A Time To Remember, Not Just The Fishing Part

[Jonezee]

It was like anyother weekend fishing trip, my 3 sons and I would be going on, then and for years to come. A nice weekend morning in the spring of they year. Boys are excited to get out and fish and I am looking forward to laying back and watching them enjoy the day. We leave early, grab breakfast at the Linton Cafe, it's now 7:15 and were just minutes away from Big Sturgon Lake on Sauvie Island on the Oregon side. Number 1 Casey is 10, #2 George is 8 and runner up Dale is 6. Fishing fools all three. It is catfish we are seeking today. Rig up the little rods with 4lb line, a hook a bobber and a nightcrawler. They are all set. I am working the shorline with my flyrod trying for the occasional pearch or crappie and a #16 black knat. One sculpin and I am heading back to the boys and their rods propped up on forked sticks and the radio in the pick-up faintly sending Waylin Jennings across the lake we have all to ourselves today. It is 8:30 and it is May 18, 1980. In exactly 2 minutes the world will be changed forever in the N.W. and things won't be the same for a lot of people for years to come. #3 Dale says, Dad, what's that as he is pointing across the still waters of the lake and up into the sky. Mt. St. Helens has just erupted and the plum is rising to 80,000 feet. Agahst, I am speechless...the boys are in awe as well. Pack er all up boys, we gotta get home. Waylan is now replaced by pandamonium on the radio. As we head home I am constantly looking over my left shoulder out the pick up window and see things are getting higher with the plum and the radio continues non-stop reports of the eruption. The shoreline of the lake was 40 crow miles from the mountain, my home is 60. By the time I pull into the driveway, Mrs Jonezee runs out to great us and ash is falling all around us. When I sold that pick-up 3 years later, there was still ash in some of the nooks and cranies of the rig. Quite a fishing trip and still brings back the good and the bad of that fateful day in May of 1980. Were you fishing when the mountain blew? I know we were, at least for an hour or so.

Mt.St.Helens and Spirit Lake. The Lake was filled with log jams and ash after the eruption, Harry Truman who lived at the lodge on the lake would not leave, knowing the mountain might erupt. Legend has it, the Indians would not fish in Spirit Lake because they belived the fish's heads resembled the head of a bear and would devour you if you caught them. It was big medicine to them and history seems to have proved them out. A few souls were swollowed up by the Mtn. and the Lake. Even poor old Harry never made it out. I never fished in Spirit Lake but I did climb the mountain in 1970.

[Bobinmich]

Cool post Jonezee. Something you will never forget. Nor us now.

Bobinmich

[nighthawk]

Great post, Jonezee! This should be in Reader's Casts. What a small world it is. We were praying for you and your family while watching the news on the tube. It had been just a little over a year since we went through the incident at Three Mile Island. Now all we could do was pray for our fellow Americans at Mt. Saint Helens. I am thankful to God that you and your family survived.

[DShock]

Jonezee,
I had the unfortunate news reach me that friends of my wife and I were killed on the Mountain. We traveled to Yellowstone Park for vacation and in Old Faithfull Lodge they had slides (negatives) photos for sale.
I noticed the Gift Shop had slides of Mt. St. Helens erupting, but I was not ready for what I was about to see!
ONE slide, of our friends burned out truck with them in it or not.
That experience hit me like a hammer!
Sure they weren't supposed to be there (restricted area) but it didn't matter since they were dead.
I can tell you if that mountain would have exploded SOUTH instead of EAST, it wouldn't have been a pretty picture.
Doug

[Lotech]

I was living 300 miles downwind in Spokane. That was the day I put in my last garden. It had straight rows and identified furrows with corn, chard, beans, radishes, beets, and some others. When I finished the garden I noticed the western sky turning black and thought "Great, I won't have to water." A few minutes later the ash started falling and covered my new garden with about 6-8 inches of warm gray talc. Spokane was virtually shut down for 3 days. Everyone was wearing those disposable breathing masks that look like a half bra, and they stretched pantyhose over the air intake on their cars. I didn't, and the ash killed my truck at 300,000 miles. BTW, that was the best garden I ever raised. Great crop that year. If you dig down into the topsoil around spokane, you can still see a layer of ash in places. It's down about 6-8 inches now.
Hard to believe it was over 27 years ago.