Bremerton? I heard of that place from Sir Mixalot...

Yes that was a direct quote from one of the boy scouts in an adjacent camping space asking where we were from. It's so nice that our town is known for its population of fat slutty women...the BREMELOS! (of which I am not one of strictly by definition...) I would much prefer the MXPX song for people to remember, but I don't think they are quite as popular...
So this weekend was camping and hiking near Mt. St. Helens. We were on the southwest side of the mountain so we didn't get to see so much of the devastation caused by the eruption 24 years ago, but we did see some really cool old pyroclastic flows and my car was covered in ashy dirt. Next time I'm doin the whole thing...going to hike around the mountain to get the full effect.I just need to get myself into some other kind of shape besides round.
I've always been fascinated by Mt. St. Helens. On May 18, 1980 at 8:32am the mountain erupted killing 57 people and caused the largest landslide in recorded history. I was 5 years old. I can remember riding in the backseat of my parent's car and looking out the window at the gray ash piled on the sides of the roads. I thought it was snow. I'm not sure where we were going. I also remember going over bridges and seeing the rivers thick with debris and mud. I thought it was the coolest thing to have a volcano so close to where I lived.
Being my nerdy sciency geeky self, here are some pics I took this weekend...

Above mentioned dirty car...


First glimpse of the mountain after coming out of the biting-fly infested forest we had just walked through...(note to self, bring DEEP WOODS OFF next time...Cutter just wasn't...um...cutting it)


Further down the trail, another view. You can see the pyroclastic flow that came down the mountain and sort of fans out. It was so close it felt like you could walk right up to it.


Walking across the afore mentioned pyroclastic flow, I got a sense of how huge it really is. Imagine if this was coming towards you at 175 mph and was 1200 degrees...


Another view of the flow...note the blown over trees.

The green trees you see here have grown since the eruption.

There are more pictures but they aren't nearly as fascinating as these ones...try to contain your disappointment.