By now it was about 4pm and we needed to make some tracks to get closer to Mt. St. Helens. We figured we’d get as close as we could and try to camp at a KOA near Castle Rock. Highway 4 takes us back down to the Columbia through Cathlamet, following the river east. Near Eagle Cliff however we got stopped by traffic due to a fatal accident further up the road. A local guy in a pickup was heading north to bypass it, so we followed him. Interestingly my GPS figured out the route pretty quickly and this guy was right on it. It ended up being a 9 mile detour, but got us back on the right road into Longview where we stopped and got groceries for dinner. 
From there we hopped onto I5 and hoofed it up to Castle Rock and the KOA campground, which wasn’t very crowded at all. Tonight we decided to have wrap sandwiches for dinner which would work out to lunch the next day too. Tim built his normal fire, we had showers, and a nice evening. Another great day of riding even if it was only 150 miles.
Wednesday, July 24 2019
Camped where we are, we’re a short ride from the volcano. We had our breakfast, broke camp, and again was on the road by 8am. It was a clear, cool morning and there seemed to be nobody on the road. But we had lots of time and were not in any particular hurry. Still, the road was nice and curves are meant to be ridden fast! But we’re riding along and very near Elk Rock Viewpoint the mountain comes into view. I’ve been to the east side several times, but the view from the west is quite different and today’s clear skies made this awesome. 
We stopped to take some pictures and Tim rode back to get a nice video on his GoPro. 
Then it was on to the Johnson Ridge Observatory, arriving there at about 9:30am.
The Observatory opens at 10am, so we walked up a trail to a viewing point and chatted with some other people. We walked down when the Observatory opened and caught the film that they have concerning the eruption and aftermath. It was quite good containing actual footage as well as computer graphics to show how it all went. Very interesting. I was hoping for a cool sticker for the topcase, but the ones they had were all too big. The view of the land immediately in front of the caldera is lesson in erosion. You can see new little mini-canyons as water from year after year of winter snow melt carving its way down. Even now, nearly 40 years later, there’s still not a lot of growth in the immediate area of the mountain. But just a little ways further and the growth is amazing.
Tom Clark
I'm a Senior Software Engineer at Intellitect, living in Spokane, Washington. I also do a little development work on the side. And I love riding motorcycles all over the country with my friends.
