Long Beach, Oct 22-26

This was an ocean-to-mountain vacation stretching over five days with two friends: Larisa and Luda, who live in Federal Way. We stayed in a time share in Long Beach, WA, walking the beach, visiting light houses at the mouth of the Columbia river; Astoria, OR; the almost-ghost town of Oysterville, and the nearby Leadbetter State Park; and enroute home, Mt. St. Helens, where I hope to return next summer for some serious hiking. This trip, however, involved hiking no more than 10 easy miles, with nominal elevation gain, and because I didn't keep track, I'm not adding it to my statistics. All I'm posting today, is photos.

The one at the right shows Luda and Larisa viewing one of two lighthouses at Cape Disappointment, a finger of land that reaches out at the junction of the Columbia and Pacific Ocean as if to point at all the shipwrecks there. The location of this lighthouse, marked on a panel on the opposite side of the structure, shows Latitude/Longitude of 46-17-57 N / 124-04-48 W.

To the southeast, a second lighthouse showed remains of a platform capable of holding 15-inch guns. The lighthouse was armed during the Civil War, according to information provided at the location. The photo below shows a gun platform and the buildings associated with it, where, presumably, the gun crew were quartered and materiel stored.

A small building along the driveway to the lighthouse.

A ship rests at anchor on the Columbia at Astoria.

The Pacific's tracks in the sand at Long Beach

The beach at Oysterville at Willapa Bay was quite different from the beach beside the time share.

There was sand on the beach at Willapa Bay, but there was also a muddy bog.

Larisa and Luda bundled up for a hike on the overcast, drizzly afternoon at Oysterville.

On the subsequent hike through Leadbetter State Park, Luda discovered mushrooms.

She proclaimed the mushrooms edible. There were lots, but we had nothing to carry them in.

There was also an abundance of witches hair moss.

An old automobile engine, repurposed (perhaps) and abandoned, lay along the trail.

On our final day, we drove east for 2.5 hours to see the volcano. At 1,000 feet elevation, there was a cloud bank and we wondered whether St. Helens would even be visible. But well before we reached the Johnston Ridge Observatory, the sky became clear and the mountain came into view. We climbed to a viewpoint, where a strong chill wind swept up over the ridge, flapping our garments and making it hard to hold the phone-camera steady.

A log points away from the mountain that blew it over on May 18, 1980.

Official statistics for year to date:
Distance: 337.8 km
Elevation Gain: 28,730 feet