July. Small scattered fires began to spring up. They were fought by small and scattered fire fighting crews. There wasn't any cohesive game plan or organization to their efforts. At the time, Big Picture communications and an Incident Command System were nonexistent. 

On August 20th, there was a change in the weather. A cold front had entered the scene. It was accompanied by a wild land firefighters worst nightmare. Wind. Just like that, those isolated pockets of fire coalesced into something terrible. Imagine a bowl of Coleman fuel with an addition of a lit match Whump! 

 

That faithful morning, Pulaski left the mining town of Wallace, Idaho. His parting words to his wife and adopted daughter were "Good bye I may never see you again." Now, that's a John Wayne moment! He then went up into the steep hills and became part of firefighting history. 

As Pulaski ascended toward the flames, he noticed rapidly deteriorating conditions. He gathered 45 firefighters and shepherded them into an abandoned mine tunnel. He placed a wet blanket across the entrance. A few of the panicked men tried to flee the tight enclosure. Ed pulled out a pistol, and threatened to shoot the first one to make a move. No one called him on it. The heat/smoke/CO2 eventually caused all to lose consciousness. Five never woke up. 

In the inferno's aftermath, the survivors stumbled through the ashy chaos and back into the half-burned over town of Wallace. Pulaski spent the next two months in the hospital recuperating. The Big Burn left him damaged both physically and mentally. He died one year after retiring  from the USFS in 1931. 

His legacy continues. Ed left behind a wild land firefighting tool that bears his name. The Pulaski-half ax and half mattock. He came up with the idea in 1911 and fine tuned it by 1913. 

78 firefighters were killed in the Great Fire of 1910. The conflagration consumed  3,000,000 acres of timber too. (Cinders were free falling from the darkened skies as far away as Denver and Chicago) 

Now we ask this question? With all the improvements in training, communications and weather forecasts; why do wild land firefighters still die? 

http://jeffsambur.blogspot.com/2016/05/another-tribute-to-fallen.html

Be safe out there.

If you find yourself in Wallace, Idaho please take the time to hike the Pulaski's Tunnel Trail. It's a fitting tribute to a true American Hero. 

Jeff

The final photo is for Ed.

A Montanan Montage...

The tourist slogan for Montana once was "It's Time".  A cerebral concept that makes a thoughtful person ponder. Time for what? Well, to see the incredibleness of the "Big Sky" State! Or in my case, to try and squeeze in as much as I could in two weeks. 

There's a lot to see here.

Montana is the fourth largest state in the Union. There's 147,000 square miles to roam around in. Although I wouldn't mosey onto private property. (Montanans are a well-armed mob. Think Unabomber) 

That's OK. There's still plenty of Federally owned National Parks, Wilderness Areas and Forest Service land to venture upon. 

And that's what this Wandering, Wondering Jew did. I guesstimated I covered over 130 ground miles in search of "Ooos and Ahhh" views. That's my new career. I hike to pretty places. 

See for yourself. 

Many of these pix were shot in Glacier National Park.
In 1910,  Glacier was deemed worthy of National Park status. At the time there were 125 active glaciers. Now, there's  25. The NPS scientists believe those icy holdouts will be history by 2030. The usually conservative National Park Service uses the term "climate change" to explain this phenomenon. For an organization who tries not to step on anyone's toes, this says heaps. 

The Montanan tourism slogan is spot on. It's time. 

Fun MT factoid: There are almost as many elk, antelope and deer per square mile in Montana as there are two-legged animals. (6.1 vs. 6.8). There is no mention if it's OK for those wild hay burners to trespass upon private property. 

So many places to see, so little time.

Cheers,

Jeff

In the Summer of 2005...

I took off in hot pursuit of the Nimiipuu Tribe. For us White Folks they are better known as the Nez Perce Indians. I was touring on a bicycle tricked out with four panniers and a duffle bag. That's all I carried for two months and thousands of miles. See? I was into Minimalism before it was cool. 

http://jeffsambur.blogspot.com/2016/06/i-never-thought-of-myself-as-a.html

Now about the Nez Perce and what makes them so special: 

The year was 1877 when 750 Nez Perce tribal members and 2,000 ponies left their ancestral homelands for a better future. That's what they had hoped for. They didn't want to be subjugated to a non-nomadic reservation lifestyle. 

Sound familiar?

http://jeffsambur.blogspot.com/2016/07/it-said-history-is-written-by.html

The Nez Perce's empire once spanned a four state region of what is now Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. Their territory included large swaths of forests, valleys, plains, canyons and a few notable rivers complete with salmon runs. It was a large piece of Paradise on Earth. After all the shredded treaties, their Real Estate shrunk by 90%. The U.S. Government brokered a ruthless deal. Move to the Reservation or be forced upon it by the Cavalry.  

A few of the clans said in essence, "Screw that!" They became known as the "Non-Treaty Nez Perce." Once again, a group of Native Americans were led by a charismatic leader. His name was Chief Joseph. The bands decided to take their chances on the road. Their immediate goal was to peacefully get away from the U.S. Army. Their long term goal was to join forces with their Allies, The Crow Tribe on the eastern side of the Rockies. In the end, neither plan materialized. 

What followed was a retreat featuring twenty skirmishes and battles. It was a circuitous route of over 1,100 miles designed to keep the Cavalry at bay, avoid White settlements and stay out of range of their Old Time Indian enemies.

They were eventually headed off at the pass by Colonel Nelson Miles in the Bear Paw Mountains of Montana. They were captured a mere 40 miles from the sanctuary of Canada. 

In 1986, the National Park Service commemorated their escape route. It's appropriately  named the Nez Perce Historic Trail. In 2005, I flew into Spokane, Washington reassembled my touring bike at the airport and began my journey of discovery. 

While the Nez Perce were attempting to find freedom, I felt crazy-free while following along on my bicycle. At the time, I doubted if their was a happier dude on the planet.

Now I don't ride much since my sedan/bicycle accident. 

http://jeffsambur.blogspot.com/2016/07/five-years-ago.html

BTW: I wrote an article about my flight as well.

https://www.amazon.com/Wandering-Jew-Pursues-Nee-Me-Poo-ebook/dp/B007HQXI86/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1469460124&sr=8-6&keywords=Jeff+Sambur

However, I'm pleased to report, I still feel incredibly free and very happy.

I'm now using horsepower to get around instead of pedal power.

The photos are from my recent visit to the Big Hole National Battlefield near Wisdom, Montana. Many Nez Perce women, children and Warriors were slaughtered in a surprise attack by the U.S. Cavalry and numerous local volunteers. A successful counter-attack saved the day for the remaining tribe members. Their retreat continued. 

"I still haven't found what I'm looking for."

U-2 lyrics

From Glacier National Park,

Jeff