Mount St Helens in 15

Monday Funday this week brought us to the active volcano - Mt. St. Helen's. As we drive up to it it appeared she was smoking so I felt my adrenaline kick a little bit.

This mountain was over 1,000 feet taller before erupting in May of 1980, causing that big hole in the middle of her. Now this wasn't a fire eruption, although it blasted the top of the mountain off, causing lahars to slide all around her into many rivers and over many bridges.

I asked a ranger inside the park if there was a sulfur level for the day since she was smoking.

He told me that wasn't smoke, but ash and dust due to falling rocks because it is a windy day! I saw the smoke and thought immediately of being in Hawaii driving up to the smoking volcano Kilauea, but this was in no way the same.

The decent at first was a narrow trail on a steep ledge cliff. I must say its a pretty cool way to start and end a trip. At first, we were planning on going to Harry's Ridge, which beholds many scenic views of the mountain. We decided at the last minute to head towards the mountain rather than away from it. So we headed toward the Loowit Trail.

This trail had a few shaded spots to walk through containing little snakes, small bits of water and the fattest squirrels I've ever seen in my life. The most amazing creature I saw was a flying grasshopper whom had yellow/green wings that clicked as they flied around.

The trail led us towards Spirit Lake.

Where we attempted to approach to have lunch at, but all the dead trees all around and in the water proved themselves great obstacles to get around. We found a big dead tree and ate in the shaded woods.

We saw tons of lupens on our journey.

And my favorite: paintbrushes!

A lagoon of sorts:

I was pretty convinced that it might've been quicksand around it so there was no swimming there today.

And we stopped to take a break near the largest of three creeks

The water was clear and cold and felt so good to dip my feet into. We made sure to stop again on our way back. While sitting at this rock edge we met a lady on her way back and asked where she was coming from on the mountain. She pointed out a waterfall that likes like 2 white dots from where we were standing.

So we started heading in that direction to see how far off it was. This part of the walk was super beautiful. We were able to see up and into one of the chasms. And we started to see the water moving at the waterfall as we got closer and closer.

The last 1/4 mile towards Loowit Falls were the toughest for me. It was an uphill hike and I'm pretty sure it was way more than 1/4 mile. It did make for a great viewpoint though.

Getting so close to the mountain made it look like a few different mountains, not just one that was sunken in.  We decided to head back, knowing we went further than our original 8 mile round trip hike. We took a little shortcut of a more direct path back to Johnson's Ridge.

Turns out we hiked over 15 miles! I scurried up the last part to get to the gallon jug of water in my car.

 

 

You mean forever....forever?

I have always known what I want.  I have always gone after the things that I want to do and want to succeed in.  That being said, I hate looking into the future.

Don't get me wrong, I adore looking forward to trips and concerts and seeing the people I love.  However, if you ask me what I want to do tomorrow night:  I am stressed out at the thought of what mood I will be in tomorrow night!  Let alone pick the place I will live and be happy in the rest of my life...

Take marriage for example: why do I want to tie myself to another human being for the only benefit of the state I live in declaring "I am married."  Who is that other human being and what will they be like in a year, let alone a month's time, or a decade.  Am I really supposed to find my best suited option?  Or my most convenient?  I just don't even understand the dream of being married.  A stressful, expensive day where you expect your friends to show up, tell you how great this other person they don't even know seems to be and how much they loved the catered food that was pumped out of a kitchen as fast as humanly possible.  And this is the norm???

Another struggle of mine is if I want to even settle down yet.

I want to travel and enjoy my life while I am fit to enjoy it.  If I stop now and start making a home, I have to stay and tend for it.  I love my apartment and I love improving it, but I love my freedom and knowing that my life is what I make of it.  My time is now to do the things I want to.  The things I can't do with a baby on my lap.

I guess I've been thinking about my future and I don't have a crystal ball so I don't know which way is up and down.

Portland is most amazing to me because of the never ending exploration of things around me.  There is so much to explore that one may never even be able to accomplish in a lifetime.

I think that picking a significant other is it's own adventure too.  You are trusting this person to give back what you put in.  And support you through gobs of emotional roller coasters.  I give credit to those that say "I do" and give it their all, but thats not who I choose to be, least not right now.

I have right now to make something of myself.  To position myself in a comfortable place where I want to be.  Yet I want to travel as much as I can...  So I need to balance working with how much I can be off somewhere else versus time I want to chill out and be home.  Maybe my best option is finding a dwelling.

I'm just ranting, because I do want to figure the next steps of my life out.  I moved to Portland on a whim and I feel like I could go elsewhere the same way.  That being said, I love vacations and I NEED to have somewhere to come home to.  I'm starting to think future thoughts all based out of the west coast so I guess I'm looking for logic.

*Oregon
*Farm
*Yurt
*Business
*Ability to travel

All things I plan on working with

Walking with Giants

Mount Rainier was the destination of our weekend so we could walk amongst some of the largest trees you can think of. Two 1,000 yr old Douglas Firs and one giant cedar were on this trail amongst so many other ancient beauties.

That's just the first half hour inside of the national park!

My. Rainier is the largest mountain in the cascade range and our dogs had to stay home because they protect all the wildlife within the park. I'm talking not just birds, but all white mountain goats, black bears, beavers all things galore!

We camped on the White River which has an epic view of the mountain:

There's a constant halo on top of it. Probably all the glacier's icy mist rising. Some believe it's UFO's though :)

The second day we were heading to the sunrise point when we stopped at a lookout and decided to do our hike right there, where less people were.

First we made it to Clover Lake and a layer of fog was still rising off her waters

Pictures don't do this place justice:

So continuing on our hike Alex sees a big ole porcini mushroom! This prompted me to search for more. So up a small trail I darted up where I start to see flowery meadows and I call to Alex to follow!

We travel up this magical meadow and find another lake

Pink alpine paintbrushes are everywhere!

And these guys!

 Called ole man of the mountain or Western Pasqueflower or Toe headed Baby! Needless to say they are pretty cool. And also potent medicine for anxiety!

We climbed straight up to the top of the highest meadow

And there was Rainier

Along with two Cooper Hawks chasing one another.

We looped around a different way so our descent down wouldn't be as steep as our climb up. We started walking towards a patch of snow.

Turns out it stays snowy here until July. Like you need snow chains for your tires or your not allowed on the roads around the park!

This whole time I've been looking for animals that I wouldn't see elsewhere when all of a sudden some rocks come falling down from a distant direction and an all white mountain goat peeks his head around right at us! Now I've never seen this allusive animal before so I wasn't 100% sure til it walked right into the clearing. It had a stride like a bear or a mountain lion. It walked slow and calculated and had a jump on its back while its head hung low. So cool! I was hoping others were behind him, but he was my only mountain goat today.

Proceeding back to the car, we quickly went through the visitor center to geek out on all the plants and stuff we just saw. Then we decided to spend the rest of our day driving around the rest of the park.

We went to a glacially carved canyon.

Saw these awesome succulents growing on the rocks.

Then we headed to the lake areas.

The one that we ended up stopping at was covered with blue mountain huckleberries. We followed the lake around collecting a bunch in a bag. At this point my feet are drenched from stepping in a big and we are following tight animal paths when Alex softly says, Jenna, Jenna, Jenna.

I see a bunch of birds fly off but to my left...

Just about 100 feet away this beauty of a black bear was scoping us out. I snapped one picture and walked away and my bear friend headed a different direction for his berry meal.

The sun started going down

So we made our final stop and left feeling rejuvenated from all out mountain goodness.

 

Emotional

I've been tugged so many different directions this last month, I can't even begin to describe...

In the beginning of the month, I started working a superb amount of taco hours, which I enjoy but it takes away from my adventure time as well as my time on Sauvie Island.  Alex and I have felt our first strain.  I learned that Michael has been sleeping with a co-worker, slash/friend of mine for a few months - whatever that means.  And I realized that I'm too busy to care about friendships.  I've made some good ones so far but I already feel myself blowing them off.  I need to go out more, but I feel myself driven to want to be home, which is especially weird since it is the summertime and all.

Resolutions:

Mike can be with whoever he wants.  All I really want is for him to be happy

Alex works sooooo much and never regular hours, I AM a priority to him although sometimes its difficult to see it.

I still adventure all the freaking time, so what if I stay home on Tuesdays after all my epic Monday Fundays.

I've just been busy but I intend to dive back into posting all my adventures over the month a half.  And you know i've got some amazing pics to put forth too.

I think my biggest struggle is finding the balance in my life;  I want to go Go GO yet I want to stay in once in awhile.  I want to be with Alex, but I want my me time too.  I know I'll figure it out