Up early and too cold too linger we escaped from Nottingham and headed for the Columbia Gorge.
A guy we met at Oregon Caves suggested seeing it, as did the Pacific Crest through hiker we talked to at Crater Lake. The German family we exchanged camping tips with at Newberry suggested avoiding camping in the Gorge, no escape from the highways or railroads on either side.
We cruised West on the Oregon side towards Portland. It was windy, the weather visibly deteriorated the closer we got to Portland, the rain never fell though. We stopped at one of the Visitor Centers for the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. Sadly they too, were no longer employing Junior Rangers. No worries though, we took some pictures at Multnomah Falls on the Lewis and Clark trail.
We grabbed the freeway a bit (yuck), and crossed into Washington state.
Mt. St. Helens slowly grew on the horizon, but not before the Jeep sputtered and stalled. Out of gas again. I was trying to make it to Battle Ground, WA but ran out in Dollar's Corner, WA. A little better than before, just over 21mpg. Lets hope the mileage keeps improving.
We stopped at Ape Caves in search of the legendary cave apes. We found a natural lava tube at Mt. St. Helens and hiked nearly 3/4 mile down the easy side of the cave. It was awesome and nothing like Oregon Caves. The park service did this one right. If you want to explore the tubes, dress warmly and be sure to have at least three sources of light. The park has not wired the cave or made the path user friendly save for a set of stairs to get you through the natural opening to the floor of the tunnel. Except for one low point it was large enough you could drive a Jeep right through this cave. Well, the 51 Willy's could make it with the windshield folded down.
Oh and it was dark, despite the popularity of this part of the Monument you felt truly alone as flashlights didn't carry far as the cave twisted and turned. Just the soft echo of other voices and cave apes let you know others were down here.
The park service was renting lanterns for those less prepared.
After the cave and upon a rangers recommendation we drove to Windy Ridge and were afforded a close look at the damage caused by the eruption and pyroclastic flow. Trees all leveled laying in one direction. The lake still partially covered in 30 year old downed timber. As you got further away only the largest trees stand as solitary statues, dead and bare of any branches.
We headed North, again, to the tallest point in Washington, but stopped at a commercial campground on the way, $22 and we have the entire tent area to ourselves with plenty of firewood to boot. We win.
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