Day 99 - Friday, October 24, 1997Cougar RV Park, Cougar, Washington - We headed out for Mt. St. Helens today. We had to drive about 10 miles down a US Forest Service road where we hit a max speed of 30 mph. We then took a turn onto a 16 mile spur cut into the side of the mountains (max speed about 20 mph) to lead us to Windy Ridge, the premiere viewpoint for Mt. St. Helens. It's not actually on the volcano since that would be stupid, but it's pretty darn close.When we arrived at the visitor area there was only one other car there. It was pretty wild being in such a desolate area with nobody else around. On Windy Ridge itself we had to climb a hill to get the best view. The park service cut a total of 425 steps (we counted) into the hill to make it "easier" on us. It was well worth the hike. From atop the ridge we could see Mt. St. Helens and turn around and see Mt. Rainier. It doesn't get much more scenic than that. While scoping out the volcano, we think we discovered the cause of the 1981 blast. If you use binoculars and scan the area closely you see thousands of empty bottles of vinegar and boxes of baking soda. The town of Cougar is a small logging town. The biggest business is a full-service helicopter business (used for logging). We had dinner at the only restaurant in town. They actually closed at 7:30 p.m. We overhead the waitress call the only gas station in town to find out what time they were closing that night. Apparently 9:00 p.m. was too early for her since she didn't have enough gas to make it home!
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