USA 5

Day 20 Thursday 13th September 2018 - Mt St Helens

Didn’t get much sleep as it was veeeery quiet. Still up and ready for a day of hiking at Mt St Helens. Got super rugged up as we knew it was going to be cold. I was definitely regretting not being more prepared for ‘winter’ style weather but Lily wasn’t really prepared either (had left a lot of her winter stuff in storage). From what we can tell and from comments that people have made, it was unseasonably cold and the snow has started a lot earlier than usual this year.
Anyway, put on the layers we could and drove to observatory, stopping at some view points along the way. When we arrived we had to do another thing saying we were aware of the risks of hiking inside the blast zone of an active volcano.

Did a walk around of the information area and was all pretty interesting, I remember being endlessly fascinated by volcanoes in high school but it’s funny what you forget. Looks like Mt St Helens was a bit of a (costly) leap forward for volcanology. Killed 57 people (3 of whom were inside the predicted blast zone with correct permits saying they knew the risks of being inside the blast zone) but provided huge leaps forward scientifically - eg in the lead up to the eruption they were monitoring the volcano and there were NO gas emissions - eventually determined that the gas had been trapped which eventually built up enough pressure that when the landslide occurred it triggered the eruption; also there was a hummocks affect that had been observed around other volcanoes but never understood why they occurred until this eruption where they learned that it was parts of the volcano (large chunks that had exploded out of the volcano and landed on the terrain without breaking); also the crater collapsed due to a landslide - similar features have been observed on other volcanoes but they’ve never understood why volcanoes with vertical eruptions might form that way. It’s also been really good for them because they get to see how and why areas recover after eruptions. They predicted that it would take at least a hundred years for any significant recovery to occur but after 38 years it’s significantly recovered. There were lots of factors they didn’t account for (some plants actually flourish in carbon dense soil and when they have no competitors it allows them to ‘correct’ the soil thanks to being the only plant growing there, also they didn’t factor in gophers - which were hibernating at the time of the eruption - returning to the surface unharmed by the eruption and contributing hugely to spreading seeds etc as well as deer and elk. They also have been able to observe and document the formation of glacier (in the crater of the volcano where the sun can’t reach).

We did a guided hike which was really good. Our tour guide, Brittany, is a geologist and had a lot of amazing stories to tell about the volcano and all the things they had discovered. It was a little frustrating on the tour though, because a family of four, also Australian, were on the guided hike and they would NOT shut up about Australia. Brittany was very polite about it but Lily and I lost patience pretty quickly. It’s made me examine every conversation I’ve had whilst travelling that’s for sure! It was always very unprompted I think was the problem, eg the father would ask how college in America works and Brittany would get a sentence or two out before he’d be saying “see in AUSTRALIA we do it like this” and then would talk about how Australia does it until the next stop when Brittany would have to talk to the rest of the group; and when he says Australia he really means ‘Melbourne’ and really he only means his experience with university, because apparently there’s no such thing as student accomodation and you’re required to study from home and there’s only like 6 universities to chose from unless you count TAFE but no one counts TAFE. He has two young boys so I guess he would know best.

Also a struggle as the hike wasn’t really appropriate for the two young boys - they were pretty bright and seemed interested, but it was a long time for them to stay focused and it was freezing cold (started snowing pretty early on) so every time we stopped Brittany would try and keep it quick so we could keep walking, but inevitably the two boys would ask a thousand questions which she had already answered in her story if they'd been listening, which they didn't always have the focus for. She had to cut the hike short in the end as we ran out of time to finish it. Was good aside from that, though, and I’m sure I’ve been there and done that myself and had other tourists annoyed that I was there.

Thought about doing another hike after that one finished but it was just too cold. Problem with the cold is it really zaps your energy, and we still had an hours drive back to where we were staying. Decided to call it a day and drove back. Lily struggled a bit with the drive - which was the first time on this trip - but we took it slow and made it back alright. Early night to try and get some energy back.

Day 21 - Friday 14th September 2018 - Mt St Helens - Mt Rainier

Much better night sleep, and packed up and drove to Mt Rainier. Relatively easy drive, and Lily was feeling a lot better. We wasted some time trying to find the closest information centre but it didn’t appear to exist (GPS said it did but unless it was in the back of a shop it definitely didn’t) so had to go straight into Mt Rainier National Park, where there was an information centre located at the very top of the volcano (slight exaggeration but honestly it was just windy up and up and up). As we drove in, there was actually a ranger at the entry booth checking passes etc and she kindly gave us some maps and directions. Was absolutely gorgeous drive though - Autumn/Fall really setting in. Whole drive up was a mixture of oranges, reds, yellows, light and dark greens, with snowy mountains in the background and rivers and water falls along the roadside…was stunning.

Got to the information centre and had some lunch then dressed up a bit more to go on some hikes. Did a couple (only about an hour each) and both were really good. Saw some deer and a marmot and got a closer look at the volcano. There were some falls we looked at where the water was running white, and Lily told me about how the closer to a glacier that the water is the whiter it is, and then it changes colour the further away it gets until it pools into that super clean looking vibrant blue lakes/rivers we had been seeing on our way up. Obviously there are some exceptions to this due to minerals and what not in the water but it’s still really cool to think about.

Bad weather was setting in so we didn’t hang around, instead heading off to find our accomodation. It was right at the entrance to the National Park (it cost a lot to stay there but was worth it for the proximity and it also had the added benefit of being the only place with vacancies when we were looking). Checked in no worries, the lady who checked us in was a lot of fun. She used to be an avid hiker and climber and talked us through a lot of different things she had done ‘in her youth’ at Mt Rainier. She was good to talk to and loved a chat.
We had dinner, which was a bit of a mishmash of leftovers as we hadn’t had time to go grocery shopping, and then I skyped Emily. Was really good catching up with her and had the wonderful news that she was pregnant! Woohoo! 14 weeks, a girl, and so far all healthy. Thought it would be a high risk pregnancy but so far has passed all the tests (except for Emily failing the diabetes test which she’s really upset about but she did expect it due to all the problems when trying to get pregnant). After speaking to Emily we were just doing some organising for the next day.

Was starting not to feel very well so I took a heap of vitamins etc including my elderberry which usually fights off colds before I get them, but sort of hoped it was just because we’d had the heater on (I’m really bad with heaters or air conditioners!). Lily opened a window and put a fan on for some white noise (another very quiet place so we were trying to be prepared) but I don’t think that helped me too much!

Day 22 - Saturday 15th September 2018 Mt Rainier

Had zero sleep, woke up feeling horrendous and was vomiting. Lil set off by herself for the day to do the hikes we had planned and I took a heap of medication and went back to bed. Was a pretty horrendous day but I really can’t complain, I haven’t even had a proper cold in awhile and I’m assuming thanks to taking the elderberry the night before I didn’t even feel that awful (took me most of the day to realise I had a fever - only realised because something had fallen off the bed and I had no memory of it doing so, so I checked fitbit and realised I’d had a 3 hour nap even though I really vividly remembered those 3 hours and must have just had a fever-dream the whole time). Lily came home about 4pmish and had gotten me a green tea which was the only thing I managed to keep down with any success all day and also was amazing on my throat. It sounded like Lily had had a pretty good day all in all, so was pretty sad to miss it although I knew I definitely wasn’t up for it. She saw a whole family of marmots and quite a lot of bird life. She went further than we had planned too, as well, because the trails aren’t very well signposted, but had to be careful of the weather (it was forecast to snow all day but it didn’t really hit until just after she got back). We were both really glad we had pushed ourselves to do the hikes the day before as it meant I got to see Mt Rainier and it meant Lily got to see a lot of it with good weather.

I had a shower and took a heap more medication, including a melatonin which I haven’t needed in awhile but oh well. Seemed to do the trick because although I wasn’t miraculously better and I woke up every half hour, I managed to doze most of the night from about 10pm till 10am. Felt really sorry for Lily - she has a vomit-phobia so I think me being sick was just as traumatising for her. She kept asking if I’d taken my reflux meds (I had - no affect, as it wasn’t really reflux) and if it was anxiety making me throw up (it was definitely my stomach not liking food that was making me throw up), and I don’t think she got much sleep that night as she seemed to wake up every time I woke up even though I didn’t throw up again. Assuming it is a flu but hoping for the best.

Day 23 - Sunday 16th September 2018 Mt Rainier - Seattle

Woke up feeling like I hadn’t slept, despite the fact I knew I had. Was feeling a lot better (Actually felt hungry when I woke up) just exhausted and stuffy head. I stupidly hadn’t packed any cold medication (I actually did pack it at first and took it out of my medicine bag because “I haven’t used it in years”) so just took my elderberry stuff again. Lily emailed the Airbnb host to see if we could organise a second bed, just to try and keep my germs to myself, which he said he was happy to organise if we were okay with an air mattress.

We drove on, stopping only to get lunch. We had some soup, which was a relief because it was about the only thing I felt like eating. I also bought some plain crackers to nibble on. Drive was supposed to be about 3 hours but surprise surprise there was traffic coming into Seattle. I’ll give you a moment to pretend to be shocked.

Weirdly, as we started to come into Seattle, I did actually start feeling better. Still really tired, and my nose was still being annoying, but I started to feel a lot more motivated and actually up to doing stuff. We organised the next day, booking all our tours etc which took us a lot longer than expected, and then did a load of laundry each. Went out to dinner at a pub - had planned to eat out but it was deserted so we ended up ordering to-go and just coming back to air bnb to eat.

Our host came home whilst we were eating and he had a good chat about things to do in Seattle - seemed really nice. We didn’t ask where he was from but he talked about when he “first came to Seattle” so had some good advice from a tourists perspective. He offered the air mattress as requested, but Lily wasn’t sure about how much space that would leave us and I had improved a fair bit that afternoon so she was less worried.Read more