We're Back!

 And we have a backlog of posts!

We've actually just returned from a week in NJ, but I'm still catching up with this last post about our WA trip.

This is the Lava Canyon which we hiked on Mt. St. Helens.  This beautiful glacial stream was completely obscured by trees before the pyroclastic flow form the 1980 eruption, shall we say, uncovered it.

 In actual fact it scoured out the trees and rocks in the valley, and reshaped the canyon.  It was a little creepy (as a person who remembered the eruption) to see the line of mature trees which mark the height of the flow.


We went up a little higher on the mountain and found more snow, with the obvious results...

DUCK!








And we visited a beautiful glacial lake.

No, we do not actually have our feet in the water.  At the end of June it was quite shockingly icy!

Speaking of shockingly icy, on the Mt. Ranier climb, Klenda didn't realize that her boots would collect snow if not laced to the tippy tops.

By the end of the climb down, her toes were quite shockingly icy and here she is warming them on the black top at 5000 feet!