Emerald Ridge

Two posts in one day!  This is amazing.  We should all buy lottery tickets, because magic is happening.

These pictures are from last weekend's backpacking trip with AH.  We did two days and one night on the mountain to Emerald Ridge and parts of the Wonderland trail.  It was amazing.  The trail we took to connect us to the Wonderland trail was not maintained.  This is a bit of an understatement.  There had been a landslide and about 50 feet of the trail was washed out.  The choices were to go through the very fast and cold river or bushwhack through the landslide.  We bushwhacked and it was hard.  There were times we had to take off our packs and push them ahead of us because we were ducking under trees and tree roots.  It was also very, very steep and it was very important to not slide down into the river. Half an hour later we were back on the trail.  This was the "easy" part.  We were hooking up to the Wonderland trail where we had 2.8 miles and 3000 feet of elevation gain to challenge us.  It was a challenge, but we made it to the top and the simply amazing views of the mountain and the glaciers.

Night was spent at the South Puyallup River campsite near the Puyallup River.  It was beautiful and I wish I had gotten out of the tent to look at the stars, but sometimes you are tired and in a sleeping bag and there you will remain.

Many more pictures are here.  

Eagle Peak

This is a teaser post of sorts.  I have a ton of photos from my current quilting project, some fabric that I won in an on-line giveaway to share, and lots of pictures from my backpacking trip on Mt. Rainier.  But, first, I have to show you a hike I did with CF in early July.  The snow was still on the ground, but the day was beautiful. I've done Eagle Peak before.  It is 3.5 miles fairly straight up and then a beautiful view of Mt. Rainier and if you are lucky, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Hood, and Mt. Adams.  On the day we went, we saw them all.

It was a good leg stretcher and a good preparatory hike for the backpacking trip I did with AH last weekend.  More on that soon.

Visible and Invisible Marmots

Visible Marmot at Spray Park

 I was just reminded that I did not deliver on the marmot pictures.  That must be remedied.  This guy was running away from us at Spray Park on Mt. Rainier.  He was happily munching on his dinner while sitting in the middle of the trail.  This caused quite a traffic jam as all the hikers around him were doing their best to give him space and let him finish.  Turns out, this guy is quite a good eater and the park ranger on the trail slowly moved towards him to encourage him to finish up.  Mr. Marmot then took off at marmot speed towards us and really seemed confused, even for a large rodent.  Still that's about as close as I've been to one in recent memory.

Mist covered day at Eagle Peak on Mt. Rainer

Avalanche Lilies

Invisible marmot - to the right of the rock.

Deer at Eagle Peak

Wildflowers on Mt. St. Helens

View of the Crater at Mt. St. Helens

I'm putting up pictures of several hikes here.  I've been getting a lot of hiking in lately.  In fact I went yesterday but forgot my camera so no pictures of that hike. (Sunrise at Mt. Rainier).  But, we did see a bear yesterday and it was far enough away to be cool and not frightening.  CF took pictures of it, so I should be able to share some invisible bear pictures too.  For now, back to the work week and planning my backpacking trip this weekend.  I get to buy a shovel.  For making "catholes."  Yup.

Eagle Peak - Mount Rainier

View of the trail as the scramble begins.

When you get out of breath, stop and take a picture....

....which makes people think you are into photography and not gasping for air.

You can almost see CF in this picture.  

A nice view of where I had been. 

Mt. Rainier is hiding around the corner.

View from the parking lot. 

We remarked that it seems like this river should be bigger.  

In anticipation of my trip tomorrow to the land of beer and cheese or as I like to call it, Wisconsin, I decided that I should stretch out my legs to help me withstand the plane ride to Detroit and then the connection to Madison.  Seriously, I can't believe I'm flying to Detroit tomorrow.  At any rate, I digress. This post is not about my confusion about why I couldn't fly through Minneapolis but have to overshoot my destination and then backtrack to Madison. No, this is about the amazing hike I took today at Mt. Rainier.

Today was free fee day at the mountain, a fact I did not know until I got there.  Free fee day usually means that there are crazy amounts of people on the mountain and today was no different.  It is not surprising that most of these people did not attempt to climb Eagle Peak.  It was quiet and beautiful and, for once, not incredibly windy and cold at the Peak.  I swear I heard marmots but I did not see them.  The view was beautiful and I got to watch CF's apple slowly roll off the edge of the cliff as we were too slow to stop it. Honestly, I don't think I've laughed harder on a hike watching that thing slowly roll away.  Okay, not so funny here but it caused me to inhale a sugar cookie so you have to trust me when I say it was a laugh riot.

I need to pack and convince the cat army that another week without me is a good thing.  I'll be back in a week with pictures of cheese and bratwurst.  It's like Germany but without the need for a passport (and for some a study in coronary heart disease).

Mt. Rainier - Kautz Creek

Indian Henry's Campground

Kautz Creek is a tough hike.  5.7 miles to Indian Henry's Campground and a lovely view of Mt. Rainier,  climbing all the way.  I always hit a wall about 4 miles up where I'm not entirely sure I can finish or move another step.  Some food, water and a knowledge that the end is so close keeps the tired legs going.  Yesterday was a hot, muggy day with a fresh hatching of mosquitos to deal with (I was inhaling them as I was trying to eat), but it was amazingly beautiful.  Last time we scared and treed a bear on the way down, but I am happy to report that there were no bear sightings this time.  More pictures here.

Marmots, foxes, and frost - oh my!

Skyline Trail at Paradise.

Fuzzy ice.

A mini-marmot.

Fall color.

Yesterday's hike was at Paradise on the Skyline Trail at Mt. Rainier.  It was a chilly day - probably about 40 degrees the whole time, but it wasn't raining or snowing and that is pretty amazing for October on the mountain.  We were greeted in the parking lot by a fox who was probably used to getting handouts, but failed to persuade us and left empty handed.  The hike was gorgeous and we saw lots of fall color and three marmots.  I have a feeling my next hike will be much wetter.

This is what you get for going off trail.

Spray Park.  At the end of this trail is a meadow and at the end of the meadow is a very large black bear. 

Mowich Lake, which is where you go to after you see a large black bear.

A lovely lunch spot.  

Yesterday CF and I decided to go hiking.  We debated where to go but decided that we should go to Mt. Rainier National Park because it is bear season and we don't want to be one of those lucky hikers who are mistaken for a bear, shot, and put over someone's mantel.  We decided on Spray Park because it has an amazing meadow with lots of wildflowers when the season is right and, as was the case, lots of fall color when the season is fall.  We hiked the three miles to Spray Park, hiked on a side trail, hiked slightly off that trail so we could see the pretty meadow (you aren't supposed to hike off trail, it's bad for the vegetation and you might get lost which would result in an embarrassing rescue and probably a feature on the local television media), and saw a large black bear at the end of the meadow.  Here is a verbatim transcript of this scene:

Me:  "It's so beautiful up here."
CF: "It really is."
Me, noticing the black bear: "Uh, okay, straight ahead."
CF:  "Okay, we have to go."
Me: "Yes, let's go."

For the record, I turned around and walked away as if Freddy, Jason, and Chucky were after me.  Some people like seeing large predators in the woods.  Those people aren't me.  I kept saying, to justify my cowardice, "To be fair, it was a really large bear." (This is also my behavior with spiders.)

At any rate, we had a lovely hike on a warm fall day.  We ate lunch and admired the mountain and then hiked around Mowich Lake a bit because it seemed like 6 miles just wasn't enough.  More pictures here, but there are no pictures of the bear.  Cowards live to fight another day.

Marmots in the Mist

Yesterday's hike was to Summerland at Mt. Rainier.  You can tell fall is coming as the wildflowers have  basically finished blooming and the leaves are starting to turn.  Despite the chill in the air, it was not raining and the hike was beautiful if not completely exhausting.  This is the first time I've been close enough to a marmot to get a decent picture which was probably because he was happily munching away and did not seem at all concerned that he had been spotted.  He's got to get ready for a long winter too - and that poor guy won't have football to keep him company on the weekends.  The full documentation of the marmot and other pictures here.

Eagle Peak - Mount Rainier

Yesterday's hike was to Eagle Peak at Mt. Rainier National Park.  It was an incredible day to be out - absolutely clear, but hot and humid.  The trail was an exhaustingly steep 3.6 mile climb to the saddle which had amazing views of Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Hood, and Mt. Adams.  I took pictures of all the mountains which of course failed to show up.  In the background of the picture above you will see an invisible Mt. Adams.  More pictures here.