Based on my blog it would be easy to think that we're on vacation all the time. Well, we make the most of almost every weekend but we really only get the standard American few weeks a year amount of vacation time. Our winter vacation was in April in New Hampshire, where we skied Tuckermans Ravine and celebrated Randy's 40th birthday.
Last summer we rode our road bikes from Anacortes to San Francisco. Doing another self-supported tour was tempting but we didn't feel like there was time for a real tour this year. Originally we had planned to drive over to Priest Lake then head up into Rossland Canada to ride the 7 Summits Trail. However a friend who has Lou Gehrigs disease had come up to visit his parents in Hoodsport so we opted to spend the first few days of our vacation with them, which made the logistics of driving from here to Hoodsport then to northern Idaho daunting. Instead we opted for Mt. St. Helens area since there are many excellent mountain bike trails for advanced riders (which means you whine less if you have to push your bike up steep, loose hills — more on that later).
On Day 1 of our vacation we rode our road bikes in an ALS (Lou Gehrigs Disease) fundraiser ride which just happened to start from my alma mater, Mount Vernon High School. The day was nice, the ride pleasant enough even though it pretty much covered my regular bike commute route with a couple extra interesting additions. I got a flat tire two blocks from the start and changed it in my friend Shannon's yard. We saw people we knew on other teams, who also know people with the horrible disease. We raised over $750 for the foundation in the two weeks we actually campaigned. Maybe next year we'll set higher goals.
Day 2 was in Hoodsport, celebrating the birthday of the friend with ALS. He was pleased that Randy gave him the ride t-shirt. We stayed in Hoodsport for two nights — one night longer than we intended. The weather forecast was a factor in our decision to stay. Plus we wanted to spend more time with the family.
Ah the weather forecast. Temperatures all over the normally pleasant PNW were predicted to meet or exceed 100F. Swell. After much angst and negotiation we decided to push on, either ride or not ride, do what we could do. If anything, we're adjustable.
Tuesday found us leaving in the heat of the day toward the hotter inland in an uncomfortable, 15 year old Toyota pickup in which the air conditioning does not work.
It was at least a 4 hour drive.
There wasn't much conversation on the drive down. I tried to stay in the shadow of semis for a little relief from the relentless sun. It really didn't work.
We snapped and snarled at a Burger King near Castle Rock, because we forgot from two years before that our turn off is actually at Woodland, not Castle Rock. And we had made the same mistake. Next time one of us better remember.
Ah, the a/c of Safeway in Woodland. We shopped for our camping vittles, which included 2 cases of beer and a magnum of tawny port (who knew that drinkable port came in a magnum?). Let's see, two cases of beer amounts to 48 bottles of beer. Divide by two for the two of us. That's 24 beers. Divide by the number of days we would be camping. That would be 7. Okay, 3 beers per night for each of us. Not excessive for vacation. At least we didn't think so. Oh, and a massive jar of peanut butter, two loaves of bread, jelly, pasta, fresh fruit, burgers, chicken, bell peppers, and cucumbers, cubed and dry ice.
$130 later we were back in the hot sun, loading coolers, dreading the rest of the drive, still thinking about staying in an air conditioned motel for the night. We fortified ourselves with a burger, fries, and milkshake from a local burger joint then hit the road east to Cougar then points east or south or wherever the Lower Falls campground on the Lewis River was.
The shadows got long, we actually passed through some sort of cool areas. Stopped at the Cougar mini-mart to pick up ketchup and mustard, which was forgotten at Safeway. The campground was relatively empty except for one mountain bike tour company and a few other campers. We picked a spot right across from the outhouses (note to self…), set up camp, had a beer and possibly a slug of port then went to bed. It was cool enough to sleep, without the rain fly.
The next day seemed sort of cool since we were in the trees. We decided to ride the Lewis River trail, which is about 23 miles out and back over rolling terrain and on groomed trails. Nice. And a big improvement from the first time I rode it two summers ago. My skills have improved dramatically so the ride was pretty easy. I did fall when I attempted to cross a log that was actually only a segment placed over the trail. A booby trap? Could've been. Hikers and mountain bikers don't always play well together. Had I seen that the log was only a segment I wouldn't have attempted to cross it still attached to my bike. A little whiplash but everything else was okay.
The ride back, we discovered, was the uphill way. The level places we breezed down were now a pedal up. And it was hot, getting hotter. We stopped for a dip in river to cool off. Shortly after getting back our bikes the effects of the refreshing dip were gone. Long gone. We took lots of breaks. Granny-geared up the hills. Rested. Rejoiced when we came to the last part of the trail. Discovered we had both drank 100-oz of electrolyte-enhanced water. Back at camp we took off bike shoes, each grabbed a cold beer, and dipped in the icy river. That became our post-ride routine during the hot weather.
The next day we rode up the Wright Meadow trail, which unfortunately is open to motorcycles so the trail is trenched and loose. Plus it's quite steep so after the initial rolling ride on groomed trails it's a long, hike-a-bike uphill. It was hot. It was buggy. I was about to whine when Randy pointed to the view of Mt. Adams from the trail. Wow, oh wow. More pushing. My neck hurt from yesterday's fall. More bugs. Hot. Wah. At the top, Randy wanted to ride a short out-n-back to a meadow. I grumbled (having not graduated to advanced rider yet). But rode. That trail was fun. We found the meadow, which was immense and kind of reminded me of the meadows in the Sierras. Big, green, full of flowers ringed by evergreens.
Then we rode back out and down pavement for a mile or three to Cussed Hollow for our downtrack. Note: if the word "cussed" is involved, just don't do it. The first part of the downhill was okay until we got to the motorocycle trenched part. The trench was so deep that pedals would scrape the sides. So push your bike through that. Then arrive at the hollow, which is a freakin' steep loose climb back up to the top. Randy wisely pushed out of earshot from me. Near the top I was practically hysterical from bugs, heat, frustration. Randy sat in the shade, swatting bugs with an evergreen frond. Would you like a break or just keep going, he asked. I'd like to strangle you, I said, so let's keep going. The downhill from there was steep and loose but quite fun. I'd nearly forgotten the agony of epic hike-a-bike.
At camp, we did our post-ride beer and river dunk. Randy had been saying for some time that hike-a-bike is part of mountain biking, especially advanced riding. I finally got it. My frustration comes from not being able to ride everything. Well, no one can ride everything (sound like a big duh now). Beginning and intermediate riders tend to want to ride groomed, rolling trails because they're easy and fun. Advanced riders want to be challenged in ways beyond intermediate trail riding. I'm not really an advanced rider yet because I still don't have all the necessary skills and strength. I'm an advanced intermediate. Maybe next year I'll be advanced. Based on how fast I've progressed in both technical skills and strength, next year is a reasonable goal. Still, switchbacks, especially steep ones with consequences scare me.
We took the next day off to do a little scouting. Fires in the area made a couple planned rides impossible. We wanted to stay at this campground because the river was so important for cooling off afterward. We drove down to Trout Lake for Ranger Station info and had lunch. Then up to Lake Takhlak in the shadow of Mt. Adams. Truly a spectacular lake. The campground was full and more primitive with no potable water available. Plus there weren't any rides from there. Back to Lewis River. We also stopped in at Council Lake. Another pretty lake but a fairly rough crowd appeared to be camping there.
On Saturday we drove to Mt. St. Helens to ride Ape Canyon/Trail of Abraham. It was still hot. The first five miles of the ride is up a groomed trail through the forest. Sounds pleasant enough but it was so hot and humid in the trees that I didn't wear my helmet (sorry Mom) and was slimy and shiny from sweat. The bugs were so bad that a corpse probably wouldn't have more. At one point I passed a group of resting riders and said that I was making a list of what Randy would owe me for going on this ride. One of the riders asked if I had ever been on this ride before. No. He said that in a little over a mile the trail popped out above treeline on this point where you can see three major mountains: Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainier, and Mt. Adams. He promised it'll be worth it. And it was. Out of the trees, it was still hot but a stiff breeze blew from Mt. St. Helens, even with an occasional briskness from Ape Glacier. And the bugs were gone. Hallelujah! Actually that made me feel more sorry for the hikers on the trail. Not only would they hike up through the bugs, they would have to hike down. Ick.
The rest of that ride (with helmet) was on the Plains of Abraham Trail, which is spectacular in its stark scenery. Check out the photos here because words don't do it justice. Maybe even the photos don't either. We really took our time on this trail and not only because of the heat. It was amazing. And the down ride was really fun. On the way down we were going too fast for bugs (keep mouth closed) to bite though they did bounce off our helmets, sunglasses, skin, etc.
Another day of drinking all 100 oz of elecrolyte-enhanced water, followed by a refreshing dunk once we got back to camp. Ah the rituals of a well-established camp routine.
The next two days the riding wasn't as spectacular. But who can complain after Plains of Abraham?! And Lewis River was great riding too. We tried Quartz Creek. The trail was groomed but unfortunately covered in blowdown from the winter. Dismount, hoist bike over tree, remount. Repeat. When we got to the downed tree that was nearly as high as Randy's head we gave up and turned around. Seems to me that was more of a quality beer-drinking day than riding. Our last ride we decided to check out a snow park sort of on the way to Trout Lake. Plus there was an intriguing trail on our map over Squaw Butte. The TH was in a closed campground, closed due to hazard trees that had not yet been removed. Hmmmm… perhaps the trail would be in similar condition. It was. The trail had not been used much if at all since the snow melted. It was mostly rideable but not really fun and definitely not pretty. It was actually a little eerie. We were definitely in mountain lion country and possibly other large predators. We rode pretty close together after that and decided to navigate the abandoned logging roads rather than turning around and going back up and over. That was an adventure but the map was reasonably accurate in this case. We only had to turn around and start over a couple times.
That afternoon after returning to camp we ran into a young couple who guides for one of the mountain bike touring companies we had seen earlier in the week. They said that the rides had gotten some serious complaints so they were there to check out additional trails. Turns out the complainers likely got their egos smacked down because like I mentioned earlier, this riding is quite hard. If your ego needs deflating, try mountain biking. It's really harder than anything else I've done. It keeps me in shape for backcountry skiing but the reverse isn't necessarily true. Anyway, we had a great time with them, exchanged contact information and got some ideas for future rides.
The next day we packed up our home from the last 7 nights, put it all in the dirty truck and took the long way home. Didn't bring any beer or port home.