46 years ago today....

Coyote Chris

Coyote Chris

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I was on a motorcycle trip (Yamaha 650 twin) from Urbana Illinois to Cambridge Idaho to see my college room mate who was the veterinarian there. I knew nothing about the volcano activity. The next day, I was on US 95 headed for Cambridge and kept seeing trucks covered with some sort of ash coming south. When I pulled into my friend's driveway, the first thing he said to me was "You dont know, do you?" The ash completely missed Cambridge, but covered my future home outside of Spokane. For years after we bought our land in 1991, you could still find ash on my property. Since then, I have toured Cambridge and Mt St Helens many times.
Where were you?
mtsthelens.jpg
2012
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46 Years ago I guess I was too busy to notice. I was building my new house. I started by cutting trees in the woods, skidding them to the road, having them sawed into lumber, stacking the lumber to dry, and finally pounding nails. Our kids were per school then so my wife quit her teaching job and I was working full time while building the house often working into the darkness before we got the electricity hooked up. I was driving a 1973 F150 with a gas guzzling 352, and didn’t own a motorcycle.

So by the time we moved into the unfinished new house in 1980 I had $23,000 into it. I only hired out the excavating, rough in plumbing, and concrete work. Much of the interior wall covering is tongue and grove wood paneling which I cut locally and skidded out with a horse. I didn’t an air compressor or pneumatic nailer at the time so every nail was driven by my hammer. Lots of work but I’ve been debt free since 1985, so I got to keep all my money except living expenses and what the government demands. I bought a motorcycle when my youngest kid graduated from high school and joined the Marines, ending the motorcycle gap between my 196? Honda Dream 305 to a used 1986 Honda Shadow.
 
On May 17 1980 I was stationed in Germany with the US. Army at Landstuhl Army Medical Center. (Known then as 2nd General Hospital Landstuhl) as a young E-6 Staff Sgt. My son was 5 years old and my daughter was 3 years old. Drove a 1974 Pinto station wagon. We lived on the economy as Gov't quarters were not available then. I was 30 , the wife had just turned 31, money was tight as wife was home with the kids. Looking back, those were the best of times.
 

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Chucksklrst said:
On May 17 1980 I was stationed in Germany with the US. Army at Landstuhl Army Medical Center. (Known then as 2nd General Hospital Landstuhl) as a young E-6 Staff Sgt. My son was 5 years old and my daughter was 3 years old. Drove a 1974 Pinto station wagon. We lived on the economy as Gov't quarters were not available then. I was 30 , the wife had just turned 31, money was tight as wife was home with the kids. Looking back, those were the best of times.
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My wife and I were stationed in Hanau from '79-82. In 1971, my mother was confined to hospital in Landstuhl; she was evacuated to Brooke Army Hospital in San Antonio in 1972.
 
I remember being concerned about all the ash that blew across many states, including CO, because I was scheduled to attend the first Vetter Rally in Colorado Spring in August of that year. By the time August came around most of the signs were cleared out of CO. The wife and I rode across CO to Ferron UT for a couple days and then back through CO to the Rally at Colorado Springs near the last week of August. It didn't deter anyone from the rally.
 
junglejim said:
46 Years ago I guess I was too busy to notice. I was building my new house. I started by cutting trees in the woods, skidding them to the road, having them sawed into lumber, stacking the lumber to dry, and finally pounding nails. Our kids were per school then so my wife quit her teaching job and I was working full time while building the house often working into the darkness before we got the electricity hooked up. I was driving a 1973 F150 with a gas guzzling 352, and didn’t own a motorcycle.

So by the time we moved into the unfinished new house in 1980 I had $23,000 into it. I only hired out the excavating, rough in plumbing, and concrete work. Much of the interior wall covering is tongue and grove wood paneling which I cut locally and skidded out with a horse. I didn’t an air compressor or pneumatic nailer at the time so every nail was driven by my hammer. Lots of work but I’ve been debt free since 1985, so I got to keep all my money except living expenses and what the government demands. I bought a motorcycle when my youngest kid graduated from high school and joined the Marines, ending the motorcycle gap between my 196? Honda Dream 305 to a used 1986 Honda Shadow.
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Quite the story..so with inflation, you had 90,ooo bucks in the house. Building a house without a second pair of hands is hard work for sure. We paid off our house circa 1990 cause we were sick of people selling and buying out loan. Best thing we ever did. From there on out, everything was saved for retirement.
This is interesting
Average age of first time home buyers
2025 40
2021 33
1992 28
Average age of all home buyers 2025. 59
In 2024, it was 49
 
WVRider said:
I remember being concerned about all the ash that blew across many states, including CO, because I was scheduled to attend the first Vetter Rally in Colorado Spring in August of that year. By the time August came around most of the signs were cleared out of CO. The wife and I rode across CO to Ferron UT for a couple days and then back through CO to the Rally at Colorado Springs near the last week of August. It didn't deter anyone from the rally.
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Ash fall out
1779292329296.png

I was lucky. Cambridge Idaho is on the Oregon/Idaho border just below the yellow.
1779292846986.png
 
The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens released energy equivalent to about 1,600 times the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Depending on the size of the specific nuclear device, this explosive power translates to roughly 24 megatons of TNT, or an estimated equivalent of 500 to 1,600 atomic bombs. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
Blast Facts:
  • Total Energy: 24 megatons of thermal energy, with about 7 megatons released as the direct lateral blast.
  • Destruction: The blast flattened 230 square miles of forest.
  • Historical Scale: It remains the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in U.S. history. [1, 2, 3, 4]
  • 1779293155271.png
 
Coyote Chris said:
It is. The ride from the West goes to a great museum at the top.
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Johnston Ridge is cool, but approaching Windy Ridge riding the forest service roads past Swift Reservoir is an iconic ride in my mind. Variant is returning down through Trout Lake to the gorge. Great views of Mt. Adams
 
NewTo700V said:
Johnston Ridge is cool, but approaching Windy Ridge riding the forest service roads past Swift Reservoir is an iconic ride in my mind. Variant is returning down through Trout Lake to the gorge. Great views of Mt. Adams
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Good camping in that area also. I prefer riding the Mt Baker area but Mt Adams is a great volcano...now at least.
 
The numbers are so staggering for us in modern times. Makes a guy feel kind of small looking at mother nature.

I was still living in the great state of Illinois at the time, so not close or in the path of all that ash.

Arknt
 
ARKNT said:
The numbers are so staggering for us in modern times. Makes a guy feel kind of small looking at mother nature.

I was still living in the great state of Illinois at the time, so not close or in the path of all that ash.

Arknt
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Yeah....me too.....Chambana PAIN. Former life, former wife. I miss the cheep booze and riding out in a summer's evening smelling the corn and seeing the lightning bugs
 
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