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Has it really been 40 years? MSH May18 1980

That shot compared to the previous pic with H still is hard to believe how much earth was moved. The ash gray water still is running in the rivers and the lakes full of debris which are stunning to realize how many full size trees are still and for decades to come stacked up.

Was cool to see progression of replanting efforts with signage of when they were planted along the parkway.The scale is just so massive.

Yes, humbling to think of the natural force that was created to move that amount of rocks, earth and trees. In total, St Helens released 24 megatons of thermal energy, the equivalent of 1600 Hiroshima atomic bombs.
 
Six weeks after it blew our 14 year old son and I took my Yamaha XS7502D from Ames, Iowa and headed off to see the volcano. We had a good trip. When we arrived in Yakima, a few hundred miles to the east they were still plowing ash with snow plows. We slept on picnic tables At the Willows Campground on the south side of US12 in the Snoqualimie National Forest where the wind had cleared the tables but left inches of ash on the ground. We watched the log jams at Toutle and collected course sand upwind to go with the very fine ash we had collected downwind at Yakima. It was an epic two or so week trip.

Later I often wondered why the engine in that motorcycle was pretty much junk at 42,000 miles. Then I had a long conversation with my friend David Hough (Proficient Motorcycling, More Proficient Motorcycling, Street Strategies and more) about a Boeing study of the affect of volcanic ash on aircraft engines. That explained fully why the rings, cylinders, and other parts were prematurely worn on that poor motorcycle. I had taken no precautions whatsoever about the ash. We just took off on a great father-son adventure.

I can see how that ultra-fine ash would do a real number on an engine. I was in Boise at that time, about 400 miles south west of Mt. Saint Helens, and we got a good dusting of the ash. A lot of people here were trying to protect their engines from the ash and I kept my driving and riding at a minimum until it had settled and been washed away by rains.
 
Just imagine how much ash will be around when the Yellowstone Super Volcano blows. I figure we will probably go in the initial blast; probably a good thing to go early and quickly. Could happen any day now within the next 100,000 years or so.
 
Just imagine how much ash will be around when the Yellowstone Super Volcano blows. I figure we will probably go in the initial blast; probably a good thing to go early and quickly. Could happen any day now within the next 100,000 years or so.

I'm only a bit further to the west than you are to the north, and I figure when I see a massive light to the east, I might have time to say, "OH, SH..." Now you have given me one more reason to drink. Thanks! :dance
 
At that time we will hear" Billing, Billing this is it"! 40 years ago at St. Helen it was " Vancouver, Vancouver this is it"!
 
Shortly after the eruption- late June- the helicopter unit i was in was enroute to Ft Lewis (for an exercise with a Canadian unit). The last helo broke off and flew around the smoking crater. He got a “talking to”, so to speak, from our CO!

The ride in from the east is incredible and very interesting!!

John
 
Easy for me to remember...

May 18, 1980, was when my wife gave birth to our first child. They both "erupted" so to speak, on the same day!

What's harder for us to grasp is that we have a child that's 40 years old!
 
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