***** Skyline trail (On
Mt. Rainier's South Side): Rainier has always been a distant
blobbish looking mountain I have seen from I-5 during my travels
elsewhere, and from high elevation hikes on Hood and Adams etc. (it looks
nicer when viewed from the south). This October I decided to utilize the
nice weekend weather and go check out the highest mountain in the
Cascades. Rainier is a National park and therefore very crowded. The
Paradise parking lot resembles a mall lot during Christmas with people
circling around looking for space and cars parked as far as a mile along
the narrow one-way road leading out of the lot. Camping opportunities are
also very limited and larger campgrounds had already closed for the season
or were full. Consequently I had to hunt for car-camping outside the park
in surrounding National forest (Tatoosh wilderness). Since it was Oct. and
hunting season, hordes of orange-jacketed hunters had descended upon the
forest and were busy driving around in monster trucks late into the wee
hours of the night on forest roads. As I huddled in my truck-bed under the
open sky to spend the night, I couldn't help but think of all bullet-hole
riddled road signs I had encountered on sundry forest roads. Next morning
after a short side-trip to Narada falls (looks similar to Ramona falls) I
arrived at the Paradise visitor center. The Skyline trail starts at
Paradise visitor center and continues up with glorious views of the
humongous Nisqually glacier. Its a very well-marked trail, more of a
highway actually, with asphalt pavement and big stone steps most of the
way. Consequently, throngs of tourists were plaguing the trail even this
late in the season, with much use being made of the few patches of fresh
snow lying atop old snow along the trail. I went up to Pebble Creek via
Skyline and came back via Dead Horse trail. The trail up to Camp Muir
looked mighty tempting but fading daylight and a recently sprained
ankle-on-the-mend dissuaded me from proceeding further. Nice views of
Adams, Helens and Hood (you could see Sandy glacier with the binoculars)
as well as the towering south side of Rainier -- which looks much
shapelier than the profile viewed from the freeway. Awesome icefalls
cascade down the mountain, and 100 ft. thick hanging walls of ice balance
precariously atop precipitous cliffs. Again you feel totally dwarfed by
the scale of things. Ice creaks and cracks as the glacier grinds its way
down the mountain. Very nice fall colors graced the meadows at lower
elevations. For some reason there is a characteristic rotting vegetation
kind of smell in the meadows at this elevation, as well as some fleshy
looking plants that seemed in advanced stages of decay. In my summer visit
the place looked magnificent with wildflower meadows. Countless signs tell
people to stay off the meadow. Also I noticed some masochists who were
carrying heavy skis and snowboards up to this small 100x100 ft. patch of
snow below Pebble creek to get their fix.Rainier is much taller and more massive (35 sq. miles of ice) than Hood but very crowded (at least the Paradise side). To get away from the crowds would require backpacking or trails away from Skyline. I still prefer the graceful outline and easy accessibility of Hood compared to the broad hump of Rainier. However in one department Rainier has Hood beat -- big glaciers. The Nisqually glacier on Rainier, closest to the Paradise visitor center, dwarfs Elliot glacier on Hood and its not even the biggest on Rainier! (Emmons glacier takes that honor). Also the rock seems less rotten than the loose ashy scree that graces Mt. Hood's higher elevations. In a way it is nice that National park status has prevented the prostitution of this mountain like the Timberline ski lift on Hood. All in all it was a nice trip, Rainier has the potential for much future exploration next summer, particularly a trail that leads to 300 ft.. Comet Falls and the snout of Kautz glacier. Also the moraine trail along Nisqually glacier The pictures here fail to convey the gargantuan scale of things but for what its worth, here they are : Making friends with the snow man. Tatoosh wilderness and distant Mt. Adams. pic of trail leading to Camp Muir. pic : Nisqually glacier as seen from glacier vista point ( 5 mi., 2000 ft., Done 10/17/99 and 8/13/2000)
**** Grove of the
Patriarchs (Ohanapecosh side of Rainier NP, WA) : An interesting
short hike which starts out along a nice clear stream (Ohanapecosh river),
crosses over a narrow suspension bridge and then wanders among some truly
gigantic firs and cedars. Many fallen giants lie beside the trail serving
as nurse logs for younger trees. Reminded me of the Cedar Flats trail near
St. Helens. Its sad to think that once most of the Northwest was covered
with such majestic forest and how quickly it was destroyed. Massive( 1-2
mi , 0 ft., done 7/4/98 and 8/14/00)
***** Moraine Park/Curtis Ridge ( Mt. Rainier NP, Carbon River side):
It took us a long time to drive up to this place and we had to car camp at Ipsut CG on Friday night. A lot of the camp-sites are closed because of unstable trees but we managed to find a nice one along the creek. Took a short hike to look at a waterfall. My Caon A70 camera distressed me quite a bit by flashing the dreaded E18 error code. However powering up and down a few times and nudging the lens helped to get it going again. This was a relief since the camera warranty had literally expired that day. Got up very early the next day and were on the trail by 8 am. A record early start for me. The trail to Carbin River camp site was mostly pretty well-graded and ascended gradually along the Carbon River in the forest. After a couple of hours of steady hiking we reached the backpacking campsite and set up our tents in the group camp site. There were nice benches and even a table of sorts fashioned from a large tree stump. I cooked a lunch of Lipton rice and a pouch of salmon. We explored the area and found a pole for hanging food and a pit toilet with zero privacy. On coming I was disturbed to see a brazen squirrel gnawing through my bag of trail-mix. I shooed it away but it was continuously snooping around the food. Consequently I hung up all the food and then we set out for Moraine Park. The trail quickly came to the junction with Seattle Park and then crossed a sturdy suspension bridge that offered great views of the snout of Carbon Glacier. Most of the dayhikers were concentrated in at a viewpoint of the snout. The Carbin Glacier gushed forth vigorously from the snout and rocks were tumbling down the debris-covered glacier frequently. The trail began to steepen as we climbed along the glacier to Dick Creek camp. It was a hot day and I was beginning to feel pretty tired so we took a break at Dick Creek as I filtered some water. I was wearing my trusty old Tecnica boots which seemed to be holding up pretty well after glueing up of the crack in one sole. However there must have been some crud from previous hikes that remained in them so I emptied them out. I had the misguided notion that the total hike from Carbin River to Moraine Park was 7 miles round-trip. This made me expect that we would be popping out in the meadows shortly after Dick Creek camp. This expectation cused great disillusionment as the trail steepened and started switch-backing relentlessly We met several people who basically cured us of any illusions that Moraine Park was at hand. We slogged over these switch-backs for what seemed like an eternity until we finally reached a stream and some small meadows at the base of a large talus slope. There were plants with curious tri-lobed buds on them. These "buds" turned out to be the remnants of avalanche lilies that must have bloomed recently. All the usual mountain flowers were making their appearance and we finally entered Moraine Park with Mt. Rainier looming over the scene majestically. Definitely you feel its massive presence more than some of the smaller Cascade peaks. We took a break in the meadow of Moraine Park and I munched on the trail mix I had salvaged from the greedy squirrel earlier in the morning. Mark was thinking about turning back but I managed to convince him to continue up to Curtis Ridge. The rest did both of us good and we pressed on after about 30 minutes. The trail switch-backed steeply but it was mercifully a lot shorter than the death-march from Dick Creek, and we soon came to a trail junction. The main trail continued down to Mystic Lake but we headed to the right towards Carbon Glacier. We soon came to a nice reflection pond where I was mercilessly attacked by mosquitoes. This was undoubtedly the most vicious mosquito attack that I experienced that summer. However I didn't pay too much heed to the pesky critters because the scenery had improved dramatically since reaching Curtis Ridge. We could see Willis Wall on Rainier, parts of Carbon and Russel Glaciers as well as Echo Rock and its companion. The flowers were growing profusley here and we stopped frequently to take pictures. Mark finally decided to turn back at the first viewpoint but I wanted to get a full-frontal view of the mountain so I continued down from first view point. The trail crossed a lush and slightly boggy meadow with plenty of elephants head flowers (I think this is the first time I saw these flowers in real life). Also came across a fat marmot who seemed fairly unafraid of me. The second viewpoint was well worth the effort with stupendous views of Mt. Rainier rising from the jumbled mass of Carbon Glacier. I had the place to myself since it was pretty late in the day (around 6 pm). The upper reaches of the glacier were white, free of debris and heavily crevassed. It continued for a long distance before falling off the edge of a cliff and becoming the debris-covered behemoth we had witnessed from the suspension bridge. I could also see Mystic Lake nestled far below and even the North Cascades in the distance. I spent about half an hour soaking in the sight and then started hurrying back down. Got a nice shot of the chunky marmot on the way back. The trip down was long but mostly uneventful except for falling off the trail and hurting my knee (the vegetation on the side looked pretty solid but gave way when I mis-stepped off the trail). Also developed a blister on the switchbacks down to Dick Creek. I applied a band-aid and continued down. Felt dead tired on raching camp. It was almost dark and Mark had hit the sack already. I cooked my dinner in the dark but was extremely disturbed by some mice who had replaced the squirrels and were trying to steal my food. These fuckers were incredibly bold and I had my hands full trying to guard my food. One of them even ran up my arm as I was eating and I had to shake it off. There beady little eyes glinted in the light from my head-lamp giving them a ghoulish look. The last thing I needed after a tough days hike. I wished the Park would allow pets. A dog or even a cat would have provided an effective deterrent against these interlopers. Anyway I finished my meal as quickly as possible and then hung up everything that might cause these critters to gnaw through my pack or tent. This was the toughest hike I have down in a long time with about 14 miles and 4000 ft elevation gain for the day. This on top of hauling a heavy pack for the first 3 miles of the day.
Got up feeling much better. Finished off half of the dinner I had saved overnight. Noticed some rodent turds on the outside of my cooking pot (disgusting). We decided to pack out after debating going up to Seattle Park. We were both pretty tired and Mark's knee was still not fully recovered from an earlier skiing injury. The trip back we pretty uneventful. Stopped at a fruit stand and got some fresh peaches and cherries on the way back. (15 miles, 4100 ft elevation gain, Done 7/31/04-8/1/04)
***** Burroughs Mountain ( Mt. Rainier NP, Sunrise Side): This was the last hike of summer 2004. We had to drive up Seattle and take care of some business before driving down to Rainier. Consequently we got to sunrise pretty late in the day. Apparently the car campground at White River was closed for the season so we got a back-country permit to camp at Shadow Lake. We hit the trail in the late afternoon and quickly hiked in to the lake in a mile or so. We were surprised to see a fox wandering around the lake totally unafraid of hikers. The campground was empty except for one party. Since this was the first backpack after my return from Pakistan I had no backpacking tent or bag and had to haul my old Coleman car-camping tent and heavy flannel sleeping bag on this hike. Thankfully its a short and flat hike from Sunrise to the lake. We quickly picked a nice spot overlooking the lake and set up camp. Went down a steep trail to the lake to fetch water, the lake water was surprisingly clear. I guess the no dogs, no horses policy does have some advantages. There were a lot of pesky and brazen squirrels trying to mess with our food so we quickly secured everything and hung up the food from the pole provided in the middle of the campground. We weren't feeling too hungry so each of us just had a cup'o noodle then we hit the sack early since we had both gotten up really early in the morning to drive up to Seattle.
Got up fairly early and cooked some Lipton rice and pouch salmon. Filtered water at lake and noticed that it had gotten cold enough last night to freeze small puddles of water. The day was beautiful with the crisp clear fall weather that makes hiking pure joy. There were a bunch of trail maintenance people noisily engaged in doing something or the other near the pit toilet. The trail very quickly climbed out of the bowl containing Shadow Lake to a stupendous viewpoint overlooking the Emmons glacier and the stream emananting from it. After this the trail climbed steadily along the side of 1st Burroughs with aerial views of the valley below as well as Emmons, Inter and Frying pan Glaciers. There were seom nice fall colors along the way. Met a couple of hikers who informed us that St. Helens had emitted a large plume of ash yesterday. Soon we emrged onto the top of a broad flat mountain that looked flat and large enough to land a plane on. This was apparently the first Burroughs. At this point we started encountering heavier numbers of hikers who were coming directly from the parking area. The views were pretty great all around with Mt. Baker visible in the distance. We had a little snack and then continued on to 2nd Burroughs. This appeared to be the place where most dayhikers turned out. However given that we were just returning to camp, we decided to continue to 3rd Burroughs and I was glad that we did. The trail dropped down considerably before climbing up to 3rd Burroughs. The drops looked larger than it really turned out to be, because there are no trees to provide perspective. Anyways we made steady progress and soon reached the top of 3rd Burroughs. The views here were stupendous with Winthrop Glacier sprawled out beneath us and Mystic Lake, Willis Wall, Carbon Gl. et. al visible in the distance. Heavily crevassed and massive Winthrop Glacier in particular presented an awesome spectacle. Everything from the Olympics to Mt. Baker was visible. Rainier's massive presence loomed over the whole place in an almost palpable manner. We absorbed this view for a while and then returned the way we came. The crowds had thinned somewhat on our return. We ran into a whole group of similalry clad Japanese tourists on our way down to Shadow Lake. Later that evening they spent a lot of time hollering near our campground for one of their flock who had apprently gotten lost. We were all out of water when we got back so quickly filtered some and cooked dinner. Chatted with a couple who were camped near us. They had come out from the midwest and were doing the entire 100 mile Wonderland trail. I was impressed to hear they had hiked from Dick Creek to this place in just one day.
Got up fairly early because the inconsiderate thru-hikers made so much damned noise breaking up camp. Broke up camp and packed out quickly. On the drive back we also hiked Grove of the Patriarchs and the AltaVista trail at Paradise. The Fall colors were just wonderful. Also stopped at a St. Helens viewpoint near Morton. The place was packed with people camped out in chairs and RVs with binoculars trained on St. Helens. Disappoiningly the mountain looked totally clear with no ash or steam visible at all. (Done 10/1/04 - 10/3/04, 8 miles , 1700 ft)