Kalama, a town that was almost abandoned and re-invented itself as a deep water port and rail interchange hub in the midst of lumber country and in the shadow of the most active and dangerous volcano on the continent. In the last fifteen minutes n the port (land) side of our ship three BNSF container trains and one train of tank cars each, at least 70 to 100 cars long headed west, and one East bound mixed freight , and on the starboard side a large German container craft obviously purpose-built to carry long hollow metal tubes have passed our mooring. Kalama may be very big, but it sure moves the freight (and Amtrak).
All of this under the ominous? menacing? Presence of Mount Saint Helens, which is why we are here. Today’s experience was a journey that took us a as possible to the mountain. We had to stop ten miles short of the mountain because the road is closed due to recent landslides (actually volcanic ash mud).
For any of you not old enough to remember 43 years ago in the space of a few seconds Mount Saint Helens had a catastrophic eruption destroying all animal an plant life in an area of some 200 square miles, raising the bed of a huge lake 200 vertical feet, creating two new lakes, blowing off one entire side of the mountain, and reducing its height by 1,400 feet.
Geologists and vuconologists have since determined that was not the Biggest eruption Mount Saint Helens has experienced and is perhaps a relatively small burp! And in spite of their best efforts they cannot predict when the next eruption will occur or how big it will be. The guesses range from a week to 200 years.
In the meantime the forests have substantially recovered and the wildlife population is thriving. The latter because the absence of human habitation in the area.
Onward to Astoria