Ape Canyon – Mount Saint Helens

I got up at O-damm early this morning to knock off a long time on “The List” trails. The Mt Saint Helens National Volcanic Monument’s Ape Canyon and Plains of Abraham trails did not disappoint. Mother Nature only allowed partial views of the mountain today which clearly means she wants me to come back. The climb up through the old growth forest spared by the eruption was sublime. Climbing up onto the plains was a WOW moment. It was amazing to see what the mountain did when it decided to give its etch-a-sketch a little shake in 1980. It’s going to take me a few days to process all of the life enrichment I took in today.

Lahar next the trail
Climbing up through old growth spared from the eruption.
Pacfic Northwest trail awesomeness!
Such an aburpt transition from the forest onto the prior devastation
Like an lunar landscape on the Plains of Abraham.
So pretty!
A snapped of tree from the eruption
Nearing Windy Gap

Banner Forest

Over the last few days the smoke has been pretty thick considering how far away the Canadian and Eastern Washington wild fires were. The day after my last ride I was pretty congested and “hackie” so I decided to forego fun on the trails for a few days.

The smoke was pretty thick.

A little bit of rain and favorable winds cleared out the smoke enough to get a ride this afternoon. I made a return to Banner Forest for some twisty fast singletrack fun.

More Green Mountain

A had another good week of getting in some good afterwork rides in out at Green Mountain State Park. Most of the week I focused on zipped over the west side of the west side of the park to get to know that side better. Plenty of trail on that side as well.

Got Beaver?

On the Tin Mine Trail.

Tin Mine shaft.
Baby waterfall

Green Mountain SP

I have been getting in some good after work rides out at Green Mountain State Park. This place is my current “local” trail with the trailhead just 10 minutes away. For my first ride back out here I kept it simple doing and out and back on the Wildcat trail to the Green Mountain peak. Round trip was 8.4 miles with 1,740 feet of climbing. The views included the Olypmics Mountains, Mt Rainer and downtown Seattle. Later in the week I was reminded that trails can come and go on timber land and following one of the trails I remembered from eight years ago netted me a solid 10 minutes of bramble bushwacking at the bottom of the far side of the mountain from where I started. I was not exactly chasing daylight at that point but once you get under the trees it seems much later in the evening. I found myself putting a bit more gitty up on the pedals to get back to the trailhead just to realize I had more daylight left than I expected. Good times!

Lower Dungeness- Gold Creek

Had a great day out on the Olympic Pennisula. I revisited the Lower Dungeness and Gold Creek loop I had done some number of years ago. The last time I was socked in with clouds but today was clear skies and sunshine. Such good singletrack. I do have some tweaks to make to my review of this trail. Look for those at some point.

Siouxon Creek Trail

The last day on my commute up the coast trip included a return to the Siouxon Trail which I rode a portion of like 15 years or so ago. This time I did a much bigger chunk of it that included some rough climbing on bits that do not see anywhere near the traffic the stuff along the creeks. Fantastic waterfalls and pools along side the trail were just killer. Really good stuff. I am going to update my site on this trail.

Loamy narrow awesomeness!
I forget the scientific name for this berry but I believe its called Bear Food.
One of many falls
I did say many right?
Yep, I sure did
The trail goes across the top of this one.
I believe the scientific for this is Clover Freakinyuugeus
Even my bike looks tired in this photo.