St. Helens

Our Annual 4th of July trip was a success! Well kind of. We had a trip filled with laughter, delicious backpacking food, lots of old growth forest, a couple lucky 4 leaf clovers and some varying temperatures. In fact, there were several times on this trip when we were reminded of our close proximity to a mountain by the cold mountain winds! Despite our occasional teeth chatters, we survived and look forward to climbing Mt. St. Helens when the time is right- hopefully this summer!

Here are some pics from our lil' trip:


We drove North after work on Friday. Our late arrival meant sleeping in the Subaru. We didn't mind though. The stars were awesome!

Had I known that this would be the last time we would catch a glimpse of the mountain, I would have taken more pics. It was clear for 30 minutes when we started our hike in.

The first part of the hike was through a large landslide. Not sure if it was from the big blast in 1980 or not.

We encountered several fascinating types of foliage on this trip...... and yeah... that is snow.

We also had one of those goose bump experiences where Betty said, "wouldn't that be great if we found a 4 leaf clover right now"? As she said that, my eyes made contact with a very healthy 4 leaf clover that was promptly picked and put in my book. We decided that it might be time to turn some of our wacky money making ideas into a lucky business??? The clover will be our mascot??

This was our campsite. We slept on a cliff and it was awesome! We also had a view of a raging waterfall that sounded like a relaxation CD.

We nestled in for the night and celebrated all things outdoors.

Of course we had to entertain ourselves with a few cheesy pics... There were more, but not everyone is as shameless as I am!

Betty had to pull out coat #2 as darkness approached. It was chilly!

Gotta love the sunset picture.

It was a blast as always-