maenadic mt st helens
arrived in seattle thursday eve, had some delicious thai curry with kris, and met my first road bike: a feather-weight yellow and silver giant. made in taiwan. like me! well. ok, like my parents. i'm more of an export. anyway, the bike is beautiful and looks something like this:
friday morn we did some bike shop lessons and assembled my mountain bike i had packed into a box and left in the "care" of the luggage handlers at LAX and SEA. the box arrived ok, and we repaired the mysteriously detached derailleur pretty easily.
after all the repairs and assembly were complete on both bikes, i got to try the giant on my first epic road ride. um...shut up! 20 miles is epic dammit! we rode from kris' house in shoreline about 10 miles south to ballard, both small neighborhoods located north of seattle.
in ballard, we popped into sonic boom to pick up some tunes (the fountain soundtrack, johann johannson, octopus project, caribou). they were playing miho hatori's new solo album, ecdysis, in the store and i think i may need to pick that one up in the near future as well. not a huge fan of the cover art, but the poppy cheery sound is just what i need to prolong my vacation-induced high.
we were supposed to see 'superbad' in ballard but the marquee wasn't cooperating, so we ended up seeing 'the bourne ultimatum'. action movies are always worth a gander on the big screen, and it could've been worse. if you are ever around ballard, i do not recommend eating at sam's sushi. i DO recommend spending that saved money at blackbird.
ok ok, i'll FINALLY get to the mountain biking. =)
saturday morn, we set off. it's only 2 hrs down to mt st helens...except we were on the wrong side of it. mt st helens is 6 miles across at the base, so when we approached from the NW corner, finally found a visitor's center, and were about to hop on our bikes to start riding, the staff there told us that the trails in that area were for hikers only! to access bike-permitted trails, we would have to drive around to the SE quadrant of the mountain...only another FOUR HOURS by car. *lol*
so off we went. four hours of twisty windy steep narrow mountain roads at 25 mph. joyous. stopped at an rv park for a lunch of the greasiest, most delicious jojo potatoes ever, and some fine upstanding cheeseburgers. around 4pm, we arrived at norway pass, a seemingly easy loop that was caked in poofy ash - terrain that makes it hard to get traction and cuts your speed in half. thankfully, the ash called it quits after a half mile and we started up a pretty steep ascent. we were surrounded by trees that had been violently flattened by the eruption back in 1980 and it was a surreal experience, kind of like tiptoeing through a graveyard. there were plenty of low lying flowers and brush on the trail, but the regrowth of trees, even after 27 years, was minimal.
on the way back to the car, kris had some issues with his rear disc brake, i.e. the brake pads were worn down to nothing and metal on metal is just not a good sound. the noise it made reminded me of these round pastel plastic spoke attachments that went up and down on your spokes as the wheel rotated. can't find a picture of them for the life of me. they were glow in the dark. and made to increase the safety of the bike maybe? improved visibility and made sure that you heard the kid coming? something.
anyway, kris didn't have any spare brake pads so we would have to drive down to portland on sunday morning to try to find an open and competent bike shop. not an easy task on a holiday weekend. even better, that evening we had to camp out in a paid rv campground, the "free use" tenting spots were all taken - darn you labor day weekend!
performance bike came through for us with a 10am opening time but was only able to provide us with the parts, not the service. we headed onward to fat tire farm across town, but despite the hours listed on their phone message, they were shut down for the entire weekend. our last stop (and the last straw) was bike gallery, also by mall 205. they were super friendly, gave us bike pins, and best of all, the talented mechanic guy there, butch, was able to fix kris' bike! and for only $14! i highly recommend bike gallery for your next bike emergency. huge selection of sexy mountain bikes too. we grabbed lunch at baja fresh and came out to find a hysterical teeny bopper begging us not to be mad. she pointed out that her ginormous white pickup truck had nudged the back bumper while pulling in to park next to us. there wasn't really much damage, it seemed that kris' car had just pulled off some paint off the truck. the white paint wiped off and the surface underneath was slightly pushed in. they exchanged insurance info and we were on our way...
...to a speeding ticket. i really should've let kris drive.
two cops had set up a speed trap around a blind curve and with 2 bikes on the roof, i stood out like a sore thumb. 73 in a 60 zone. $113. "drive safely" said the cop. right after i pulled back on the highway, they pulled over two more cars. bitches. at this point i was dying to get rid of my biking boner and the campsite troubles, brake pad quest, car nudge, and speeding ticket were NOT helping.
alrighty. back up to mt st helens.
it was now about 4:30pm on sunday, but we were finally going to have that epic ride! we parked at the donnybrook viewpoint and hopped on the smith creek trail. the first half mile was woody forested overgrown stuff, with some sketchy parts where the trail was starting to fall into the lake (which was filled with the white trunks of dead trees, as you can see below).
then we emerged onto an exposed flat plain where we came up on the backside of windy ridge.
tourists can drive down to the base of windy ridge and climb up 100 or so stairs to a viewpoint at the top. the trail took us to the top of windy ridge...and then made us walk/carry our bikes down those 100 stairs. fun fun fun.
at the bottom, we rode across the parking lot...
...and continued up a fire road snaking along the southeast side of the mountain. at the end of the fire road, we were dumbstruck at how close mt st helens was, the summit probably less than a mile away. we had a short steep ascent onto a narrow ridge. the trail followed some more stairs (more like ladders really), this time even steeper and up instead of down.
after lugging our bikes up two sets of "stairs", the climbing for the most part was over. a snaky singletrack followed the curve of the mountains and there were a few tricky and loose switchbacks. the views from this point of the trail were amazing. it was akin to watching an imax movie. massive mountains as far as you could see and deep valleys below you, sometimes directly to your left or right. focusing intensely on the trail was a priority for me. also, pumice is a BITCH to ride on. they're like tiny balloons, light as feathers, providing no traction at all.
we only got a short 5 miles or so into the trail, as daylight started dying fast around 6pm. we'd started too late thanks to bad luck and her bag of tricks. still. an amazing ride. will definitely be back for more.
on monday we hit galbraith, about 2 hours north of seattle. more technical and complicated downhiller stuff than i've ever seen. scary wooden skinnies, sculpted berms, mad hoppy jumps everywhere. some parts reminded me of illinois, some parts i had only seen in hardcore insane downhiller full-face-helmet plus body-armor bike videos. i did ok on my specialized rockhopper, but i can't wait to try it on my future lusciously luxe dual-suspension lover, ms. contessa fx-15.
friday morn we did some bike shop lessons and assembled my mountain bike i had packed into a box and left in the "care" of the luggage handlers at LAX and SEA. the box arrived ok, and we repaired the mysteriously detached derailleur pretty easily.
after all the repairs and assembly were complete on both bikes, i got to try the giant on my first epic road ride. um...shut up! 20 miles is epic dammit! we rode from kris' house in shoreline about 10 miles south to ballard, both small neighborhoods located north of seattle.
in ballard, we popped into sonic boom to pick up some tunes (the fountain soundtrack, johann johannson, octopus project, caribou). they were playing miho hatori's new solo album, ecdysis, in the store and i think i may need to pick that one up in the near future as well. not a huge fan of the cover art, but the poppy cheery sound is just what i need to prolong my vacation-induced high.
we were supposed to see 'superbad' in ballard but the marquee wasn't cooperating, so we ended up seeing 'the bourne ultimatum'. action movies are always worth a gander on the big screen, and it could've been worse. if you are ever around ballard, i do not recommend eating at sam's sushi. i DO recommend spending that saved money at blackbird.
ok ok, i'll FINALLY get to the mountain biking. =)
saturday morn, we set off. it's only 2 hrs down to mt st helens...except we were on the wrong side of it. mt st helens is 6 miles across at the base, so when we approached from the NW corner, finally found a visitor's center, and were about to hop on our bikes to start riding, the staff there told us that the trails in that area were for hikers only! to access bike-permitted trails, we would have to drive around to the SE quadrant of the mountain...only another FOUR HOURS by car. *lol*
so off we went. four hours of twisty windy steep narrow mountain roads at 25 mph. joyous. stopped at an rv park for a lunch of the greasiest, most delicious jojo potatoes ever, and some fine upstanding cheeseburgers. around 4pm, we arrived at norway pass, a seemingly easy loop that was caked in poofy ash - terrain that makes it hard to get traction and cuts your speed in half. thankfully, the ash called it quits after a half mile and we started up a pretty steep ascent. we were surrounded by trees that had been violently flattened by the eruption back in 1980 and it was a surreal experience, kind of like tiptoeing through a graveyard. there were plenty of low lying flowers and brush on the trail, but the regrowth of trees, even after 27 years, was minimal.
on the way back to the car, kris had some issues with his rear disc brake, i.e. the brake pads were worn down to nothing and metal on metal is just not a good sound. the noise it made reminded me of these round pastel plastic spoke attachments that went up and down on your spokes as the wheel rotated. can't find a picture of them for the life of me. they were glow in the dark. and made to increase the safety of the bike maybe? improved visibility and made sure that you heard the kid coming? something.
anyway, kris didn't have any spare brake pads so we would have to drive down to portland on sunday morning to try to find an open and competent bike shop. not an easy task on a holiday weekend. even better, that evening we had to camp out in a paid rv campground, the "free use" tenting spots were all taken - darn you labor day weekend!
performance bike came through for us with a 10am opening time but was only able to provide us with the parts, not the service. we headed onward to fat tire farm across town, but despite the hours listed on their phone message, they were shut down for the entire weekend. our last stop (and the last straw) was bike gallery, also by mall 205. they were super friendly, gave us bike pins, and best of all, the talented mechanic guy there, butch, was able to fix kris' bike! and for only $14! i highly recommend bike gallery for your next bike emergency. huge selection of sexy mountain bikes too. we grabbed lunch at baja fresh and came out to find a hysterical teeny bopper begging us not to be mad. she pointed out that her ginormous white pickup truck had nudged the back bumper while pulling in to park next to us. there wasn't really much damage, it seemed that kris' car had just pulled off some paint off the truck. the white paint wiped off and the surface underneath was slightly pushed in. they exchanged insurance info and we were on our way...
...to a speeding ticket. i really should've let kris drive.
two cops had set up a speed trap around a blind curve and with 2 bikes on the roof, i stood out like a sore thumb. 73 in a 60 zone. $113. "drive safely" said the cop. right after i pulled back on the highway, they pulled over two more cars. bitches. at this point i was dying to get rid of my biking boner and the campsite troubles, brake pad quest, car nudge, and speeding ticket were NOT helping.
alrighty. back up to mt st helens.
it was now about 4:30pm on sunday, but we were finally going to have that epic ride! we parked at the donnybrook viewpoint and hopped on the smith creek trail. the first half mile was woody forested overgrown stuff, with some sketchy parts where the trail was starting to fall into the lake (which was filled with the white trunks of dead trees, as you can see below).
then we emerged onto an exposed flat plain where we came up on the backside of windy ridge.
tourists can drive down to the base of windy ridge and climb up 100 or so stairs to a viewpoint at the top. the trail took us to the top of windy ridge...and then made us walk/carry our bikes down those 100 stairs. fun fun fun.
at the bottom, we rode across the parking lot...
...and continued up a fire road snaking along the southeast side of the mountain. at the end of the fire road, we were dumbstruck at how close mt st helens was, the summit probably less than a mile away. we had a short steep ascent onto a narrow ridge. the trail followed some more stairs (more like ladders really), this time even steeper and up instead of down.
after lugging our bikes up two sets of "stairs", the climbing for the most part was over. a snaky singletrack followed the curve of the mountains and there were a few tricky and loose switchbacks. the views from this point of the trail were amazing. it was akin to watching an imax movie. massive mountains as far as you could see and deep valleys below you, sometimes directly to your left or right. focusing intensely on the trail was a priority for me. also, pumice is a BITCH to ride on. they're like tiny balloons, light as feathers, providing no traction at all.
we only got a short 5 miles or so into the trail, as daylight started dying fast around 6pm. we'd started too late thanks to bad luck and her bag of tricks. still. an amazing ride. will definitely be back for more.
on monday we hit galbraith, about 2 hours north of seattle. more technical and complicated downhiller stuff than i've ever seen. scary wooden skinnies, sculpted berms, mad hoppy jumps everywhere. some parts reminded me of illinois, some parts i had only seen in hardcore insane downhiller full-face-helmet plus body-armor bike videos. i did ok on my specialized rockhopper, but i can't wait to try it on my future lusciously luxe dual-suspension lover, ms. contessa fx-15.
posted by cattv at 12:24 AM
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