The morning started out cool and damp - not unusual for October in the Pacific Northwest.

I'm at the start of a second week of vacation and between the visit from my best friend and some really crappy weather, I haven't had a chance to get much riding in.  This morning, I have absolutely nothing else planned and I want to do something fun that will put a little bit of distance between me and home for the day.

Since it is a Monday morning, I'm going to wait a little bit before I hit the highway.  No sense in sitting in traffic along with 100,000 commuters when I'm supposed to be having fun.

I had spent Sunday afternoon cleaning bugs off the V-Rod and giving her a good bath.  She was polished up and sitting coiled and ready to go in the garage this morning.  I finish up a light breakfast and pull on my leathers.  The weatherman says it's supposed to be getting sunny and warmer later on, so I pack my smoke face shield and a pair of lighter-weight gloves for the afternoon ride home.  For now, though, it's only about 50 degrees out, so the insulated gloves are just the thing.  A camera, some snacks and the tool bag complete the load for the day.

The first stop this morning is my local coffee house.  Gets the bike warmed up, gets me limbered up and gives the traffic time to die down a bit.  A nice big cup of hot, black coffee and the morning newspaper takes me a good, leisurely hour to get through - a little longer than normal because people keep asking me "is that YOUR bike out front?"  Good old male pride takes a little time...

The empty coffee cup goes in the trash, the consumed newspaper goes on the next table over, the leather jacket goes on my back again and I head out the door, pulling my helmet on as I walk.

It only takes me a minute or so to cinch up the chinstrap, pull on the gloves and get settled in the saddle as I hit the start switch.

As I punch the bike into first gear and start looking over my shoulder for oncoming traffic, the dark gray sky is starting to show the fist glimmers of blue and it's noticably warmer than it had been an hour before.  I pull out onto the street and head for the interstate.

Puttering through town on this bike is like trying to keep a wild animal caged up, but it's a fairly short trip to the highway, and my plan to wait 'till after rush-hour pays off.  There's relatively light traffic and I'm in fifth gear before the end of the on-ramp.

I'd installed a new windshield on the bike a couple of days before and this was really the first chance I'd had to road test it at speed.  Since I'm going a lot faster than I had without it, I figure it's working pretty well.  A side-effect, however, is a higher level of wind directed at the face of my helmet.  Earplugs will now definately be needed, but I'll deal with that to get a little more comfort at 85 MPH.

It's 62 miles from my house in Portland, Oregon to the exit for Washington State 504 at Castle Rock.  As I cross the Columbia River from Portland into Vancouver, Washington, I find myself relaxing fully and getting in to the ride.  This section is just interstate, but as interstate goes, it's not bad.  Relatively smooth road (now that they've repaved) and enough interesting scenery on the way to make the trip not a totally boring chore.  But I'm not riding today to be on the interstate, I'm headed for a place that I've been fascinated with for years since I moved here.

I'm heading for Mount St. Helens.

Twenty two and half years ago, Mount St. Helens exploded and devistated over 200 square miles of southwestern Washington State.  Two roads have been rebuilt into the heart of the blast zone - Washington State routes 503 and 504.  503 takes you in through Woodland and Cougar around the south side of the mountain.  Eventually, that trip gets you to a place called Windy Ridge - the absolute closest you can get, on pavement, to the crater - it also takes you right past the shores of Spirit Lake - final resting place of old Harry Truman, proprieter of the Spirit Lake Lodge.

This is a view from the Windy Ridge area - taken a few years ago.



I've done 503 a number of times, but hadn't ever done 504.  504 takes you around the west side of the mountain through the towns of Castle Rock and Toutle.  It also takes you along a good stretch of the North Fork Toutle River - one of the rivers that got the brunt of 3.3 billion cubic yards of ash, mud, rock, water, melted glaciers, pyroclastic material and so forth.

Hazel Dell, Woodland and Longview/Kelso go by without incident and I'm feeling good even though I'm spending most of my time dealing with the windbalst from all the semi's on the road this morning.  Castle Rock is only 5 miles up the road when a brief sprinkle passes over and I get slightly damp.  It's so little rain that I'm completely dry by the time I get off the freeway.

In Castle Rock, I pull in to a Texaco and put a couple of gallons of the good stuff in the tank.  It's going to be a 104 mile round trip in to Johnston Ridge and back out and there's no gas stations once you get another 15 miles up the road - with only about a 110 mile range on this bike under stop and go conditions, a full tank is much needed before continuing.

Pulling over to a parking spot alongside the Texaco mini-mart, I leave the bike for a moment and go inside to grab another quick cup of coffee (and to drain the result of the first cup...) and come back outside to sit under a lightening sky and talk to a couple of folks travelling back up to Vancouver, British Columbia.

This is one of the things I like about riding.  People almost seem more open to talking with you when you're on a bike - especially when you're on a bike that draws attention.  The folks that were on their way to BC were a husband and wife just finishing up a three week vacation and a round trip drive all the way to Cabo San Lucas and back!!  We talked for a while about traffic and travelling and the changes at the border since 11 SEP 01.  I told them about the trip I had taken in the summer of '01 all the way to the east coast and back.  (See 'Jeepstuff')

By the time I had finished my coffee and a banana, the sun had come out enough so that I had to change over to my dark face shield.  When dressed in my leathers and that particular face shield, I kinda come off like Darth Vader, but I'm comfortable, so that's all that really matters to me.

As I cruise out of the gas station, I spot a couple of guys with a pickup truck full of really cool speed-record type racing bicycles - you know, the type that have full covering fairings that totally enclose the bike, rider and all?  I stopped for a moment to look at the machines while they gawked at my machine - I guess it was mutual two-wheel appreciation there for a moment!

Back on Highway 504.  The sun has broken through the clouds enough now that the day is turning out to be a beauty.

504 gets better as you go.  The speed limit gets up to a reasonable 55 MPH just outside Castle Rock and stays there pretty much up until you enter the volcanic monument.  You slow down a bit through Toutle and Kid Valley, but otherwise, you basically cruise.  As you get closer to the monument and the blast area, the road starts following the ridges and valleys and the ride gets nice and twisty without being a back-breaker.

Here's one of the valleys as seen from highway 504 - that's the Cow Creek Bridge in the distance off to the left.



About 40 miles in from Castle Rock, you come to the Coldwater Ridge Visitor's Center.  Here, you can buy a visitor pass for the rest of the monument.  You can have lunch, stop in the gift shop and watch a movie.  Or, you can go outside and enjoy a view of the North Fork Toutle River valley.



Another 12 miles in from Coldwater Ridge is the Johnston Ridge Volcanic Observatory and Visitor's Center.  This is the closest visitor center to the crater and features a movie in a theater with a giant glass wall that faces the mountain.  When the movie is over, they raise the curtain and you get to see the volcano for real, right in front of you.

From Johnston Ridge, you can see this view of the pumice plain and the mass of the landslide just below the crater



I arrived at Johnston Ridge a little after lunchtime.  Great time to stop and have a break, look at the scenery, have a snack and read a bit of the road guide to the monument that I brought along.

Johnston Ridge is also a place for reflection.  See, the ridge now bears the name of David Johnston, a USGS Vulcanologist who was witness to the full force and amazing speed of the landslide that started the eruption.  His last words on this earth, screamed over the radio on the morning on May 18th, 1980, "Vancouver, Vancouver, THIS IS IT!!" have become the famous start of an event that would end the lives of many and forever change the lives of thousands more.

You see, David was standing basically on this spot when the eruption occured.  David was blown into the next world perhaps 8 to 10 seconds after that fateful radio transmission when millions of cubic yards of rock hit the top of what would become Johnston Ridge at roughly 180 MPH - that would be followed by a hot blast of gas, dust, ash and rock moving at about 350 MPH.

When I come up to Mount St. Helens, I'm always in awe of the sheer power of nature on display around the north side of the mountain.  But I also have a twinge of sorrow that always creeps in.  As I'm riding or driving over newly paved Forest Service roads that go into the blast zone, I'm perhaps riding or driving right over the top of the final resting places of actual people.  61 people were killed up here when this thing went up - many were never found and are presumed to be entombed here forever under the ash and mud.  I never leave this monument without taking a brief moment to reflect and remember those who lost their lives in this catastrophy.  This place makes me quiet and brings a certain peace to me.

As I'm finishing lunch, I notice a bit of a breeze starting to come up and in the western sky, I see dark, dark clouds moving in.  It's getting colder and I'm up at nearly 5000 feet, so I know that I could be in for a little bad weather on the way back down the mountain.

After putting everything back in my bags and pulling the helmet back on, I start up the bike and gently roll out of the parking lot and back on to highway 504.  About half way between Johnston Ridge and Coldwater Ridge, I stop to take in this view



and a few miles further down the road, as the sky was closing in a bit more, I stop once again for this view



Finally, I make one last stop in what will become the last of my sunshine for a while.



Not five minutes after that picture was taken, I ride smack in to the middle of a cloud at about the 3500 foot elevation.  Visibility drops off to nearly nothing and I'm cruising down the road at about 15 MPH to make sure I don't miss a turn, hit a car, ride off the road ...  I think about stopping, but this is a BIG cloud and I know that it will get thinner as I go lower, but if I stop, I'm liable to be here all afternoon.

As I pass 2500 feet a mile or so down the road, I emerge out of the bottom of the cloud and am able to get back up to speed again.

The ride back to Castle Rock is made in fully overcast and chilly conditions with occasional drizzle and a 20 ton log truck not 30 feet off my tailpipes.  I lose the log truck briefly in Kid Valley and again in Toutle as the speed limit decreases and he ends up slowing down more than I do - but in between, I don't go much over the speed limit and he goes significantly over, so it doesn't take long for me to see the bright orange Weyerhauser Peterbilt grill in my rear view mirrors again.

At Castle Rock, I pull in to the same Texaco station again and fill up for the ride home.  Did better than I thought I would - 107 miles round trip and I still had a 1/4 tank left.  I only put in 2.6 gallons.  41 MPG - not bad for mountain riding with lots of stops along the way.

Cruising back to Portland, I'm trying to get back in to town before 5:00 PM to hopefully avoid most of the commuter rush again.  I break in to full, bright, warm sunshine again about 30 miles outside of the city and the rest of the ride home is very nice.  I pull off the freeway at about 5:10 PM and lope along home with a smile on my face.

Survived another one.

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