Tour de Blast

I had been looking forward to riding Tour de Blast, which goes from Toutle to Johnson Ridge Observatory near Mount St. Helen. A month before the ride, however, we got a notice that storm run-off took out the road leading up to the view point. The ride was still happening, but shorter than it usually was.

I drove to Toutle the night before the ride where I camped at the school along with around 50 other riders.

It rained over night, but was supposed to be dry the next day. The weather app lied! I woke up and it was not looking very promising.

The ride to the first rest stop was chilly and I was glad I had brought two jackets (one a rain jacket). I stopped and took a few photos on the way.

After grabbing a garlic fried potato and devouring it, I decided to head back to Toutle. It rained the entire ride back and I got thoroughly soaked! I was so glad I had a change of dry clothes, though dirty, to change into when I got back.

When I got home, my bike, rain jacket and panniers were covered in gray ash that was in the rain…a sure sign of where I had ridden! After all these years, the ash from Mount St. Helen’s eruption still makes it’s presence known.