Today was all about the Mountain.

Best Laid Plans

For Day 14 (June 22, 2010) the plan was this:

Today, we will loop south around Mount St. Helens National Monument. We will spend all day at and around the park and stay a second night at Iron Creek, so the plan is pretty straightforward if God cooperates with the weather and road conditions He provides…

What Actually Transpired

Today was Mount St. Helens day! We couldn’t take the east road into the park, because it was still snowed shut So, we trekked west and entered the main road into the park. As it turns out, according to the ranger, this was only the sixth clear day on the mountain since the first of May, so we were quite pleased to get multiple views of the mountain.
After a tour of the visitor center (which our handy-dandy National Park card got us into w/o having to pay), we took a five-mile hike to look over Spirit Lake and the blast area north of the mountain. Later, we headed for home, though we stopped along the way to pick up a fruit pie for our supper’s dessert. I believe I’ve created a monster by introducing Jordan to fresh produce stands/shops out west here.

Odometer Start: 38541
Odometer End: 38788
Total Miles: 247 miles

Funny/Deep/Odd/Profound Observations
“When Elizabeth saw Mary, the baby leapt within her womb. Let’s talk about abortion. Now, if you get up and try to leave, I will tell everyone to give you the stink-eye.” – Mark Driscoll (Mars Hill podcast).

[Interesting side-note. We’ve caught up on all of the 2010 Mars Hill Bible Church (Grand Rapids) podcasts on the trip, and now we’re working on the Mars Hill Church (Seattle) ones. Driscoll and Bell would probably have a cage match (or at least Driscoll would, since Rob’s rather nonviolent) if locked in the same room together, but each has his own niche and some valuable things to say.]

Pictures

Here’s a link to the day’s photo album and its slide show.