Ride Report: (4/5/2007) Mt St Helens

haWHYnXX

Okay, so what do you do when you and your SO have the day off and it's 70 degrees outside for the first time this year?? You go for a 300 miler to Mt St Helens!!

Started out the day running back roads from southwestern Pierce county through Yelm, Rainier, Tenino, Bucoda, and Centralia to I-5. Great backcountry riding and a warm-up for the day ahead.

A quick 30 mile run down I-5 gets us to Castle Rock where we head east on Hwy 504 - and the start of our 50 mile run to the Coldwater Ridge observatory of Mt St Helens.



Some pics of the incredible devastation of the entire northwestern portion of Mt St Helens and the surrounding Toutle River Valley.



A pic of my wife with Castle Lake in the background. And one of a creek coming off Coldwater Lake.



A couple with Coldwater Lake in the background.



After checking out Mt St Helens for awhile (and taking a billion pictures), we come back down 504 and take a pic of this cool waterfall.



From there, hit the Hwy 505 North cutoff to Hwy 12 at Ethel. Find this little Old Growth Forest educational platform built off the side of the road just past Lewis & Clark State Park.



On our way to Morton, stop at MossyRock Park and see some deer. A little way down the road gave us a great view of Riffe Lake (the byproduct of MossyRock Dam).



Head north on Hwy 7 out of Morton and get these great shots of southwestern Mt Rainier (this is a rarely seen side of Rainier since most published pics are taken from the north - the Seattle side).



Hang a left in Elbe for a run along Alder Lake, and the some great twisties through Grandview to home.

Can't wait for another season of riding!! Hope you all enjoyed our tour.

__________________
-Vern

Hawaiian Island Stylin'

ImNoSaint

Awesome report. Great contribution to this site - that's what this is all about.

PJNXX

Looks great, Vern. Awesome ride and awesome pictures!

__________________
-Paul

rdkng88

nice document

Taetor

Great pics, looks like a fantastic ride.

ccriderXX

I do not agree! Postings like this should be illegal...






Because I am stuck in an office for the second nice day of the year. I can see much of the snocapped peaks of the Cascade range out my window. Arggggghh..... Hopefully I can take a little spin later today.

Great pics Vern and thanks for the report. I haven't ridden to the west side of the mountain yet. I will have to check it out. I usually ride on the east side to Windy Ridge.

haWHYnXX

Yeah, I get to work today also. Too bad - it's beautiful out.

We were going to ride the east side, but Windy Ridge observatory is closed at the moment and I didn't want to take the chance that the roads were also. We'll do that later this summer. The views there are unbelieveable. It's eerie on that east side how on one side of the road the USFS decided to "help" nature along and harvest/cultivate, and on the other side leave Mother Nature to do her thing. It's like world and bizarro world next to each other.

__________________
-Vern

Hawaiian Island Stylin'

haWHYnXX

Thanks everyone for your encouragement. It's a hard thing to slow and take in the beauty - I'm usually all about the ride and roads and could care less about the pics. But as I see other ride reports and marvel at the beauty in this world, I just want to contribute and give those who don't live here or can't get here the chance to experience the beautiful Pacific NW.

Now let's see some ride reports from all over!!!

__________________
-Vern

Hawaiian Island Stylin'

Huggybear

Vern,
I live in Arlington, north of you, and was thinking about doing the same ride soon. How are the roads???...just went up SR 9 to Mt. Vernon and Lake Cava something and found a little gravel in places. Not bad, however, and the weather was awesome!

haWHYnXX

Not a speck of gravel in any corner that I can remember!! If you follow my exact route, you can hit the twisties at any speed you can handle with no worries in the world - except for LEO of course!! There were also some high speed sweepers that were absolutely divine. We'll do the east approach to Windy Ridge observatory later after the roads open and I'll post another report then about that side.

We want to make a North Cascades Highway trip later this summer after it opens back up. Would love to hook up with a few more riders - esp ones with local knowledge of those roads!! Interested?? (Possibly June as a tune up ride for our trek down to Hookers).

__________________
-Vern

Hawaiian Island Stylin'

rockpaperscisso

Great pics. Thanks for making those of us that had to work feel bad. It was a great day to ride in the northwest. I have not riden the west side yet.. Do you think it has better twisties than the east side?
I would like to join you for a ride one day. just send me an invite and I will try and join you.

haWHYnXX

Friday was a better day to ride, but I had to work too!!
I haven't ridden the east side, just caged it a few years back, but I seem to remember lots more twisties on the east.

I'll pm you when we go on another good ride. We need to meet - seeing as we're CP grads and all. Wife and I are up in Edgewood periodically also since her sis and BIL live there!

__________________
-Vern

Hawaiian Island Stylin'

rockpaperscisso

sounds great. looking forward to some fun rides into the Cascades.