The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 121

L8 TRAVEL LOSANGELESTIMES TRAVEL L9 LOSANGELESTIMES ABOUT 40,000 YEARS AGO Mt.St. Helens is born, the youngest and most active of the Cascade Range volcanoes, along a band of volcanoes and shifting tectonic plates called the Pacific Ring of Fire. 1792 Mt. St. Helens is named by Capt.

George Vancouver of the British Royal Navy, a seafarer and explorer, for British diplomat Alleyne Fitzherbert, whose title was Baron St. Helens. 1800 The volcano unleashes an explosive eruption, followed by several minor explosions and lava discharges that end by 1857 with the formation of a massive lava dome. 1805 AND 1806 The Lewis and Clark expedition views the volcano from the Columbia River. MARCH 16, 1980 Small earthquakes signal the awakening.

MARCH 20, 1980 A4.1-magnitude earthquake rocks the mountain, followed by more seismic activity. MARCH 27, 1980 The volcano spews steam and ash. A bulge forms on the north flank. APRIL 3, 1980 Gov. Dixy Lee Ray declares a state of emergency as the volcano continues to rumble.

MAY 18, 1980 (8:32 A.M.) A5.1-magnitude earthquake precedes the eruption by seconds. The blast of escaping gas is heard as far away as British Columbia, Montana, Idaho and Northern California. The collapse of the north flank produces the largest debris landslide in recorded history, which moves at more than 100 mph down the mountain. Covering an area of about 24 square miles, the landslide extends more than 13 miles down North ForkToutle River and fills the valley to an average depth of 150 feet. Geologist David A.

Johnston, staffing an observation post nearby, radios the first report of the eruption: Vancouver! This is body is never found. Harry Truman, 83, refuses to abandon his lodge at Spirit Lake, four miles from the mountain. He and his 16 cats die. Johnston and Truman are among the 57 people killed. 1982 The Mt.

St. Helens National Volcanic Monument is created. 1980 TO 1986 Alava dome grows in the crater of the 1980 eruption. SEPTEMBER 2004 The volcano reawakens with a swarm of earthquakes. OCT.

1 TO 5, 2004 Five steam and ash eruptions take place, sending ash as far as 60 miles. 2004 TO PRESENT The lava dome in the crater continues to grow even faster now, the equivalent of three bathtubs of rock and soil per second. Jack Smith Associated Press BILLOWING: Mt. St. Helens in July 1980, a few weeks after the catastrophic explosion that led to the deaths of 57 people.

A ticking timeline JOHNSTON RIDGE OBSERVATORY The observatory the closest you can get to the crater by car is 5 1 2 miles from the crater and 4,300 feet above sea level, giving visitors a front-row view of the steaming cavity. The square-foot concrete-and glass structure is crammed with enlightening exhibits, including a wide-screen theater presentation of the 1980 eruption. Directions, hours: From Interstate 5, take Washington Highway 504 east for 52 miles until it ends. Open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

May through October. Fee: $8 adults; free for those 16 and younger. ERUPTION TRAIL From the observatory, follow this gently path to view the effects of the eruption, including shattered trees and vistas of the lava dome, its crater, a pumice plain and landslide deposits. Directions: From the 5 Freeway, take the 504, 52 miles east of Castle Rock to the Johnston Ridge Observatory. HUMMOCKS TRAIL More strenuous than the Eruption Trail, the Hummocks Trail makes a2.3-mile loop through the valley between the observatory and the volcano.

The path borders 100- to 200-foot mounds of earth the volcano shoved from the peak in the last eruption. Directions: From I-5 take the 504 east and continue until you see milepost 45. Look for a parking lot on your right. APE CAVE your chance to explore an ancient lava tube that seems to burrow into the center of the Earth. This 2.5-mile cave was formed nearly 2,000 years ago when an outside layer of lava cooled while hotter lava inside continued to flow.

Make sure to wear warm clothes and sturdy shoes and take a flashlight. Directions: From I-5, take Washington Highway 503 east for about 36 miles until it becomes U.S. Forest Service Road 90, and then turn left on U.S. Fire Road 83 for about two miles and look for signs. CAMPING The 1980 eruption wiped out four hugely popular campsites around Spirit Lake, north of the crater.

Now one of the closest waterfront campgrounds is Cougar Park Campgrounds, on the shores of Yale Reservoir. Campers here enjoy dozens of campsites, showers, picnic tables, a boat ramp and a protected swimming area. Directions: From I-5, take the 503 east about 33 miles and look for signs for Cougar Camp on your right after passing the town of Cougar. Fees: $17 per night. CHARLES W.

BINGHAM FOREST LEARNING CENTER The 1980 eruption obliterated hundreds of acres of timberland, much of which was replanted by the Weyerhaeuser timber company a few years later. Because the noble and Douglas fir seedlings took root at the same time, the new trees have a beautiful uniformity all about the same height and width. Amid the trees, Weyerhaeuser built a learning center where visitors can enter a multimedia that simulates the sound and feel of a volcano. Directions: From I-5, take the 504 east to mile marker 33 and look for signs. Fee: none.

If a five-mile hike over jagged boulders and flying gravel to the summit of Mt. St. Helens sounds too strenuous for your taste, here are a few ideas for enjoying the volcano experience without schlepping up 4,600 feet. Views and walks From the seat of a passing airliner 25,000 feet overhead, Mt. St.

Helens resembles a lanced boil a dirt-gray crater protruding from forest-green hills to the south and a valley of boulders, rivers and mountain lakes to the north. The volcano lines up along the Cascades, a magnificent mountain range featuring the scattered peaks of Mts.Hood, Rainier and Adams. This landscape was forever altered on a blue-sky spring day in 1980 when the mountain erupted after weeks of temblors and steam blasts. More than 700 miles away in Northern California, Iwatched in amazement the next day as bits of ash floated onto my pickup truck. As I plucked the ashy specks, I felt aconnection with the volcano victims.

Like them, I was at the mercy of the Ring of Fire, a horseshoe-shaped band of volcanoes and shifting tectonic plates that bordersthe Pacific Ocean. Call it Mother mean streak. Those shifting plates slipped in 1971, triggering the 6.7-magnitude Sylmar earthquake that jolted me and my family out of our home on Griffith Street in the city of San Fernando. The smell of leaking gas and smoke filled the air as wescrambled to a nearby park where Salvation Army volunteers gave us blankets and hot chocolate while we rode out the aftershocks. From Mt.

St. Helens to Griffith Street and volatile Ring of Fire looms over us all. a Dew-wet earth and layers of pine needles on the forest trail muffle the sound of our boots as we march toward the summit of that same volcano that rained down ash and destruction 27 years ago. In addition to the rangers, this climb is guided by experts from the U.S. Geological Survey, who will explain the science behind the prickly temperament.

Researchers have been watching the volcano since it came to life again in 2004, venting steam, pushing out a slow-growing lava dome and setting nerves on edge throughout the Pacific Northwest. For two years, the summit was off- limits to hikers until geologists declared the danger of imminent erup- tion had passed. In 2006, the Forest Service reopened the mountain, setting a 100-permits-per-day limit. But the permits routinely sell out. The volcano was awake, and everyone wanted acloser look including me.

On the previous afternoon, during my hourlong drive from Portland Airport to the nearby town of Cougar, my view of the volcano was blocked by dark green forests and lush foothills. Now, stomping up to the summit, I wait for the darkness to lift and the fog to part so I can see the peak that was once as symmetrical as Mt. Fuji but is now as craggy as a rotten cavity. As the morning sun peeks through the trees, reassured that the mountain lash out soon. One of our leaders, Larry Mastin, a bearded, scholarly looking volcano expert for the U.S.

Geological Survey, says we are safe at least from the volcano. a We reach the timberline at 7:30 a.m. Now the hard work begins. Up ahead, we must navigate nearly 3 miles of jagged lava rocks, most the size of Mini Coopers. The boulders are the result of a volcanic outburst more than 500 years ago.

A massive lava flow coated the mountainside, cooled and then broke into big, sharp chunks. Specks of white and green from pearly everlasting and mountain heather color the otherwise lifeless terrain. From the timberline to the summit, 37 white wooden posts plot a path to the top. Keep those in sight and you get lost, one of the guidestells us. But impossible to follow a straight line over the ragged boulders.

Our once tightly packed party is spread over half a mile. I see the fidgety kid. He must be among the leaders. Along the way, I strike up a conversation with geologist Carolyn Driedger, wife. Her specialty is glaciers.

I tease her, saying the marriage of two geologists has been 4.5 billion years in the making. As we scramble over boulders, Driedger tells me how she narrowly escaped Mt. St. 1980 eruption. She was working with David Johnston, a bright, 30-year-old geologist who was taking volcano measurements at an observation post six miles away.

Johnston had predicted, accurately, that Mt. St. Helens would erupt laterally, not vertically. He also predicted the volcano would erupt sooner rather than later. He urged Driedger and a colleague to evacuate to a safe distance.

No sense putting three people in danger, he said. Driedger and the other geologist left the observation post. At 8:32 the next morning, Johnston radioed in his last words to the Forest Service headquarters in Washington before the eruption consumed him: Vancouver! This is The destruction unfolded like fall- ing dominoes. A5.1-magnitude quake rattled the mountain, triggering the collapse of more than 1,300 feet of the summit. The collapse unleashed trapped gas in aexplosion that could be heard as far away as Seattle.

The blast killed wildlife and toppled trees in an area of more than 200 square miles. Mud, rocks and melted snow raced down the valley of the North Fork Toutle River, finally stopping more than 13 miles away. Columns of smoke and ash shot up 12 miles into the sky. body was never found. Seventeen years later, a new observatory was named in his honor.

Back on the mountain, we scamper above a cloud layer, the peaks of the other Cascade Range volcanoes poking through the white fluff. Snowcapped Mt. Adams protrudes in the east, and Mt. Hood sticks out in the south. absolutely a fellow hiker says as we sit on the jagged rocks, catching our breath from a climb that has begun to take its toll on my legs.

Driedger looks down and points out a swirling cloud front approaching from the south. We have time to linger. The first climber of our party clears the boulder field about 11 a.m. Now we start up a steep gravel path to the edge about a quarter of a mile ahead. Up here, the air is bitter cold so cold I can see my breath and the wind whips fine rocks and sand in my face.

The shout comes from the first hiker of our group to reach the top. a Abrutal wind blasts my face as I peek into the crater. The mile-wide cavity drops down about 1,300 feet to abeige, rocky dome, pushing up innards like a wound. Puffy white columns of steam vent into the brisk air. On the other side, where the volcano expelled nearly a cubic mile of rock, lava and ash, the land is flat, dark and dead.

In the distance, a young forest grows out of the ashen land. At the edge, Mastin, our volcanologist guide, explains that the volcano dome is growing by about a quarter of a cubic meter per second or about 700 dump trucks of rock and soildaily. The viscous material squeezes out like toothpaste from a tube, then spills out in all directions. As he speaks, a chunk of the ledge a few yards awaygives way, sending tumbling rocks into the crater. Minutes later, another part of the shelf crumbles.The sound of falling rocks startles me and sev- eral other hikers.

All eyes turn to look at the lava dome, but it remains motionless. Mastin is calm. The erosion is normal, he says. Nothing to worry about. But we all know that volcanoes operate on a schedule.

Like earthquakes, they are capricious and violent. seen enough. Veni, vidi, vici. go. Iturn to give the lava dome one last look when I hear a commotion behind me.

The other hikers have converged on the youngest hiker, who has collapsed near the summit. The teenager is in the fetal position, complaining of leg cramps. It must be hypothermia, we conclude, because he practically ran to the top and was probably dripping sweat when he reached the frigid peak. We try to help him, offering water, an extra jacket and snow pants. Over a forest radio, we hear a Forest Service supervisor say they send a rescue chopper unless a life-or-death situation.

The father looks on, worried. The storm clouds that had pursued us are now roiling about 100 feet below. If we move soon, we will be overtaken by darkness or storm clouds or both. As a group, we lift the kid to his feet and help him walk, one person under each arm. I grab his backpack and throw it over my shoulders.

After hiking about 100 feet, he collapses again. The rangers massage his legs, but the kid crumplesa few yards away. At this rate, I think, we get him over the three-mile-wide boulder field before nightfall. But our luck turns. The menacing storm clouds that pursued us open a view of the lush green hills of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, the sparkling deep blue Yale Reservoir and Lake Merwin.

The exhausted kid regains some of his strength. He begins to walk under his own power. The group plods over the boulders and by 4:30 p.m. we reach the timberline and begin the shady path through the forest. As darkness descends, we straggle out of the forest and onto the trail head.

Our trek is over. Once strangers with a common fascination, we ignored our fear of the volcano and freezing haunches to aid someone in need.It’s happened before with my family during the Sylmar quake and with Johnston at the observation post. what we do, but good to see anyway. In the dark at the trail head, where we started about 12 hours earlier, we wish one another well and slip into our cars. Doors slam.

Engines roar to life. Wheels roll over gravel, and the craggy volcano disappears in our rearview mirrors. hugo.martin@latimes.com HISTORY OF HELENS EASIER EXPLORATIONS Planning this trip THE BEST WAY From LAX, nonstop service to Airport is available on United and Alaska; direct service (stop, no change of plane) is available on Southwest; and connecting service (change of planes) is offered on United and Southwest. Restricted round-trip fares begin at $238. From the Portland airport, take Interstate 205 north for about 12 miles to Interstate 5 and continue north 13 miles.

Take Washington Highway503 east about 35 miles, past the town of Cougar, to U.S. Forest Service Road 83. Keep left and look for signs tothe Bivouac. GETTING A PERMIT Climbing permits (between Nov. 1 and March 31) are available at the Lone Fir Resort (see below) in Cougar, Wash.

Between April 1 and May 14, there is no limit to the permits, but a $22 fee is charged. During hiking season, May 15 to Oct. 31, there is a limit of 100 permits and a fee of $22 each. All permits are sold online in advance at www.msh institute.org Take your online confirmation to the Lone Fir Resort to pick up your permit. GUIDES The nonprofit Mt.

St. Helens Institute offers several guided hikes, known as field seminars. The $150-a-person fee includes the cost of a permit and the guided climb. For details, go to www.mshinstitute.org WHERE TO STAY Lone Fir Resort 16806 Lewis River Road, Cougar; (360) 238-5210, www Doubles from $55. Bed and Breakfast, 132 Cougar Loop Road, Cougar; (360) 238-5229.

Doubles from $60. WHERE TO EAT The Deck (part of Lone Fir Resort, above). Comfort food, especially broasted chicken, pizzas, burgers and sandwiches. Entrees $7 to $13. The Cougar Bar Grill, 16849 Lewis River Road, Cougar; (360) 238-5252, Entrees $8 to $17.

TO LEARN MORE Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument Headquarters, 42218 N.E. Yale Bridge Road, Amboy, WA 98601; (360) 449-7800, www.fs.fed.us/gpnf On travel.latimes.com For more volcanic photos and to see video from the climb, go to latimes.com/mtsthelens At the very edge of a Washington volcano Photographs by Myung J. Chun Los Angeles Times SHADOWED: Late afternoon light paints Mt.

St. Helens, right. The volcano is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire. Swift Reservoir Yale Lake Coldwater Lake Merrill Lake Spirit Lake Johnston Ridge Observatory Ape Cave Bingham Forest Learning Center Bivouac Eruption Trail Hummocks Trail YALE Mt. St.

Helens 25 90 81 83 99 504 503 9.5 MILES Sources: ESRI, TeleAtlas, USGS Leslie Carlson Los Angeles Times WASHINGTON OREGON Gifford Pinchot National Forest Columbia River 5 84 12 26 30 Mt. Hood Mt. Adams Detailed below 20 MILES Mt. St. Helens PORTLAND 504 Mt.

St. Helens, from PageL1 THE WAY OF THE BOULDER: Washington state residents Brian and Mary Racciato make their way among lava rocks en route to Mt. St. summit. A volcanic outburst more than 500 years ago furnished boulders that make the hike dicier..