| Volcanoes of Washington Bike TourSeptember 10 - September 23, 2003 |
After looking at the map as we prepared for the trip, I realized there was no way we could ride from Paradise Lodge Inn Mt. Rainier to Hood River, as well as visit Mt. St. Helens, in one day. Instead, we would cycle toward Mt. St. Helens about 40 miles away where we had lunch at Woods Creek. From there we would take the van into Mt. St. Helens National Monument to view the crater, then continue on to our hotel in Hood River.
At the lodge before departing, I unloaded my bike and wiped off the big chunks of dirt. I noticed that the rear brake was stuck. I played with it for a while as the rest of the group left for the short downhill ride to National Park Inn at Longmire. Mark finally surmised that the brake cam was sticking and gave a few suggestions. I unscrewed the part and oiled it and was able to get it unstuck, enough so that the wheel would spin free and the brake was useable. At least it was better than the day Kerie and I rode into the park when I forgot to assemble the front brake before taking off down the hill. The rear brake more or less stopped me, but it's never been very effective.
Kerie was glad that Mark and Kate hadn't talked her out of riding down the mountain. The ride was a piece of cake. Kerie took off down the hill to get the descent over with. Marke and Kate had tried to talke her out of going down the mountain so she was anticipating a harrowing ride.
Mark had said that if the brake wasn't fixed by 7:30 I should consider riding in the van. With seconds to spare I was on the long downhill to breakfast. The National Park Inn has a great view of Mt. Rainier from the front porch. After a slight delay we finally received our breakfast and were fueled up for the ride toward Mt. St. Helens.
After breakfast we took a back way to Forest Road 52. The road we took is usually closed to traffic, so we walked our bikes around the barrier and had the road to ourselves. A short stretch was not paved, but otherwise the road was decent. It was a scenic downhill ride along forest roads through tall forests until we reached Packwood. From there we followed Hwy 12 off and on along the Cowlitz River as we made our way toward Mt. St. Helens. The road surface on the back roads was very rough. The preferred repaving method in this area is chip sealing, where a layer of gravel is spread over a layer of fresh tar. The gravel never gets very smooth and there is often loose gravel along the road edge.
We stopped for another tasty lunch at the Woods Creek Watchable Wildlife Picnic Area where we loaded the bikes for the ride to the base of Mt. St. Helens. The Forest Service has created a road along Windy Ridge to allow access to the heart of the post eruption area. It's unfortunate that we didn't have the time to ride into the monument. The visual impact would have been much greater if we had been able to gradually enter the area of devastation from the blast. We walked up a short, steep climb to an upper observation area that allowed a view of the crater and Spirit Lake.
Here is a map of the Mt. St. Helens area.
After visiting the monument it was a long, 2 ½ hour drive to Hood River. From his bag of tricks Mark pulled out a CD of old TV theme songs. To pass the time we tried to guess which songs belonged to which shows. I think Tim was the champion followed by Debbie, although we weren't keeping track. Tim must have wasted a good part of his youth watching sitcoms.
Like an experienced elementary school teacher trying to keep his rowdy or bored students occupied, Mark decided it was time to play "Sing a song that contains an animal reference". Syd was impressive with his rendition of a song from a Gilbert and Sullivan play.
By now we had descended to the mighty Columbia River. We oohed and aahed as the kite surfers skimmed along the surface and occasionally caught air. Kate said that the large kites are very difficult to control and are very powerful. It looked like fun.
The Hood River Hotel is located in downtown Hood River. It was built in 1913 and has been well taken care of. The floors slant a little and creak, but it has lots of charm. Pasquale's Restaurant is adjacent to the lobby. I had an excellent dinner of gnocchi, salad, and ice cream, telling myself I needed the fuel for the ride up to Mt. Hood the following day.
There are two bike shops in town, and both were closed by the time we arrived. I wanted to replace my rear brake cable that had broken off at the attachment point. Both shops looked well stocked. It was in one of the shops that we first saw the amazing Cannondale Scalpel single-fork bike.
