Winter has set in at Mount St Helens.  Road 81 is now closed at the Cougar Snow Park - at the junction with Road 83.  Road 83 is now closed at the Marble Mountain Snow Park.  Both roads are gated at those locations.  Those areas are open to winter style recreation.  For updated information go to: http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/recreation/current-conditions/roads.shtml

Road 81 is now open on the south-west side of Mount St Helens.  That means you can drive to Red Rock Pass and the spectacular trails on the south-west side of the mountain, including Toutle, Sheep Canyon, Butte Camp and the Loowit on the west side of the mountain.  Repairs to the Toutle between Red Rock Pass and Blue Lake were made this summer.  The large washout on the Loowit between the Sheep Canyon and Butte Camp Trail has been brushed out, but it won't be worked on until next summer. 

Great weekend, next year we should camp at Sand Prarie campground, list the whole weekend as Gonzo, and definitely do another Saturday night potluck.

I rode from Rock Creek CG up to the top of Larch Mt this afternoon. I'm sorry to report that it looks like a major logging operation will be underway very soon on Larch Mt. As I was riding up the trail I noted many new timber sale and boundary markers attached to or painted on to trees alongside the trail. At somewhere between mile markers 14 and 15 a new logging road has been built. The new road crosses over the trail in two spots. At the second crossing the road appears to have been built right over the top of the trail for aprox. 1/3 mile.

Aaron has a dream, and it's a mighty challenging one.  He dreams of riding his mountain bike from the Ape Canyon Trail up to Windy Ridge, connect with the Boundary Trail head east and then ride down the Quartz Creek Trail and then finally connecting to the Lewis River Trail to finally arrive at the Lewis River campground, a soft air mattress and a much awaited beer.  That is a very big challenge, which definitely has some potential to it!  Who knows, maybe it could become an official ride called the Aaron's Challenge!