After consulting the guide books, I decided that we would do the Crater Devil's loop near Ross Lake.  This was well away from the St. Helens ash cloud.

This is a map of Day one of our trip. (Note the proposed N cascades highway route is incorrectly placed!!!).  We parked our cars at the East Bank Ross Lake Trailhead and descended to the Ruby Cr Trail.

Today there is a parking area and trail to abridge crossing Canyon Cr, that would have saved the long and boring trek up Ruby Creek.  Climbing the steep trail to Camp 1 was very hard: Merl had terrible cramps and even the older boys were pooped.

Totals for Day 1: 6 miles and 3470' climbed.