Mount St Helens

On Sunday, Ingrid and I biked an easy 15 miles from Packwood to Randle and then a more challenging 20 miles (with 2000 feet of climbing) to the junction of routes 25 and 99. There, we swapped sag duties with Alison and drove about 15 miles in to the Mount St Helens National Monument. Strongest impressions: vast scale of devastation (now recovering), huge missing section of the volcano's cone, and the beautiful blue Spirit Lake half covered by bleached logs that were flattened by the blast and then swept into the lake by a tsunami-like wave of water that washed the nearby hillsides. More than 3 decades later, the logs are still a dominant feature of the lake's surface.

Hiking Mt. Rainier

These photos were from Saturday 4 August. We drove from our B&B in Ashford up to Paradise (5400 ft) and hiked the upper loop trail reaching the high point at Pebble Creek, about 7400 ft). Total distance was only about 6 miles, so the trail was steep up and steep down! Parts of the descent were still under snow. The sky was perfectly clear, the weather very warm, and the wildflowers were rioting. I used a circular polarizing filter. Managing the high contrast with the large snow fields was a major challenge.

Mt. Rainier National Park

Day 1: Kent to Eatonville (44 mi)

Glass House Mountains

Sunset at Carlo Point

Inskip Point

The peninsula north of Rainbow Beach ends 10 km away at Inskip Point. Impressions: large beaches, strong winds and surf fishing. Two barges carry 4WD vehicles over to the southern tip of Fraser Island.