Riding Season
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The Blue Lake Ridge trail
on a typical June day
The best riding is in
the summer. The Valley trail opens April 1st but may not be logged
out until June. Most of the ttrails are not open until August. Most
of the trails on this system are in high elevation areas. The winter
snow is slow to melt out on the shady side of ridges and in the
deep forest. The snow is generally gone by mid-July. Trees fall
over in the winter times when the ash soils are saturated with water.
It takes several weeks before volunteers and Forest Service trail
crews can log out the trails. In August, the ash soils dry out quickly
and get dusty.
The prime-riding season really starts after the first rainfall
of the late summer and continues until the snow closes the trails about mid-November.
The Mount St. Helens ash does not get muddy but rather packs down like wet sand.
How good can the riding get? There are a variety of
wildflowers in the high open areas. After some rain in the fall, the traction
is great. The huckleberries and other shrubs turn many shades of yellow, orange
and red. In September and into October, you can eat huckleberries right along
the trail. The sweet, tangy berries are a true delicacy.
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