May 18 1980

[Loup Loup]

View of the sky from O'Sullivan res. Pretty much at the start of this day.

[Loup Loup]

Where we stayed for 4-5 days, until Moses Lake ran out of beer.

[Loup Loup]

Moses Lake

[Loup Loup]

The crew

[trophyhunt]

Great pics, that day seems like a lifetime ago! Was in the olympics fishing at elk lake, heard the eruption from there.

[Loup Loup]

Yeah we heard it too. Didnt know what was going on til we got to the boat ramp around noon and could see the ash coming down in the headlights of the trucks. During the boat ride out I thought it was sand in my mouth. As couldnt see a thing.

[boneaddict]

It just dawned on me that I’m getting old.   I was surrounded by co workers who weren’t even born yet .  There was no one to talk to about the eruption. Lol.   Two “kids” weren’t even aware there was an eruption.   

[Loup Loup]

I know what you mean Boneaddict. I can't remember what Im doing today without my list. But I remember that daze like yesterday.

[jjhunter]

I just got done cleaning that ash off my rifles from shooting last weekend.  It still lives on our rock bluffs and manages to come to life from the muzzle blast of each trigger squeeze and put a fine coat on rifle and scope.   

[Sandberm]

Your first picture of the sky. Thats a memory I have.

I think we spent a week indoors during recess. Teachers made us hold a wet paper towel over our mouths as we made the way from the school to the bus to go home. That only lasted a couple days if i remember right. Parents didn't care if we played outside.

Imagine the safety ....nevermind.

 

[Wanttohuntmore]

We're those photos from Covid80?  😄

[timberfaller]

Still remember hearing the explosion driving through Winthrop that morning.  We thought at the time it was just a sonic boom from a jet.  When we got home later that day, we knew then what we had really heard!

Remember having to go over the Loup highway every day when the ash clouds came north, looked like a fog bank had drifted in. The summit was clear but both sides looked the same, gray. 

[Rob]

One of my favorite photos taken on Mt. Adams. I think it was a NatGeo photo?

I was young when it went off but I recall it like it was yesterday.  I still remember all the news coverage leading up to it.

And don't forget Mr. Truman
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_R._Truman

[Timberstalker]

That Harry R. Truman was a nutcase.  LOL

[Fl0und3rz]

One of my favorite photos taken on Mt. Adams. I think it was a NatGeo photo?

I had never seen that photo.  Thanks.

[Rob]

I heard that the shockwave knocked that person backwards.

Loup - great photos!  My sister was at Wazu when the eruption happened and she has similar stories about the ash and masks.

[trophyhunt]

One of my favorite photos taken on Mt. Adams. I think it was a NatGeo photo?

I had never seen that photo.  Thanks.

Can you imagine being that climber!!!  Priceless and terrorizing at the same moment. 

[WSU]

I heard that the shockwave knocked that person backwards.

Loup - great photos!  My sister was at Wazu when the eruption happened and she has similar stories about the ash and masks.

I was at WSU over 20 years later.  I had a job roofing. and all the old shake roofs still had a ton of ash in them when we tore them off.  Surprised me quite a bit the first few times I saw it.

[trophyhunt]

I heard that the shockwave knocked that person backwards.

Loup - great photos!  My sister was at Wazu when the eruption happened and she has similar stories about the ash and masks.

I was at WSU over 20 years later.  I had a job roofing. and all the old shake roofs still had a ton of ash in them when we tore them off.  Surprised me quite a bit the first few times I saw it.

Young buck! 

[WSU]

I heard that the shockwave knocked that person backwards.

Loup - great photos!  My sister was at Wazu when the eruption happened and she has similar stories about the ash and masks.

I was at WSU over 20 years later.  I had a job roofing. and all the old shake roofs still had a ton of ash in them when we tore them off.  Surprised me quite a bit the first few times I saw it.

Young buck! 

Millenials...

[WyatBaker]

why the pictures are red colored?

[LDennis24]

The red tint on old photos is called color cast. It's got something to do with fading over time and the red color lasting longer I think. Boneaddict would most likely know the answer.

[Yakirack]

I heard that the shockwave knocked that person backwards.

Loup - great photos!  My sister was at Wazu when the eruption happened and she has similar stories about the ash and masks.

I was at WSU over 20 years later.  I had a job roofing. and all the old shake roofs still had a ton of ash in them when we tore them off.  Surprised me quite a bit the first few times I saw it.

I reroofed a shake roof last summer and tons of ash was in there still. Had been installed in the late 70's.
My grandpa was the manager of the Yakima City Street Dept. at the time. Hired my dad/uncles and a bunch of guys to sweep/haul truckloads of ash, and spray water tanker trucks all over Yakima. Lot's of overtime for those guys.  Many city mangers called him for various natural disaster tips/help and ideas in the years following. They named a city building after him when he passed away.

[boneaddict]

why the pictures are red colored?

Printing is essentially done with three colors cyano, yellow and magenta.  Cyano breaks down the fastest.  Stuff in the atmosphere, heat, acid are all things that help break it down.   Magenta breaks down the slowest, basically because one of the processes to preserve the color, they were treated with formaldahyde . That happened to preserve magenta, but not the others.   Certain papers used during the 70s and 80s were also very prone to breaking down faster. 

[wadu1]

43 years yesterday, the morning the cats freaked out. We could see it from out mailbox.

[Loup Loup]

Wow, how time flies…

[passman65]

May 18th 1980 I was a young buck of 22.  Myself, my brother and a small group of friends had taken our motorcycles up to mineral lake to camp and party on the 17th. Morning of the 18th we woke to a beautiful sunny day, I remember I had to pee and walked off the logging road we were camped on/beside into the woods to do my business when it started to hail, I walked back down to the road to see everyone staring up at the sky cupping their hands and catching pumice stone. I looked to the sky and saw a pitch-black cloud rolling over with red lightning shooting out of it. State patrol and local sheriff came and kicked us all out and closed down the roads, was a beotch riding a bike through all the ash. The next weekend was even worse since we decided to go to ocean shores and the winds changed, blew all the ash to the ocean and with the rain there was inches of mud on the roads. Stuck in a hotel in Aberdeen for three days till it cleared up. Good fun great memories.

[ASHQUACK]

We were supposed to be at the Weyerhaeuser owned Toutle River campground that weekend. In fact, we used to fish summer run steelhead on the Toutle every year. My mom says that she tried for two or three days to get reservations and couldn't. If we had gone my Dad and I would have been in one of the many box canyons off the 9000 line. Most likely would be buried under 100's of feet of ash and mud. I have a scrap book somewhere with permits that were handed out to motorists warning of the danger of the mountain erupting. There was also a hold harmless agreement that you had to sign to get past the road blocks. A few pics of the mountain from the hills by the logging camp. Mind you I was 12 at the time, but what a thing to live through. And yes I still have a jar of ash.

[scotsman]

We were on our little sailboat in the Tacoma narrows near Fox Island? wife glanced to the South and said a bad word or two which is rare for her! There was a nasty looking rapidly growing yellow / brown cloud that could only be the volcano… I cranked up the outboard and ee hightailed it back to Gig Harbor - full throttle at maybe 6 miles an hour took forever. When ee got back to our house in GIg Harbor a light dusting was falling. Somewhere we have pics of the cloud but it probably has the red tint too.

[C-Money]

Great stories and photos. I was still in Pennsylvania, but remember my brother who was out here talking about it on the phone. He heard to "boom". The ash must have just been horrible to deal with.

[boneaddict]

I got into some of it just the other day digging in my yard.   

[Timberstalker]

Some seasoned individuals on this forum.

I was 5 years from being born!

Missed a magnificent event for sure.

Those pictures of the old boys in Moses Lake are amazing.

Thanks for sharing all of you, please do not forget to take your Geritol vitamins today.

[hunter399]

Some seasoned individuals on this forum.

I was 5 years from being born!

Missed a magnificent event for sure.

Those pictures of the old boys in Moses Lake are amazing.

Thanks for sharing all of you, please do not forget to take your Geritol vitamins today.

I agree
I was born soon after.
Young buck,but have worked my butt off my whole life.
Feel alot older than I look.

[kentrek]

Some of the worst stories I've heard was Vietnam War stories and mt st helens erupting..I've made that area my playground my entire life, couldn't imagine that day

On a lighter note does anyone have any good rumors if they will open spirit lake highway up to at least cold water lake ??

[Buckjunkie]

It was a Sunday, I was 14 years old. We lived about 1/2 mile from where I live now in Buckley. My parents threw a “May Party” every year. Live band, clay pigeons, pig roast, 3 days and at the peak 500 people. People were hung over and some still sleeping. We were cooking pancakes as fast as we could. You could hear the low rumbling in the distance as the mountain blew. No one knew what happened. Then when a light ash started falling someone turned on the tv.

The next year we went dirt bike riding and fishing in the Potholes. The ash seemed like it was 6” deep. You had to clean your air filter all the time. It was unlike any normal dust. It had weight and was very fine. 43 years later I can’t even tell it happened, but know it’s just beneath the vegetation.

[huntnphool]

 High school and watched it from my families rooftop. Headed to Sun Lakes that weekend and remember going through Ephrata, looked like moonscape.