Never Enough Time

I’m embarrassed to say that we’ve been living in Aberdeen for 5 months now and Mom and Pop Funk, who were in Aberdeen for just 4 days, visited our neighboring town before we did.  Ocean Shores is a beach town on the northwest side of Grays Harbor, 27 miles west of Aberdeen.  It is NOT a Jersey shore type of beach town with huge boardwalks, t-shirt shops, and hundreds of condos.  It's a peninsula bordered by the Pacific Ocean and Grays Harbor where people pace up and down the shoreline searching for Japanese treasures washed ashore, dig razor clams to feed their families, and surfers brave the cold water to ride a good wave.  Of course there are hotels along the beach and seafood restaurants offering tasty local catches, but this town is quaint and harder with weathered houses trying to withstand the never ending rain that pours over this part of the world. 

We finally made the short trek to Ocean Shores on a surprisingly beautiful Saturday afternoon.  We enjoyed a long walk on Damon Point followed by a visit to a local art gallery, and then to the Ocean Shores Clam Festival.  We arrived to the festival later in the day and missed out on voting for the best local clam chowder; however, we were not too late to do some of our own tasting.  Over the last 6 months Charlie has learned to not just tolerate, but enjoy the taste of clam chowder, which makes me smile.  I think the big turning point was using razor clams we caught to make homemade clam chowder – how could he not like something we put time and effort into making???  So anyway, after tasting a few varieties of chowder we decided our vote would have gone to Bennett’s Fish Shack, who was awarded #3 by voters earlier in the day.  Regardless, they were first in our hearts, especially because they offered a bread bowl filled with their delicious chowder concoction.  Mmm…clam chowder! 
 

Damon Point
4 miles of beach, water on 3 sides.

Nothing special, just a hand-carved giant razor clam. 

Ocean Shores had more to offer than we expected, but after a few slow paced weekends we were itching to do something a bit more adventurous.  We found that something in the active volcano that lies just 3 hours away – Mount St. Helens.  We decided if there was any mountain we should attempt to summit while in Washington it should be the infamous Mount St. Helens, who blew her top off in 1980.  The appealing thing about this strenuous hike is that it’s not considered a technical climb, thus allowing amateur adventure seeking folk like us a chance to say we’ve summited a well-known mountain.   The only issue is that it’s currently covered in snow; therefore this gave us another excuse to snow shoe. With only 3 weekends left in good ol’ western WA we needed the weather to cooperate.  Checking the forecast for Mount St. Helens religiously we were psyched when the conditions looked promising for Easter weekend.  A bit of snow fell during the week, but clear skies were forecast for Friday-Sunday with only “considerable” avalanche danger...



Better a "3" than a "5"

The Northwest Avalanche Center
warned of concern for unstable cornices.
You get the idea from the picture...
stay away from ledges and rims!

With the forecast promising good weather it was time to prepare - we did quite a bit of research, made sure we had adequate maps (on paper and on our handheld GPS), and began mentally preparing for an all day trip to the top of an active volcano.  In gathering appropriate gear we finally bought snowshoes, and were lucky to have great friends lend us ice axes and trekking poles – both crucial pieces of equipment.  Having all the right stuff made us look good, but we still had a lot of work to put in!

The winter hiking route leaves from Marble Mountain Sno-Park on the south side of Mount St. Helens.  You gain around 5,500 feet in elevation and cover 12 miles round trip.  The estimated time to complete a trip up to the summit and back is 7-12 hours (depending on what website you are reading).

Luckily we weren’t trying to break any records because when all was said and done it took us 10 hours to hike from our car to the summit and back.  I must say this was a mental challenge of perseverance and team work.  Charlie and I have done a lot of activities together, but this was definitely the most challenging.  The first 3-4 miles were excellent – great weather, great scenery, and gradual inclines.  However, as we began to really climb the last 2-3 miles and still had about 4,000 feet to gain, only false summits were in view and my patience, determination, and energy began to wane.  Additionally, the strong sun and hunger started putting doubt in my mind.  Charlie, the fearless leader in our party of 2 kept us moving toward our goal.  His enthusiasm and determination to complete any kind of challenge can be good and bad.  He will push himself to the max, but for an endurance event like this we had a good balance of his excitement paired with my pace of slow-and-steady. 

Trudging up the never ending, steep inclines was well worth the effort when we finally made it to the summit (aka crater rim) and had a 100% clear view of the ever changing crater that resulted from Mount St. Helen's huge eruption just 33 years ago.  It was a little eerie to see steam rising from a cone in the crater as the volcano is actively rebuilding itself.  However, that eerie feeling doesn't last long when you take a second to look up and out with 360 degrees of outstanding views.  There are lakes and mountains as far as the eye can see with a few impressive, snow capped bumps that are like natural skyscrapers.  We could see Mount Rainier and Mount Adams in Washington, and Mount Hood in Oregon. 
 

Relieved to be at the summit.
In awe of the crater.

We made it up, but had to get back down. Luckily the trip down goes a bit quicker, especially when there is enough snow to glissade. The definition of glissading is as follows: A way of sliding down a steep slope of snow or ice with the support of an ice axe. Ice axe you say? We've got that! The ride down was incredibly fun despite a near catastrophe when we almost lost our handheld GPS. With that disaster averted we were incredibly relieved to make it back to our car where dry clothes awaited. I must say that it's a great feeling to earn every bit of food you put into your body, relying on it to get you through. With that said, we headed home making a pit stop at a local pizza place. It was a great end to a great day.
In an effort to share our experience we have put together a short documentary for your viewing pleasure. The following has been filmed, produced and edited by Charles J. O'Malley (special thanks to Amanda F. O'Malley)...ENJOY!