This weekend's exciting plan: Mount St Helens. A little group of riders from Sport-Touring.net is heading down that way on Sunday, and I plan to tag along as the resident newbie. The folks there have been very welcoming and are under no illusions as to my skill level, and so hopefully this will be a good mentoring experience rather than a "keep up with the Hayabusa riders" type of trip. At least, that's going to be my plan.

Our destination is Johnston Ridge, on the west side of the mountain, as it's supposed to be a bit of a less technical, easier route than the eastern side. Meeting first at Beth's Cafe in Seattle, which seems a bit of a sketchy place - hopefully the good kind of sketchy. Reading the message board linked on their website, one of the posts consisted of "you should all hurry down to the cafe, there's a chick at the next table over giving free blowjobs." And they have 6- and 12-egg omelettes. Umm...

I've a bit of concern about the group aspect of this thing - well, honestly, I don't have much concern about it, but it seems the general wisdom consists of "don't go on a group ride, all you newbies." I guess the tendancy is for new riders to really fixate on the rider in front of you, to the exclusion of all else, and to end up getting in over their heads. Riding too fast and too close would seem to lead to that. I think the focus for these sorts of things needs to be on riding your own ride, as they say - none of the pretty-but risky staggered formation 5' behind the other fellow's bumper for me. I'm confidant that if I approach this as "going for a ride that happens to be headed for the same place as others," rather than "going on a ride with others," I'll be fine and have a good time. I believe we'll probably end up a very loose federation of solo bikers, rather than a long train, and that's a good thing.

Plus it will be very nice to meet some other riders in my area. I've never been out with any other riders, and while I love the solitude of being on a bike alone with the road, I'd like to give the other side of the coin a try. This will definitely be a longer ride than any single day I've had to this point, and it ought to be a real good time.

Hopefully I can get myself a digital camera before the ride and get some good pictures - my old cam seems to have given up the ghost. After four years of service, though, it's not too surprising.

proposed route, as best as I can figure: