Our Last Day at Mount Rainier

This was our last day to visit the Park before leaving this area.  The only road we hadn’t driven down was the one to White River Campground.  We didn’t want to leave without going up there, so we were up and out early this morning.

This is a hiker’s park, so needless to say, there were several trails to choose from in that  area.  We hadn’t really spent any time on the Wonderland Trail while we’ve been here, so that is the one we selected.

The Wonderland Trail is a long-distance loop around the park and stretches for a distance of about 100 miles.  We did the 2.6 mile section from White River Campground uphill 2000 feet to Sunrise where we got on the Silver Forest Trail for 1.4 miles before stopping for a lunch break.  After lunch, we headed back (downhill, thankfully) to the truck at White River.

View from the trail

This was primarily a woods walk until we got up close to Sunrise which is basically above tree line.  I’m not even going to say the flowers are still gorgeous.  It seems like that’s all I talked about for two weeks.  We would have had some really great views of the mountain, had it not been shrouded in clouds.  Finally, about noon, it peeked it’s head out.

This has been a wonderful place to be for the past couple weeks.  There are so many more trails to hike.  We’ll just have to come back sometime.

Tomorrow, we’ll be preparing to move on Sunday.  Our final destination before turning east and heading for Tennessee is Olympic National Park.

Enjoying the Creation

We hike for a variety of reasons--exercise, to see those places inaccessible from the road, to hone wilderness skills.  Perhaps our number one reason for hiking is for the pleasure we gain from being out in this wonderful creation. Today was one of those exceedingly pleasurable days.

Views of Sheep Lake

We drove again up to Chinook Pass and parked at the Tipsoo Lake picnic area.  We got on the  Pacific Crest Trail and headed north for a couple miles to Sheep Lake.  It was a beautiful, clear, mountain lake.  We found a spot under a shade tree to make our nest.  We had bright blue sky with very comfortable temperatures in the low 70s.  I spread out my poncho to sit on and we just sat back and enjoyed the sun, the breeze, the lake, and the rest of the creation.  It’s moments like this that I’m reminded of how special a world we live in.  We carried a bottle of water and a peanut butter sandwich.  God provided the rest.  Thank you, Lord.

Another thing we enjoyed on today’s hike was the people we met along the way.  Most we only said a quick “hi” in passing, but I was encouraged by who they were.  We saw what appeared to be a large group (perhaps a church group) consisting of several adults and many teens.  This group had overnight packs on their backs, so they must have been out for at least one night.  We also saw several young families, moms and dads with young children.  Some of them appeared to have been out overnight.  It did my heart good to see these young people undertaking a not so easy task instead of just lying around on the sofa with their heads in TV.

Another group we saw, but were never close enough to speak to, was a group of about 8 women.  They came behind us, but didn’t come as far around the lake as we did.  We could hear them laughing, though.  They were certainly having their share of fun.

On our return trip, we encountered an elderly couple, perhaps in their mid 70s.  They said they come to Mt Rainier every year.  I hope when I’m that age, I can still be so active.  They were an inspiration.

Perhaps our favorite encounters were the four long distance hikers we met.  We talked to them to find out a little of their story.  Two of the four were finishing up their last section of the trail.  They had started at the Mexican border in 2005 and gone as far as Mt. Hood that year.  Ten days ago, they started at Mt. Hood and are headed to the Canadian border.  The other two were moving right along (PCT hikers typically do 20+ miles a day) and didn’t stop to talk for very long.  We did learn that one of them had hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2002 and thought he might do it again in a few years.  These last two were ultralight hikers with such tiny packs.  Gene was envious of their light (probably less than 20 lbs) loads.

For such a short hike, it was filled to the brim with good stuff.  A pretty much perfect day.

A Woods Hike

It doesn’t get any better than this.  For a change of pace from hiking above tree line and to escape the sun for a day we decided to stay low and hike in the trees today.

The Eastside Trail crosses the road at a small parking lot just inside the park at the Stevens Canyon entrance.  This trailhead has all you could want--plenty of parking, restrooms, and picnic tables.  We started our hike by heading north along the Ohanapecosh River.  This trail quickly rises above the river a couple hundred feet and then meanders upstream eventually crossing the river and continuing on to Chinook Pass where it connects with the loop trail we did a few days ago.  That was way farther than we wanted to go so we stopped after a couple miles.  After a short break we headed back to the truck where our picnic lunch was waiting.  On hiking days we usually have our lunch on the ground somewhere along the trail.  It was nice to have a table and ice cold cokes.

Silver Falls

River below the falls

After a leisurely lunch, we crossed the road and headed along Eastside Trail in the opposite direction.  After half a mile, this trail connected with the Silver Falls Loop trail which continued to follow the Ohanapecosh River as is fell a couple hundred feet and eventually made its way into the Ohanapecosh Campground.  The falls were just beautiful cascading downward a few feet at a time until they finally fell over the edge.  Of course, that hike downhill meant an uphill climb back to the truck, but it was worth the effort.

Olallie Creek Falls

Our plan for tomorrow is a trip back to Paradise.  When we were there last week we did not take the time to check out the new Visitor Center and Gift Shop.  The road that was closed last week has since reopened so the drive shouldn’t take so long.

Berkley Park Hike

We wanted to see some more flowers, like we haven’t seen any already.  The ranger recommended we drive up the road to Sunrise Visitor Center and hike the trail out to Berkley Park.  We were not disappointed.

Sunrise Visitor Center

It is another hot day here and even though we left the house at 6:20 AM and were back at the truck after our hike by noon, it was still almost too hot to hike.  We were glad to be back in the air conditioned comfort of our home.

Naches Peak Loop Trail

At Chinook Pass, the 3-mile Naches Peak Loop Trail is an easy walk with fantastic views of Mount Rainier.  We took this trail, like everyone else we saw today, in the clockwise direction.  The first half of the loop was along the Pacific Crest Trail (yes, this is the same trail we have hiked off and on since Lake Tahoe), then as the PCT split off to the left (southbound) the Naches Peak Trail turned back toward the parking lot to complete the loop.  It was along the second half of the loop, the Naches Peak section, that the mountain came into view and remained with us until we were back at the car.  We finished the loop by skirting along the bank of Tipsoo Lake at Chinook Pass.

The entire 3 miles of this trail was just breathtaking.  The photos don’t compare with the real thing, but they are certainly better than any words I can use to describe the awesome beauty of this place.

We drove back down the mountain to the Grove of the Patriarchs where we found a picnic table in the shade for our lunch.  We wanted to see the big trees, of course, so we did the short 1-mile nature walk through this old growth forest.

Grove of the Patriarchs

Plenty hot and ready for an ice-cold glass of tea, we jumped in the truck, turned the AC up as high as it would go, and headed for home.  Hopefully, this will be the last day for these record high temperatures and we will get back to something more closely resembling normal.

Small unnamed lake

We do not yet have a plan for tomorrow.

Mount Rainier

This mountain is the highest peak in Washington, rising to 14,410 feet.  It is the 4th highest peak in the nation after Alaska’s Mt. McKinley, California’s Mt. Whitney, and Colorado’s Mt. Elbert.  It ranks along with Alaska, Montana, Oregon, and Wyoming in degree of difficulty to climb--all being class 4 technical climbs.

Our intent for today was to check out the Muir Snowfield.  This broad expanse of snow must be traversed to reach Muir Camp.  Typically, climbers leave Paradise Lodge on the Skyline Trail and hike 4 miles and almost 5000 feet to spend the night at Muir Camp.  The next morning (well, it is usually somewhere around 1 AM) they are up and on their way to the top--another 3 miles and 4500 feet across the glacier.  After their ascent, they come all the way down making it a very long day.

Muir Camp is accessible to the hearty hiker, so they say.  Skyline Trail to Pebble Creek is usually dirt in August (peek climbing season), although we crossed some snow today.  The snowfield is not so steep that you need crampons, so they say.  When we got to Pebble Creek, we perched ourselves on a rock and watched as several climbers made they way onto the snowfield.  Most slipped and we made a mental note of that.

Once upon a time, in a life far, far away, I wanted to climb this mountain.  People die on this mountain and I wouldn’t climb without a guide service.  Rainier Mountaineering came very highly recommended so a very good friend and I made reservations to climb with them.  They will not take anyone without mountaineering training so we also signed  up for mountaineering school.  My guardian angel was no doubt watching over me, because I just happened upon a photograph in a book somewhere of climbers high on the mountain.  It scared the beegeebies out of me.  I cancelled.  My friend subsequently took 3 mountaineering courses and was still unable to get up the mountain.  However, since that time, I have thought I would climb as far as Muir Camp.  That could be my summit.

There were hundreds of climbers on the trail

Gene at Peeble Creek

Today, we went to look at the snowfield.  We definitely noticed that most people slipped and we also noticed how long 2 miles looked from our vantage point and how high it went.  Information gathered, we backtracked on Pebble Creek Trail to Skyline and continued on around the loop.  On this portion of the Skyline Trail we had to cross many large areas of snow--enough to convince me that I didn’t need to be on Muir Snowfield.  I’ve always said I’ll go as high as I feel comfortable and on Mt Rainier, my summit was Pebble Creek.

Climbers getting ready for the snowfield.

I ain't going up there.

On our return, one of those snow areas had the trail marker buried and we missed our turn off to Paradise Lodge.  We probably went (downhill, of course) three quarters of a mile before we crossed another patch of snow.  There were hundreds of people on Skyline Trail and this patch of snow had not been crossed today.  That was our clue that we had missed our turn.  Adding that 1.5 mile to the already 6.5 miles, made two very tired puppies and a very long day.  Did I mention that one of the main roads to Paradise is closed resulting in a 2 hour drive around from our campground.

We have planned to hike again tomorrow, but that will depend on whether we can move well enough to get out of bed.