Toutle-ing

Mt. St. Helens, viewed from the Toutle river valley. We're looking at the crater, the side of the mountain that fell off. Yesterday, my friend Mark and I drove up to the sediment dam that the Corps of Engineers built after the eruption, to prevent the mud and ash from choking the Toutle and the Columbia rivers. We didn't start out trying to find it; we just stumbled across it, but it was a cool find. Pretty clever thing, really: they built a dam that only slowed the water, allowing the mud to settle, so the river below could remain clear. It's the site of a predominantly young birch forest now, home to at least a couple of small herds of elk (we saw two herds, anyway). And one strange doorway.

It's Vincent van Gogh's birthday (1853).

In 1972, police officer Ray Schoke was on his way to Loveland, Ohio, when he spotted a three-foot-tall upright creature with leathery skin like a lizard and the face of a frog near the Little Miami River. It was later spotter by fellow officer Mark Matthews and a local farmer. Both officers have since changed their names because of the ridicule, and Matthews moved to Florida.