Plan C

Day two of my weekend (Sunday and Monday) started off the same as Sunday - walking Abbey and Princess. A slightly longer walk this time, but not even 10 minutes. Because of the short walk I wanted to take Abbey on a longer one after breakfast. It was only going to be her, but Princess looked so sad I decided to take her too. Her stubbornness made it a bit more frustrating of a walk. We went across the street to the pasture where the grass is longer and they don't get to go to often. It went well until we saw snake number two and I decided to keep them out of the longer grass to avoid more. This quickly brought the walk to a halt. Princess laid down and refused to get up. Eventually I did get her back to the house where she laid back down in the driveway. If only she wasn't so large it wouldn't be such a problem. I think I'll have to keep Princess in the pens until she learns to listen a little better.

She thought this was the end of the walk. Not quite

This afternoon I tried to go to Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge. That was a complete fail. My phone gps to me to a random back road that ended next to a barb wire fence with the Nisqually NWR sign. Great. To make matters better I then saw that it was actually closed on Mondays. I was determined not to let the day go to waste. Plan B was Gifford Pinchot National Forest. That didn't happen either. Plan C did work - Mt Saint Helens. Though following the trend of the day that wasn't as easy as I first thought it would be. I got to the visitor center in just over an hour (making it a 2 hour trip so far) where I was told that the good hikes were a further 45 miles. Awesome. I decided the nearly hour long dry was still worth it considering I had gotten that far. I'm so glad I did. The views to the hike were beautiful - forest covered hills, eroded ridgelines, and of course Mt Saint Helens. There were clouds surrounding it on the drive in so I wasn't able to see much.

The hike I took was a loop trail that went through small stand of trees, around ponds, and near the Toutle River. I couldn't believe the views I got when I came up a hill. The whole landscape had been altered by volcanic eruptions, producing hummocks that were now largely covered by trees. The river caused the rest of the features - eroded banks and large cobbles on the floodplain. All of this was dominated by Mt Saint Helens. Thanks to my half hearted planning and determination to make something of the day I saw some of the most stunning views on my adventure so far.