Volcano devotees keep watch

By Hal Bernton
Seattle Times staff reporter

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Related stories Mount St. Helens shoots steam as lava dome swells up

He knows all about what happened May 18, 1980 — ancient history if, like Shauman, you're 14. Now that the volcano is stirring again, he wasn't about to miss a chance for a firsthand look.

Shauman persuaded his teachers at Chrysalis, a Woodinville private school, to let him organize his own field trip. And he got his father, Bob Shauman, to take a few days off work at a Seattle software company to head south to view the mountain. He wants to stay all week.

Yesterday, Rees Shauman got what he had hoped for as he headed up Highway 504 and viewed the midmorning steam emissions from the mountain.

"It was absolutely phenomenal," he said.

Like Shauman, crowds of visitors continue to flow up the mountain to find viewpoints along Highway 504. The numbers were fewer yesterday than over the weekend, when thousands came. But this time the tourists included some of the more hard-core volcano devotees.

Some parked motor homes or pitched tents to pass the night. Others, such as Todd Thorn of Bend, Ore., shuttled between evenings at motels along Interstate 5 and daytime viewing.

Thorn said he has been watching Mount St. Helens since Friday. He is a professional adventure guide who organizes tours in the Midwest during the tornado season. Yesterday, his binoculars were trained on a different sort of natural wonder, and his scanner-radio was tuned to the transmissions of U.S. Geological Survey teams around the volcano.

With action like this, Thorn said, he doesn't plan to leave anytime soon.

Hal Bernton: 206-464-2581 or hbernton@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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