In a brilliant stroke of genius, Corey and I rode the Ape Canyon/Plains of Abraham trail last year. In a not so brilliant stroke, I didn’t bring a camera and persuaded Corey not to bring a videocamera.

So, we vowed to return.

On August 18, we did. This time with friends. Well a friend. The rest made their excuses. It would have been nice if they had made their excuses early enough so that we didn’t commit to a weekend, but all’s well.

The plan:

  • August 18:
    Travel to the Paradise Creek Campground, where we will make our base at camp site #3. Directions from I-5 at Woodland are available here.
  • August 19:
    We ride. Note that every vehicle that we use to get to the trailhead will need a Northwest Forest Pass for the day. I think they can be purchased at the Ape Cave center, but it is safer to purchased ahead of time.
  • August 20:
    We leave. Hopefully, without leaving too much blood behind.

The reality fit the plan, we even took Lots and Lots of pictures. All told, the ride was about 12 miles out and back. We rode, we camped, we ate. We left without feeding too much blood to the local insect population, and fed no blood to the mountain. I think this was partially because we treated St. Helens as if Pele lived there and therefore refused to even contemplate taking a single item from the slopes.