Mt. St. Helens Biking

On Sunday my buddy Sara and I met in Woodland, Wa to go up to St. Helens for a little biking. My body decided it was time to get the runs, so I ate a few Immodium ADs. I thought it was the calamari from Saturday night when I went out for greek food with Faustina after the Tears for Fears concert. They only played a few songs, but it was all good (and free!)

At the trailhead there were two other cars with bikers going up the hill. And a hunter in camo sitting on a rock near us. I asked him what season it was.

He looked up to the sky, "Summer."

The other bikers laughed a little uncomfortably and said "We asked him the same thing."

"It's Elk season", he finally said, " and bikers." No smile.

"Well, we don't taste too good."

"That's ok. I just drop the Elk and bikers and leave them there."

I figured he was just joking with me and seeing if I'd react like a liberal and say "Hey, you can't just leave the animal there, that's wrong." So I just laughed.

We got ready and he came over and chatted more with us. I think we passed some sort of test. Or the runs made me think more was going on.

"I see all of these fancy bikes." Which makes me worry when people say that... "And no kick stands!" I had to laugh.

"I know, you'd think you'd get one."

"I'd take it back. Those shoes good for pushing up the hill?"

"You know it, not good for biking, good for pushing."

And we were off up the hill, to do some pushing. I remembered the Ape Canyon trail being pretty difficult cos of the elevation and being out of shape. It wasn't too bad this time. I stopped from time to time to relax. Ok, to breathe. But it was ok.

It was pretty up on the Plains of Abraham and we toodled around, taking pictures and looking around. We couldn't see the top of the mountain because of the low clouds, but every now and then the sun would pop out and make the area look like pictures of Tibet.

We went over towards Windy Ridge, which funnily enough was pretty windy. You could see the main visitor center towards the North, with no real vegetation inbetween.

The clouds started to come in so we started back and flew down the hill back to the car. We celebrated our conquest of St. Helens with a shake, a few burgers and some fries.