... but damn it sure is beautiful anyway. Besides, I can't change the weather so I might as well make the best of it. Last chance to ride this trail until next June!
The trail starts up through a spectacular sliver of old-growth forest, somehow spared by the mudflow that came down just to the south (the entire foreground of the above photo) and the blast of superheated gas that leveled and cooked everything just to the north:
The trail climbs steadily but isn't really that steep ... a few hundred yards in, I stop, exhausted. Why is this so damn hard? Am I that fat and tired from Thanksgiving dinner?
Oops. Today, the guinea-pig SSundance is set up as a dual-speed ... in addition to my regular 35:20 gear I also have a pavement gear. I'd accidentally left the bike in that 38:17 gear. Geez, no wonder. I move the chain to the proper sprockets and I'm off. OK, now the trail is rideable again.
In addition to St. Helens itself, at various points the trail switchbacks at one edge of this slice of forest or the other, and I'm treated to a fantastic view of Adams, Hood or Rainier. This view of Mt. Hood is typical:
It's 55 degrees out (at 4000 feet in late November!) as I ride up and I'm sweating. I'm hauling butt because I've gotten a late start - 2:00 - and I have only 3 hours to do this ride. About 5 miles in, I emerge from the forest and onto the Plains of Abraham. Unbelievable. I keep hauling across the plains another 4 miles or so - basically as far as I dare in the fading light - without stopping for photos.
Finally I start heading back. The blast zone I've been riding across looks more like the South Dakota badlands - or the freakin' moon - than the Pacific Northwest:
Mt. Rainier, in all its ice-cream-dish glory, caps this view. I'm always amazed when I take a picture of one of our lovely Northwest volcanoes, striking white against a clear blue sky, and it's completely invisible to the camera. They are our ghosts.
Oh well, you can see the big "R" here:
Oh yeah, here's what St. Helens itself looks like from here:
Mt. Adams looms to the east:
The sun is setting on the volcanoes. White one minute, orange the next, fiery pink a minute after that ... and in another minute, just plain blue-grey. Mt. Hood again:
As I reach the edge of the plains, I smell a whiff of sulfur. A gentle reminder from this barely-sleeping giant that it is in charge, and I do not belong on it on a bike at night. A quick snap of Mt. Adams over Ape Canyon and I'm back into the woods:
Glad I brought some lighting with me. I really need it the last mile or two. One last shot of Hood:
Whew! That was fun.
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