Lost and Found (or, "Brian Spends the Night on a Big Volcano")

Brian and brother-in-law Ryan spent the day (and night) riding at Mt. St. Helens. We started out with a plan for a 14 mile loop out of a guide book.

First part of the day is awesome, lots of climbing and pretty wild terrain, but lots of fun.

Our guide book was published in 2005, which unfortunately pre-dates the massive landslides that shook up the west side of St. Helens a few years ago. We ride around the corner and the trail just drops away into a huge ravine. We have to find a way down, across, and then back up to where the trail continues on. We lose a lot of time on this one.

Five minutes after conquering the first ravine, we run into another one.

Brian is now wondering about our initial time frame and our ability to be done before dark.

The ravines are not easy to get across when lugging a 28 pound full-suspension bicycle.

And then there was ANOTHER ravine! And another! AND ANOTHER! I stop counting after the tenth one.
We finally get above the tree line at 4,800 feet, but it's after 4pm and Brian is seriously concerned about how long it will take to get back down.

We ride until we enjoy a beautiful sunset and then hunker down on a rock next to the trail after our wives call Search and Rescue, who find us at 2:30 in the morning. The give us hot chocolate, snacks, and flashlights and we all start down together. We get to the bottom just before 5:00 where we meet some of the 18 people who spent the night looking for us and get a stern talking-to from the Sheriff. We load up the bikes into the car and drive home in time to see the girls off to school. We were very lucky that we had nice weather all night and so many helpful S.A.R. folks who are real pros.

Now I'm going to bed.