Adventures of a Yeti and Andrea!! (1 Viewer)

[lt1fire]

Andrea's birthday weekend and mothers day weekend most of the time falls on the same weekend, so now that I live by my mother again its a juggling act, LMAO.

Anyway Friday was her actual birthday so we left early in the morning and she came with me while I inspected a big industrial property in Centralia and then we continued on to Silver Lake near Toutle for a night at a cabin.

After checking in we drove 1 1/2 hours to the south side of mount saint helens to take a look at "the tail of two forest trails" its basically an new forest that is growing on top of lava flows from an eruption a few thousand years ago. Extremely interesting and I have slight memories of doing this the first time I went to Mt. Saint Helens in 87. Lots of imprints where the trees stood and died with the lava. Cool and very small lava tube you can crawl through. I was bordering on the "i'm stuck" size for this tube lots of crawling on my belly for a bit of it.

One of the holes formed as the lava cooled around an ancient tree that died and is long gone just leaving the hole to the sub-floor

More info here

Trail of Two Forests

This trail loops through two forests that stand side by side, but are separated in age by 2000 years. One forest is old-growth Douglas-fir and western red-cedar and the other is a young forest that was originally engulfed by lava flows from an eruption of Mount St. Helens over two millennia ago.

www.wta.org

 

[lt1fire]

Next we realized we were really close the ape caves (a Yuuuuugggeeee lava tube that was discovered by an exploring club called the Mt Saint Helens Apes in 1952). We didn't really have the needed flash lights for it but did it anyway..... I think it was about 3 total miles underground in the pitch black with lots of mini climbs. We used Andrea's phone flash light but you quickly realize how useless those things are when there is no ambient light around you at all. We only ran into one other group the entire time down there.

I loved it down there... there was a 30 degree temperature drop and it was approaching 90 in Seattle that day. (very unseasonably warm right now)

The last natural light you will see

A huge and extremely light lava rock

One rock that was jammed between the many layers of the tube

Best the flash on the cell phone could do under ground (we forgot to change the batteries on the flash in the A7)

It was also a Yeti cave for a while at one of the ends of it.

More info here on the ape caves

Ape Caves

The full experience at Ape Cave includes the easy exploration of a spacious lava tube, followed by more difficult travel through a smaller, longer, and more rugged lava tube to an exit. Then, enjoy an easy return hike winding through shady forest and crusty lava formations.

www.wta.org

 

[lt1fire]

After that we headed back to the cabin and were both pretty tired. Made some steak chopped salad for dinner and drifted off to sleep in the hammock on the deck.

The next morning we got up and walked across the street to the lake for breakfast.

Then I got a message from a buddy that he was at a amatuer rally cross even fairly close by so we headed over for a bit to watch.

Was pretty cool.... there were some cars out there people had invested some money in but most were 1k beaters people were learning how to drive on dirt with. Never seen a happier and more welcoming bunch of people, outside of ONSC , it was unreal. Andrea made a friend who was helping her understand her camera better as she clicked away.

We may have plans for Andrea's Focus in a year or so

 

[lt1fire]

We then headed up to some hiking around Mt Saint Helens. I'm sure everyone knows or remembers the story of the eruption there.

This is my 4th time here, Andrea's first. I went in 87, 93 and 97. The first time it still looked like a ground zero atomic blast had happened with each time after that more and more greenery returning. Now it pretty much looks completely normal up until the road closure (the high observatory is opening next week so couldn't get there yet as it was still snowed in until recently).

Really from some videos i've watched only the base of the mountain and spirit lake still shows scars from almost 40 years ago. That and you can clearly tell about half the mountain is missing, plus about 1300 feet in elevation.

The huge canyon the Lahar carved out on the way to the Toutle river is also pretty evident. About 3.7 billion cubic yards of rock and dirt from the mountain and 14 billion gallons or water shot through here. (this was one of 3 canyons carved by it)

Ended up doing about a 6 mile hike around there.

 

[lt1fire]

Next year we are going to apply for climbing permits to go to the summit. Don't want to deal with too much snow or ice so will be shooting for July.

Its a pretty vertical at around a 4800 elevation gain over 5 miles. takes 8-12 hours round trip.

Anyway here are a few other random pics from the trip.

 

[angerhater]

Pretty cool dude. Happy birthday Andrea

 

[fourtrax]

looks like it was Awesome . Happy Birthday. and thanks for sharing.

 

[lt1fire]

Took a day off from life today.... made a huge omlette for breakfast. Went to cars and coffee, hung out with the rest of the Yotas. Had a pretty awesome high HP 4 door skyline park next to me. The Cressida was aweome.... large turbo 2jz, 6 speed.... etc

After that drove to Mt Rainier national park did some aight seeing and some hiking. Little rally car did great from sea level up to 7000 feet and back.

The change in scenery and topography as well as temperature was amazing.

 

[lt1fire]

 

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[lt1fire]

Took the Defender out yesterday evening to get some pictures of it in nature for the Sale Advertisement. Awesome time out near Rainier gained about 5000 feet of elevation, got up to some snow, did some rock piles, muddy ruts, etc..... I was a little impressed with how id did with >32" crappy full inflated tires and no diff locks.

We've averaged 29MPG since getting it on Friday and doing seattle traffic and trails. Love this thing, maybe one day after the 105 becomes a reality.

Won't bore you with most of the pictures but they are on my facebook if anyone wants to see most of them.

I do like these two though

Also went over one of my favorite bridges and when buying the forest pass at the ranger station we found out that there is a ghost town near it, along its shores. Not a far hike but not an easy hike either.

First you have to find a way down the side of the bridge to the river and then the trail is along the bank which is pretty wet and slippy on the rocks. Will get it done later in summer after the Glacial run off is down a bit. I don't feel like falling into this.

 

[lt1fire]

1987_land_rover_defender_110_van

Explore this photo album by Anthony Wood on Flickr!

www.flickr.com