I don't think the Big Guy Lowe or I had any idea how challenging this "hike" was going to be, but at least I'd had experience hiking long distances with a pack. The Big Guy Lowe, well, didn't.
That didn't deter us though. A few months ago I received a note from a friend at church inviting us to hike with them. She had wanted to hike the volcano for some time and when February came around and permits were available for purchase she bought the maximum that one person was allowed; 12. Each permit costs $22.00 and only 100 are available a day. We were pretty excited for the opportunity!
Time then passed and life took up our attention. Before we knew it the climb was just a few days away. I was so excited! The Big Guy Lowe and I worked out what we were going to bring. This spring/summer has been especially cool causing the snow melt to be about a month behind what it usually would be this time of year. After checking out a few blogs that outlined recent summit attempts and going through the website Mt. Saint Helens has, we felt pretty comfortable with our packing choices.
We met our friends early in the morning of August 6th. The boys were over at Grammy and Grandpa's house for a sleepover the night before, so our departure at 4:30AM wasn't disturbing to them. We reached the climber's register where we officially logged in. This way if we didn't log out the forest service would know we were lost. :)
Then we drove about 20 minutes to the Climber's Bivouac. This is where the trail begins and if we had chosen, we could have camped the night before.
I told The Big Guy Lowe that this was his "Wallace and Grommit" smile. ;)
We took a group shot
and then headed out!
The first leg of the hike was through the tree line. There was still a great deal of snow and we were in the clouds. It was beautiful!
We took a short break and readjusted our clothing.
I love this man! He was great going on this hike. I knew that this sort of thing was more in my area, but The Big Guy Lowe was great supporting me in that!
We kept climbing through the trees. The next this leg of the hike, the path was very clear--a walk in the park. That wasn't to continue too much longer though!
At this point we are just coming out of the trees. The dark area in the background is rock that we would begin the next leg of the climb. It was stunning as we were just coming out of the clouds and could see the blue sky above. Amazing!
Note to anyone who ever would like to go hiking with me in the future: I am a sweating machine!! Here's a shot with Arianna, the organizer of our day!
After this short break, we were ready to begin the second leg of the climb. The next section would last a few hours constantly climbing over boulders, boulders and more boulders! (Mixed with some snow).
Picture taking was a bit sporatic from here on out, but the views never stopped!
I love this shot of four of our group coming over an edge with Mt. Adams in the background peaking through the clouds! Beautiful!
The trail through this section was marked by poles supported by piles of rocks as shown here.
Handsome man! Love him!
I just couldn't get over how beautiful these views were! Even now, I am breathless looking at them! This was truly the perfect day to climb!
A view of what we were looking at above consisted of rocks and more rocks. This section had some dirt and ash mixed in too.
A view off to the west as we were climbing. If you look carefully, you can see my shadow in the rocks. :)
Remember what I said about sweat? Case in point! First attempt at a self-portrait.
Our second attempt at the self-portrait. More successful if you ask me. :)
We decided to take a decent break and have something to eat. Everyone was ready!
Then we were off again! I love this shot of LaDawna! While we were in the sun all day, there was cloud cover over the rest of the world that we could see!
After a few hours climbing boulders, the third leg began. We entered the ash. This is the area that I thought was the most difficult as it just kept going and going. Everyone kept saying "two steps forward and one step back". It was true! If you look into the top left corner of the snow area you can see where we were headed. That was the summit!
It was straight up from this point on.
Finally the top was in view. I was ready to push through to the end, but unfortuantely, The Big Guy Lowe was done. He had worked so hard to get to where he was and looking at that last leg in the snow was outside of his comfort zone. As we talked about his decision, he said "If I don't feel comfortable doing it then I need to listen to that". I was a bit disappointed. We had come so far together! I could tell by his voice that he had made up his mind and he was comfortable with that decision. If he was okay with his decision, then I would be okay with it too! While he was was ready to stop, he was also completely supportive of me continuing on to the summit, so after a kiss I was off! Thanks Arianna for taking these pictures of me!!
Finally, the view from the summit! It was worth all the work of that day! Loved it!
YAHOO!!
This is the summit view looking to the east. Mt. Adams is in the distance.
Summit view of the crater looking north through the blown out portion. Mt. Rainier can been seen in the distance. Spirit lake can be seen just to the left of the mountain side.
Summit view to the north showing the lava dome that has been growing the past few years as lava comes towards the surface. No activity today though. Whew!
After the wonderful feeling of reaching the top, the realization that we needed to climb back down through everything we had spent the past 4-5 hours climbing up began to hit. This is the view looking back down from the summit.
At this point I pretty much put my camera away. The climb back down required full concentration as we were pretty well spent from the climb up. Arianna took this picture on her way down. By this time the clouds had burned off showing the beautiful landscape to the east with Mt. Adams on the horizon. Beautiful!
We finally made it back to the climbers bivouac...and we did it on one piece! What an accomplishment! I loved it! My body definitely felt that it had been pushed pretty hard, but my soul felt a joy that can be fleeting in life. I had experienced the miracle of what my body was capable of doing, I had witnessed the beauty of this amazing landscape and I had done it all with the person who shares an unconditional love for me and from me. When we got married over 12 years ago I had no idea love could be this encompassing. My heart is full of gratitude to a loving Heavenly Father that has made it possible for us to live so fully.
Thank you babe for helping me reach my goal. You now have and will contiue to receive all the love I can give.
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