Wow it’s been awhile… and I made it to Seattle Washington!

I’ve driving so much since leaving Portland. I went out to Mount St. Helens and I needed to find a shirt that said, “ I went to Mount St. Helens and all I saw was a cloudy mountain.” From some vantage points you couldn’t even tell the top was blown off. While I was on the southern side of the mountain I went to Ape Cave. Ape Cave was a cave formed by an underground lava tube. Pretty neat, I took the easy walk down the cave and back and it was really dark and really cold. Thankfully I’ve learned a little bit since I’ve been on my trip and I brought my headlamp and a jacket. After leaving Ape Cave my GPS tried taking me on every forest road or fire road it could find to get me to the north side of mountain. After wondering around in the woods for a bit I decided to can the GPS and just drive all the way back to hiway 5 and then go back to Mount St. Helens. An hour and a half later I wound up at the edge of the blast zone for the 1980 eruption. The whole area is basically a tree farm for some lumber company. So they plant and then thirty years later clear-cut the area for lumber. Which by driving through Oregon and Washington seems to be all that they do here. From the northern side of the mountain I got a better view of the crater but there were still plenty of clouds perfectly nestled in the crater. It was still cool and the views from up there are really vast. About four the next morning I got my welcome to Washington rain, and it’s been off and on since then. I realized it’s great the tent is waterproof but it really sucks putting up a wet tent, in the rain.
With the wonderful rain and clouds I decided that driving the two hours to Mount Rainer might not be the best idea. So I ventured back to Oregon to Astoria. They filmed Goonies in Astoria and I thought it would be really cool to see. It seemed so nice in the movie. Well it’s not that great. I saw nothing that reminded me of Goonies and most of the town seemed really run down. Still I can say I’ve been there which I couldn’t before. Plus it’s at the mouth of the mighty Colombia River, where it meets the Pacific. I didn’t realize it but pretty much since I showed up to Portland I’ve been following the Mighty Colombia all the way to the Pacific. When I got to Astoria I realized, which I didn’t thanks to me either not paying attention in school or school not being very good, that this was where the Lewis and Clark expedition made it to the Pacific Ocean which then completed their trip out west. Also the Mouth of the Colombia River is the most dangerous shipping lane in the country if not the world. Right off the Bar as they call it, there are hundreds of shipwrecks that date back two hundred years. So even though I went seeking a Goonies tour of Astoria which still would have been way better, I wound up learning something kinda useless but interesting.
That night I decided to camp again, at Cape Disappointment State Park in Washington. They name should have clued me in. Although the beach was great and the sunset with the lighthouse in the background made for a great picture moment, the name really should have been Cape Mosquito. I didn’t know when I checked in but basically the whole area use to be covered by the Ocean. Over the last hundred years because of the jetties that were built at the mouth of the Colombia River the whole place started to fill in and the Ocean resided leaving a wetland. Not good for a camp ground, but I guess the state thought it was great. I did learn that you should spray bug repellant everywhere, and don’t go walking around just for fun at dusk.
Now I’m in Seattle and Amy is with me now, which is great. It’s nice to have someone to talk to and to get filled in on what’s happening at home. So far we have been having a really great time. Seattle is a fun town and Amy has said she could live here. So next we are off to Vancouver BC. And then I continue on from there.

See ya in Vancouver
Stephen