# Mt St Helens riding...



## bismo37 (Mar 22, 2002)

I've been thinking of riding on Spirit Lake Highway up to the Johnston Observatory next weekend. (I miss out on most organized rides like Tour De Blast because of my crazy work schedule). My wimp-plan is to start at the Hoffstadt visitor center and climb the last 25+ miles of the highway to Mt St Helens. I don't want to bother with a start in Castlerock/Toutle. I just want to do the meat of the climb.

I've only driven this roadway a few times. How difficult is this ride on a bike? Can I leave my car at Hoffstadt while I ride? How bad is traffic on a clear weekend? Any idea of what grades (%) to expect? (I checked motionbased data posted by others but their avg and max % grade measurements vary widely from ride to ride!) Any other advice would be greatly appreciated!

Am I better off riding elsewhere?

Thanks for the help. Sorry for the dumb questions... i don't want to drive 2 hrs to find that i'm not gonna be able to ride it.


----------



## bismo37 (Mar 22, 2002)

*crickets*


----------



## alejovh1 (Mar 3, 2007)

sorry, never been to st helens, only mt hood


----------



## heliskyr (Feb 21, 2005)

Done the TdB 3 times and highly recommend the route. I don't remember which visitor's center Hoffstadt's is, but the lower the better IMO. There's climbing on the route from about 4 miles from Toutle (rollers) to the top for the most part, with a long downhill section between Elk Rock and the valley before the final climb.

If you're going to do this route on your own, be advised there is little opportunity to get any water from the last visitor center to the top of Johnston's Ridge- no 7 Elevens to be found! So if it's hot, you'll likely need more than 2 large water bottles- you may even want to consider a Camelback.

Traffic is present on the route (and the cars are often in a big hurry to get to Johnston's Ridge to just stand around) but the shoulders are generally wide and the roads are actually quite good for the most part.

Another factor on this route- the weather can be highly variable, even in summer. As an example, 2 years ago it was about 80 in Toutle and 105 in the final valley before the last climb! 2 years before that it SNOWED! In June! So be ready for anything, esp. as the Fall approaches.

As far as grades are concerned, this ride has a lot of sustained climbing, though none of it is what I would call really steep. Meaning, if you're standing on the pedals its because you are getting a little fatigued or want to reestablish blood flow, not because you couldn't push it out in a seated position.

Hope that helps. It's a great route.


----------



## JP (Feb 8, 2005)

I believe there is a route profile here: 

http://www.tourdeblast.com/

Bring way more water, food, and layers than you think you need.


----------

