Rainier Beach's Outing to Mt. St. Helens

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Team:
Rainier Beach High School
Date:
Saturday, June 1, 2019
Trip Types:
Car Camping, Caving, Hiking
Photos:
Plan:
We will leave the high school by 8:30 am.
On the Saturday we will drive down to St Helens making our first stop at stop at Ape caves and hike through old lava tubes. Then we may visit the Trail of Two Forests where the youth can see forest that was and wasn’t burned or drive onward a little ways to Lava Canyon, where there is an interpretive trail about previous eruptions and a suspension bridge.
After these hikes we will camp at Iron creek campground. Sunday morning we will drive to the Spirit Lake area where there is a short hike to a great overlook into the cinder cone. Then, we’ll have lunch and head back to Seattle to arrive by 5 pm.
Report:
We started the trip by circling up and talking about "leave no trace" principles, white nose bat syndrome, and Mt. St. Helens eruptions. We had a nice long sunny drive to Woodland, WA where we stopped for gas, bathroom, and a few extra supplies, including another bundle of wood. Then we drove the remainder of the route to Ape Cave where we had lunch at a picnic table. Before entering the caves we created a buddy system so that everyone was traveling through the lava tube with at least one other person. The lava tube was awesome to explore involving some scrambling over boulders and getting acclimated to being underground in a very dark place. Lots of other visitors that Saturday, but we managed to find a little space to turn off the headlamps and experience the full darkness and sounds of dripping water. Upon exiting the cave, we waited until the whole group came back together and then headed overland back to the vans where we had snacks and hydrated. Energy levels were low, so we drove to camp, stopping only to see Iron Creek Falls and proceeded to camp at 7pm. There we helped students set-up tents, while beginning to cook rice, veggies, beans, and beef for our burrito dinner. Dinner was followed by many S'mores and even a banana boat. In the morning we started wake-up calls at 7am, had breakfast, packed up gear and made our way to Windy Ridge overlook. For such a beautiful sunny day, it was surprising to have the place all to ourselves, having come in on hwy 26 with little trouble on the bumpy one-lane road. Later we left through the hwy25/99 route to discover a closed gate, and headed to reroute back to 26 only to find a forest service vehicle wondering what were doing there. After explaining there was no signage or road block on hwy 26 the man kindly escorted us back to the locked gate to open it. This whole process delayed us about an hour, and so we were late getting back to Seattle. But all safe and accounted for.
Suggestions:
Check Forest Service websites before going to Windy Ridge in early June. Normally, the road is closed for winter until later in the season.

Photos

Working through the lava tube

Sat., Jun. 1, 2019

[Rainier Beach] Mt. St. Helens

Mt. Adams and Mt. St. Helens panorama

Sun., Jun. 2, 2019

[Rainier Beach] Mt. St. Helens

The whole group at Windy Ridge, Mt. St. Helens

Sun., Jun. 2, 2019

[Rainier Beach] Mt. St. Helens

Camp breakfast

Sun., Jun. 2, 2019

[Rainier Beach] Mt. St. Helens