I read the description in the trail guide: Prepare for weather extremes: heat, rain, wind, and snow! 
Instantly, I thought this would be a great place to take my Nomad on an outdoor adventure! Yes, here in the soggy Northwest we have access to one of the most active volcanos on the planet....Mt. St. Helens.
Not having been there, I was not sure what to expect, but I knew it would be an environment of extremes after reading the various trail descriptions. The extreme environment is equally matched by the rugged terrain: ash, sand, rock, pumice, mud. Hmmmm, I thought this would be a great place for a mountain bike ride!
So, I grabbed my gear and a few friends and headed on up to the mountain to see what we would find. Despite my total unfamiliarity with the trail and surrounding areas, my confidence was still high because I had my trusty GPS-enabled Nomad. Before the trip I loaded it with Crittermap's BackCountry Navigator software and enough detailed topographic and aerial photograph map data to cover half of the entire mountain!
Just getting to the trailhead proved to be a difficult task as the road was washed out in many places due to the previous year's floods.
We finally reached the trailhead and it turned out to be a beautiful day for a ride! We started riding up the trail towards the mountain through the forest and we found the trail to be every bit as challenging as we had hoped.
We rode through mud and ash washed out sections and then on to soil and sand through the forest. The terrain varied greatly over very short distances. We reached a huge washed out area full of rocks which made the bike riding really interesting....
As we made our way across the rocky riverbed, we had great views of the mountain in the background. My dog had no trouble with the rocky terrain.
The Nomad held up fine too. I had it strapped on to my backpack using the deluxe case and that worked well. We continued our ride up through more forests with tons of huckleberry plants growing all over. Unfortunately, for us, it was October, so there were no berries for us. I decided to mark this location with the Nomad, so I could come back for a visit during the summer time!
We turned around as the day grew later and made our way back down. We made it all the way down with no injuries except for my friend's bike. He broke his derailleur and had to walk the last half of the trail back to the car.
I later converted my GPS track into a GPX file using the BackCountry Navigator software and loaded it into Google Earth. The imagery available for Mt. St. Helens is incredible since this is an area of intense study. I had fun reliving the trail ride by using the fly-through feature in Google Earth.
I can't wait to go back during berry season and visit those huckleberry patches...
Instantly, I thought this would be a great place to take my Nomad on an outdoor adventure! Yes, here in the soggy Northwest we have access to one of the most active volcanos on the planet....Mt. St. Helens.Not having been there, I was not sure what to expect, but I knew it would be an environment of extremes after reading the various trail descriptions. The extreme environment is equally matched by the rugged terrain: ash, sand, rock, pumice, mud. Hmmmm, I thought this would be a great place for a mountain bike ride!
So, I grabbed my gear and a few friends and headed on up to the mountain to see what we would find. Despite my total unfamiliarity with the trail and surrounding areas, my confidence was still high because I had my trusty GPS-enabled Nomad. Before the trip I loaded it with Crittermap's BackCountry Navigator software and enough detailed topographic and aerial photograph map data to cover half of the entire mountain!
Just getting to the trailhead proved to be a difficult task as the road was washed out in many places due to the previous year's floods.We finally reached the trailhead and it turned out to be a beautiful day for a ride! We started riding up the trail towards the mountain through the forest and we found the trail to be every bit as challenging as we had hoped.
We rode through mud and ash washed out sections and then on to soil and sand through the forest. The terrain varied greatly over very short distances. We reached a huge washed out area full of rocks which made the bike riding really interesting....
As we made our way across the rocky riverbed, we had great views of the mountain in the background. My dog had no trouble with the rocky terrain.
The Nomad held up fine too. I had it strapped on to my backpack using the deluxe case and that worked well. We continued our ride up through more forests with tons of huckleberry plants growing all over. Unfortunately, for us, it was October, so there were no berries for us. I decided to mark this location with the Nomad, so I could come back for a visit during the summer time!We turned around as the day grew later and made our way back down. We made it all the way down with no injuries except for my friend's bike. He broke his derailleur and had to walk the last half of the trail back to the car.
I later converted my GPS track into a GPX file using the BackCountry Navigator software and loaded it into Google Earth. The imagery available for Mt. St. Helens is incredible since this is an area of intense study. I had fun reliving the trail ride by using the fly-through feature in Google Earth.I can't wait to go back during berry season and visit those huckleberry patches...
