Mount St. Helens

Mount St. Helens, Additional volunteer contributions are need to complete construction of a new trail near Ape Cave at the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument .

In partnership with volunteers from the Washington Trails Association and the Mount St. Helens Institute, the monument staff has nearly completed construction on the trail. Volunteers broke ground on the new trail on National Public Lands Day in 2012.

The new one-mile trail will link the Ape Cave day use area to a new scenic vista of the volcano’s southern flank. Volunteers have constructed all but the last few hundred feet. The goal is to have the trail project completed by October.

The Ape Cave viewpoint community trail project will provide the public with additional opportunities to explore the unique natural area that surrounds Ape Cave. Phase 2 of this community project will include a viewing platform and an accessible trail joining the viewpoint to a new parking lot, estimated to be completed by fall 2014.
Upcoming volunteer work parties include:

Ape Cave Viewpoint Trail, Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 14-15th, 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.

Information and rgistration: vols.wta.org/.

National Public Lands Day work party, Saturday, Sept. 28, 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.

Information and registration: vols.wta.org/.

For more information about volunteering with the Mount St. Helens Institute visit mshinstitute.org.

Ranger Shot

Ranger Shot, The suspect in a fatal shooting at Mount Rainier was found dead today in the national park. Yesterday, park ranger Margaret Anderson was shot and killed there. Margaret grew up in Wilton, Conn. for part of her childhood and her husband Eric, also a ranger at Rainier, is a native of Hanson, Massachusetts, where his family still lives. And where his mother and some friends are trying to cope with unimaginable sorrow.

The Anderson family of four, picking out a Christmas tree together just a few weeks ago.

Margaret Anderson in front of the tree on Christmas Eve with her two young daughters, Anna, almost 4, and her little sister, 1 and a half year old Katie.

Just eight days later, sorrow for the family.

Margaret, 34, a ranger at Mt. Rainier, in Washington state, was gunned down at a checkpoint New Year’s morning, as she attempted to stop a man from driving into a snow covered section of the park without chains on his tires.

The suspect, 24-year-old Benjamin Colton Barnes, an Iraq War veteran, who family say suffered from post traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, was found dead in the park one day later, after more than 100 people were evacuated from Rainier.

Barnes was wanted in a New Year’s Eve shooting of four people in Skyway, a Seattle suburb.

A survivalist, authorities say he fled the scene and headed for Rainier.

“The chaplain called us and told us that she was gone. Oh it’s unbelievable,” said mother-in-law Cindy Anderson.

Margaret’s husband Eric Anderson is also a ranger at Rainier.

He grew up in Hanson, Mass. and was a 1997 graduate of Whitman-Hanson High School.

His parents still live in town, and we spoke with his mother Cindy by phone where she shared with us the unimaginable, her son having to tell his two young daughters about their mother’s death.

“He told the girls yesterday. And the baby doesn’t understand and the older one, she almost seems like she understands. It’s heartbreaking,” Cindy Anderson said.

Neighbor and family friend Mike O’Connell says he grieves for the entire Anderson family.

“I couldn’t think of anything worse. I don’t know how they’re getting through it. It’s a tough situation so God bless them,” O’Connell said.

The national park is still closed.

When we think of park rangers, we think more of rescues in bad weather and from falls on trails.

But this was a law enforcement job and Cindy Anderson says her son and daughter-in-law were not naïve about that in spite of the beauty of the mountains.

The Anderson family will head from Massachusetts to Washington later this week.

Mount Rainier

Mount Rainier, A Mount Rainier National Park ranger was fatally shot following a New Year’s Day traffic stop, and the 368-square-mile park in Washington state was closed as dozens of officers searched for the armed gunman over snowy and rugged terrain.

Pierce County Sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said late Sunday afternoon Benjamin Colton Barnes, a 24-year-old believed to have survivalist skills, was a “strong person of interest” in the slaying of Margaret Anderson. A parks spokesman said Barnes was an Iraq war veteran, and the mother of his child had alleged he suffered from post-traumatic stress following his deployments. Authorities recovered his vehicle, which had weapons and body armor inside, Troyer said.

Barnes was also a suspect in the early Sunday morning shooting of four people at a house party south of Seattle, police said.

Authorities believed the gunman was still in the woods, with weapons. They asked people to stay away from the park, and for those already inside to leave.

“We do have a very hot and dangerous situation,” Troyer said.

Early Monday, dozens of tourists who were stranded at a park visitors center began leaving under a safety escort.

Around 12:30 a.m. PST, officers used the cover of darkness to begin evacuating some of the 125 people who had remained inside a visitors center for their safety amid the manhunt.

Crews had initially planned to keep everyone quarantined in a basement with guards. But Troyer said it was later determined to be “better to do it under the cover of darkness than daylight.”

All the visitors are expected to be out by 4 a.m., if not sooner.

Tactical responders wearing crampons and snowshoes were pursuing what appeared to be the gunman’s tracks in the snow, Troyer said. Those tracks went into creeks and other waterways, making it more difficult for crews to follow.

“He’s intentionally trying to get out of the snow,” Troyer said.

Meanwhile, an aircraft with heat-sensing capabilities was scanning overhead, Troyer said.

Barnes was involved in a custody dispute in Tacoma in July 2011, during which the toddler’s mother sought a temporary restraining order against him, according to court documents. In an affidavit, the woman wrote that Barnes was suicidal and possibly suffered from PTSD after deploying to Iraq in 2007-2008. She said he gets easily irritated, angry and depressed and keeps an arsenal of weapons in his home.

The park would remain closed Monday, officials announced late Sunday.

Jason Simpson, 29, of Kent, said his parents were still trapped at the visitor’s center after traveling to the mountain for a day hike. His parents were able to make a call explaining their situation, and Simpson drove to the park entrance to wait.