[Packfish]

Yesterday- 35 years ago my brother and his wife where fly fishing the Cowlitz river for Spring Chiniook- he had just finished breakfast got in the drift boat- rowed out into a run- before the first cast Mt St Helens erupted - a little over 30 miles away with a direct sight of the eruption.

 

[Igottabigone]

Unreal how big that eruption was. I wasn't even born. What's the rest of the story?

 

[Packfish]

4 other drift boats were in the same run- the noise actually went over them and people in Seattle heard in 5 times as loud as they did- Everyone saw an orange plume go up and then all of a sudden it was 30,000 ft in the air like a nuclear bomb. Everyone rowed like a SOB to the ramp- jumped in the cars and took off- didn't get too far down the highway before it was pretty much pitch black. The eruption actually blew out the opposite side of the mountain from them- Might have been different if it had blown on their side.

 

[GaryFish]

I remember it well, and I lived in Central Idaho. For us, the next day it just snowed ash. We ended up with about 2 inches of ash covering everything as though it had just snowed grey snow. And we were several hundred miles away, downwind.

 

[middlefork]

Was on a road trip in July of that year from Hood River to Spokane. It was like driving through a blizzard around the Tri City area except it was 90+ degrees out. All that ash just blowing around was crazy.

 

[wyogoob]

Yesterday- 35 years ago my brother and his wife where fly fishing the Cowlitz river for Spring Chiniook- he had just finished breakfast got in the drift boat- rowed out into a run- before the first cast Mt St Helens erupted - a little over 30 miles away with a direct sight of the eruption.

Holy Crapoly!!!

Uh...When St Helens blew I was watching TV in the lounge at the Houston International Airport. Left the bar and hopped on a helicopter to go to work offshore. My wallet fell out of my polyester John Travolta bell bottoms and I didn't notice it until I got on the half-built platform 90 miles offshore. 3 weeks later I went back to the Houston airport and they had my wallet, cash and all, in the Lost and Found department.

There were no cell phones those days. I'm not sure I even had a credit card in 1980.

Uh......... May 18th is also my youngest son's birthday.

In 1998 Mrs. Goob and I made an attempt to climb Mt St Helens but the Forest Service still had it blocked off.

I think it's a great story and I tell it so well.

.

 

[silentstalker]

I remember it well, and I lived in Central Idaho. For us, the next day it just snowed ash. We ended up with about 2 inches of ash covering everything as though it had just snowed grey snow. And we were several hundred miles away, downwind.

Same experience here except I was in Oregon. 2" of ash and riding our bikes around with masks on so we did not inhale the ash. It was really cool to see and experience from a distance.

 

[trackerputnam]

Living in Star Valley Wyoming at the time. Lived on a dirt road. Came out in the morning a few days after the blow and found a lot of dust on the truck. Took a bit to realize it was ash from St Hellens. Now I live with a bigger volcano, Rainier, close! Hope it blows out to the east side like St Helens did!:shock: