We’ve all heard the song surely from those ads of TV...
I love to go a-wandering along the mountain path.
And as I go, I love to sing,
My knapsack on my back.
Valdari, valdara, valdari, valdara ha ha ha ha ha ha,
Valdari, valdara, my knapsack on my back.
Well that is all I could think of when I was wondering around some magnificent but very different mountains... Firstly I speak of Mt Rainer... 14,410 ft tall, commanding, radiant memorizing. This mountain can be seen from the air as you come in to Seattle it also can be seen from the tall structures in Seattle such as the space needle, when the weather is clear.
Mt Rainer and the mountains surrounding it are soooo beautiful... I feel miles away from home (ok... please no one point out the obvious...). I could have just stood there for hours. It is of course covered in snow as are many of the other mountains yet where we stood we had wild flowers and bushy trees and lakes all around (remember its summer here). Another cool thing to do was look at the mountain using binoculars. We were in fact able to see dots moving down the mountain, you had to strain even with these visual aides to spot the climbers making their gradual decent over the glaciers and down the snow, we could even spot the path that they were following as it zig zagged down the mountain... Honestly I could have sat there all day with no one else around and felt total completeness.
In stark contrast the next day we visited Mt. St Helens, this is the mountain, for those who don't know, blew its top, killed 56 people, of whom, the infamous Harry J Truman was one... refusing to leave his resort as he believed this was a plot by the government to get his land... also a scientist named Johnson, whom the adjacent ridge is now named after who’s last words were (and these were heard on a recording that I watched at the center) were " VANCOUVER VANCOUVER THIS IS IT!". Johnson was a scientist monitoring the mountain. The mountain had bulged 150 m from its original size by the time it blew and when it did it created a big mess... shearing trees from the roots, knocking those further away over, and those even further stripped them of all life... it cause a massive landslide, massive mudslides which lasted several hours... cause bits of mountain or hummocks to be thrown miles from the mountain... ash blew to the north east of the state and cause night time conditions at 11am in the morning.....
The mountains included in the national volcanic monument are still very bare although 25yrs on life is returning... I tell you what... I’m glad I wasn’t there. Mt St Helens (like Mt Rainer) is still active and I did see smoke coming out of it. Mt Rainer is bigger than Mt St Helens and when it blows... I hope I am long gone (Like St Helens scientist believe they will be able to forecast it, but you never really can be sure when it comes to mother natures fury!)
So although I have had 2 days in the mountains I believe they can not be compared. They were two very different experiences and provoked very different feelings...
I'll add to this with pictures and more description when I get my own computer... this will have to do for now...
