For you Google Earth fans . . .

Here's a GPS-based track of the ride. It's a kml file you can open in Google Earth. And, Mt. St. Helens is impressively hi-resolution, which makes it all extra neat to see. You can get the file by clicking HERE.

More Mt. St. Helens Ride Photos . . .

It just blows me away (no pun intended :-) to envision how high the mudflow (and some blast maybe?) must have been right here to break trees this high up on the ridge. It's also weird to see the mix of dead/damaged/living trees so close together.


By here, you're pretty much at the top of Ape Canyon. Also, my legs were wrecked and I was running short on time. So, I just followed the trail up around the corner and called it good.


This is the top of Ape Canyon. It goes clear down to Smith Creek and I have no idea if you can get into it. Alan, Justin and I were pretty disappointed the first time we laid eyes on it back in the day.


It's cool to see some amount of regrowth and also how the knoll shielded some of the trees from the blast and mud/ice/rocks.


The trail really was the epic great descent I'd imagined. So, I didn't stop much on the way down to take photos. And, as the changing leaves tell you, I doubt I had much more time this year before it would've only been accessible with skis and snowmobiles.

What do you 4AM love?

It seems to me that everyone has something they love doing enough to wake up at 4 AM. For a lot of people, fishing/hunting fits the bill. If stores open that early (like the day after Thanksgiving or something), shopping could be it for others. For me, mountain biking is one of those things. OK, and I've gotten up that early to road bike too.
About 7 or 8 years ago, I led a somewhat ill-fated circuit of about 25 miles on the Southeast side of Mt. St. Helens. We began by ascending to Ape Canyon, crossed the Plains of Abraham, passed by Windy Ridge, descended the trail to Smith Creek, followed (and repeatedly crossed) the creek, and ascended the Lava Canyon road to the car (except Mike, who eventually realized he'd taken a wrong turn in his effort to go ahead and get the car . . .). It was really really brutal and only sort of fun.
But I discovered one cool thing. As we ascended the 5 miles of singletrack trail to Ape Canyon, I told myself that it would be very cool to descend that route someday. And, with summer waning, I decided this was the year to satisfy that dream.
So it was, then, that I arose at 4 AM, started driving around 4:30, and started riding around 7 AM.


I'd done enough homework to know Road 83 had been washed out. As you can see, it's actually pretty close to being fixed. But they still won't let you drive on it. We non-construction people had to park our cars 5 miles from the Ape Canyon trailhead. So, the first 5 miles of my "mountain bike ride" didn't really require one.



The mountain, the man, and the machine.


Mt. St. Helens looks good by the dawn's early light! This is looking up a mudflow path ("Lahar") from the 1980 eruption.


It's cool to see this and visualize the path of destruction.


One thing I LOVE about the trail is all the HUGE old trees (they obviously didn't get swept away in the mudflows in 1980). And, they make for handy bike stands!

Savoring the Last Shreds of Summer

I ducked out early on a Wednesday recently so we could pick W up from school and head south to Oswald West State Park. It's one of my favorite hikes. You go down from 101, past Short Sands beach, and out to the end of Cape Falcon. It's 2 1/2 miles each way, and probably the farthest E or W (or AC sort of . . .) have hiked.


Who loves hiking?!


Looks like I'm pulling his ears out. Really, it was just windy and that hat kept flying off.


We're a happy cozy family . . . and we're holding the kids to keep them from running off down that cliff. :-) E recruited some kind people out at the end of Cape Falcon for the picture.




Pretty sure that's Neahkahnie Mountain.