Bauers in Seattle

All of my photos from this trip are available here


[Jack] I haven't read Chris or Matt's reports - so this is a fresh view and might be redundant. Or it might have a totally different tale to tell - as if we weren't on the same trip at all. If so, sorry about that...

This was my second excursion around the Northern Loop Trail in Mt. Rainier National Park. I made the same trip last year (with stops at different campsites) with 4 friends. It was such a great trip that when Chris, Matt, and I were unable to get lucky in the lottery for Wonderland Trail campsites (that's a 100 mile hike entirely around Mt. Rainier) I thought this would be a perfect replacement hike.

Monday and Tuesday were beautiful in the weather department. Sunny and warm (70s) during the day and warm (50s) at night. Wednesday and Thursday turned wet (as it often does at Mt. Rainier - the mountain grabs clouds and "makes its own weather") and we struggled a bit with plodding on through the moisture.

We left the Sunrise Visitor Center relatively early on Monday (around 9:30 I think) after stopping for a robust breakfast in Enumclaw on the way and another stop at the White River Ranger Station to get our permit. The sun made the mountain a bright beacon to our left as we headed to our first destination - Frozen Lake - just west of the visitor center. We met few hikers this early on a Monday morning - the tourists hadn't arrived yet - and the hiking was fun (with a few concerns about how winded we were just heading up the trail behind the Sunrise restaurant).

At Frozen Lake we met a volunteer out on his first day of duty patroling the trails and helping tourists identify marmots and lupines. Frozen Lake wasn't frozen at all - but there was a snow field on the far side still waiting to melt away in the summer sun. This lake is the source of water for the visitor center just below and our volunteer got his first day started off with a bang when he spotted a tourist sitting well inside the wire fence with the "DO NOT ENTER" sign...

We continued on to the west over rolling hills usually dropping in altitude (something we didn't really notice until the last day when we had to trudge back up the slopes...) until we met the fork in the trail. Left went to Mystic Lake (where we would be 3 nights later) and right was our Northern Loop Trail. We took the right fork and just along there we noticed a young marmot peeking out from between rocks on the trail. Then we spied a second. And a third. Uphill was mama marmot. A nice start to the trip!













This was probably the most beautiful section of the trail. Wildflowers everywhere. We took our time (mostly due to my constant requests to stop for pictures) and really enjoyed the walk down along the rolling brook covered with flowers. The trail winds around along the stream for a couple miles and eventually we had a short climb (though at the time it didn't feel that short...) to one of the more remarkable places in the park - Grand Park.

This is a valley that at some time in the distant past was filled with lava. It's completely flat and a couple miles long. In a world that is all up and down - this flatness looks very strange. We threw down our packs in the shade of a tree and took one of our lunchtime breaks. Beef jerky, trail mix, candy bars and power bars were pulled from the packs. Matt checked for cellphone and GPS reception - see picture - and Chris and I gave helpful comments from the shade - "maybe if you held it up a little higher it would be closer to the satellite..."

An hour of lazying in the sun rejuvenated us for the trail ahead.

Our first night's destination was the Fire Creek Campsite about 1.5 miles from Grand Park. The trail had a couple of spectacular viewpoints back up the trail that we had taken (see photo below - Chris and Matt are pointing to our earlier location at the far end of the valley) and also of the deep valley that we would cross on Tuesday morning. About a quarter mile down the trail I realized that something was missing. My hiking stick! I left my pack (Chris and Matt nobly offered to watch it - they didn't mention walking back UP the trail to our lunch spot at Grand Park) and went back for the stick. Mission accomplished, we continued on.

Fire Creek Camp is about .4 mile off the trail. All downhill (which we noticed the next morning). It's a relatively dark camp with three individual sites (all were filled that night) and a group site. We were the last party to arrive and we took site #3 furthest down in the valley. It's typical of Mt. Rainier campsites - away from the trail in the trees, water close by, and a bit dark due to all the towering Douglas Fir and cedars.

On arriving at camp (around 4pm) Chris and Matt had immediately cooked their dinners and we spent the rest of the evening waiting for the sun to go down. I was a bit more patient with my dinner - but I still had a couple hours until sundown (8:30pm) when I wrapped up dinner (noodles with a can of chicken - it was the heaviest (by 4 ounces!) of my three dinner choices, so the logical first night menu...).

We sat around waiting for it to get dark.

It really takes a long time in the woods to get dark when your watch says 7:10 and sundown in more than an hour away.

A really long time.

We had a deer come and visit for about 20 minutes. It wandered around eating about 50 feet from our campsite as we watched. It seemed to be plagued by bugs - constantly shaking ears, tail and hind legs. We were slightly more comfortable as there were some mosquitoes, but not really too many. We did get the deet out to keep them away and it was the only time on the trip that we needed the insect repellant.

Then we waited some more for it to get dark.

Eventually, around 7:45 or so, we gave up and crawled in our sleeping bags even though the sun was still shining high in the branches of the Douglas Firs.

The next morning Chris said that he slept pretty well for the first 8 hours - but not so good after than (another 4 hours or so...). It was also a long night in my tent.

We headed down the mountainside on Tuesday morning with our destination for the day about 8 miles away - Yellowstone Cliffs Camp. It was nice to stretch our legs on the descent and we hit the bottom of the hill at our first river crossing - the West Fork of the White River. It was definitely white - full of "rock flour" from the Winthrop Glacier (which we would walk along on Thursday). The glaciers grind up the rocks underneath their massive weight and the result is a white water that is death to water filters. We crossed the log bridge with no problems and a short distance further stopped beside a beautiful waterfall (non-glacial water). It was a good chance to throw down the packs and relax for a few minutes. Matt and Chris investigated the waterfall and I pumped water from the clear stream (all the water on our trip had to be pumped through water purifiers to remove nasty bacteria or protozoa or something equally unsavory).

The climb up from the West Fork of the White River was long with plenty of switchbacks in the thick forest. We eventually reached the top and a short distance further we found Lake James - another good spot to sit and rest. But not too long. Ahead was another big climb and (for me) the most spectacular scenery on the trail - Windy Pass and the Yellowstone Cliffs.

We climbed up to Windy Pass and this was probably the toughest climbing we did up to this point in the trip (actually every climb up a mountainside seemed to be the "toughest climbing we did up to this point in the trip"!). The climb ends with a series of log steps to the pass high above. Eventually we drug ourselves up there and collapsed in the shade of a few bedraggled trees at the pass. We took an extended stop here and Matt discovered that his cellphone could get a bit of coverage (not quite digital and definitely roaming). We used it to call a few family members to say hello from on top of a mountain pass.

This was an area that bears are often spotted (last year on this hike we spotted several) but this year we didn't see any. That was about the only disappointment on this hike.

After getting back to feeling human (that hike up to the pass is a killer) we headed along the trail towards our evening destination. But along the way I pointed out a thin line on a rockslide on the south side of the valley (the Northern Loop Trail goes along the north side of the valley). I had noticed it last year when I was up here hiking and wanted to see where it went. Chris and Matt were game, so off we headed cross country to see where that thin line lead. We eventually managed to find a faint trail - maybe more deer and goat than human - and found the rockslide area that we had looked at from across the valley. We crossed it and immediately lost the trail, but discovered a lake. Crescent Lake.

From above the lake was beautiful in the afternoon sun. We decided to head down there and possibly spend the night there instead of at our assigned campsite. We wandered around the lake looking for a flat sandy place to hike (the mountain plant life is too fragile to just throw a tent on top of it...) and eventually found just the spot at the west end of the lake. We dropped our packs and did what we traditionally did after taking off the packs - drank some water and fell exhausted to the ground.

After a while Matt headed off to explore and we heard his shout from far up on the mountainside. Chris and I thought that looked interesting - so we headed up there too. When we met Matt he said he had been face to face with a mountain goat - about 15 feet apart. We kept our eyes peeled for goats (and had an explanation for all the white fur we found attached to branches down below...) and headed on uphill. We climbed (it was easier without the packs, but still a tough workout) and eventually reached a high ridge on Crescent Mountain above the lake. We took a timed group photo and headed back down (which was trickier than going up had been). We all arrived back at the lake safely.

When we were up on the ridge we noticed some dark clouds moving in from the west. Very dark clouds. Totally different from the clear blue sky that had been over us for the first two days of the trip. We had a conference and decided it would be best to head on down the trail now and stay at our assigned campsite. We also decided that from the map, a shorter route would be to contour around the mountainside to the far end of the valley. The altitude of the lake (5565) was about the same as the trail on the far side of the valley. So off we went bushwacking around the valley.

It was a Bad Plan. A Very Bad Plan.

What we didn't take into account (and what the map failed to really note) was that there were several streams that cut down the mountainside with very steep cliff-like sides. Very steep. We would bounce along the rocks and trees for a ways and then hit a cliff. Up we would head to find a safe crossing and then off again until the next precipice stopped us. Matt stopped to add some moleskin to his sore feet and lost his pocket knife when he left it behind after the footwork. I didn't stop and ended up with a big broken blister on the middle of my right foot that hobbled me for the rest of the hike.

Eventually (and I mean eventually!) we found the trail that we had left up at Windy Pass. We took a left turn and passed a marmot or two on our way to camp. It had two campsites and the other was filled with a party of three women that also had been at Fire Creek the night before.

We set up our tents, pumped water, and cooked up dinner. We again waited for it to get dark - but gave up and headed for the sleeping bags while it was still light out...

It rained all night. Not much more than a drizzle - but constant.

We woke in the morning and prepared breakfast. Somehow I lost my Grapenuts (thinking back about it while walking along the trail I decided I might have left the ziplock sandwich bag with the Grapenuts, sugar, and powdered milk next to the stream when I was pumping water for breakfast...) and that became a side-theme of the trip whenever talk turned to breakfast. Being one breakfast short - I survived on a Yogi-ed granola bar from Chris on Thursday morning. ("Yogi-ing" is what hikers call asking people for food along the trail).

We also woke to a wet campsite. My little tent isn't too rain-friendly. It's very light (just 3 pounds) but to get to that lightness it has to cut edges on the rainfly and other protections. While I didn't get wet, I did have my backpack splattered by mud from falling rain (even though it was under the tiny rain cover of the tent) and I found that it's better to sleep towards the head of the tent as the foot of my sleeping bag got moist from touching the tent fabric down at that end.

But in total - things were ok.

We had breakfast (I ate my last bag of Grapenuts...) and headed down the trail. This was to be a very long day. It got even longer as we waded through the wildflowers along the trail - actually they pretty much covered the trail in many places. Our pants were totally soaked from the rainwater on the plants. Fortunately, it was relatively warm (mid 50s probably) and with hiking our pants quickly dried out. But about the time they got dry - another brushy stretch of trail!

It was lightly raining. Constantly lightly raining.

We descended the long drop to the Carbon River. From 5,200 feet down to 2,800 feet of altitude. Switchback after switchback in the dark green forest. Eventually, on my sore foot, we reached the bottom and turned left along the Carbon River. Our destination was the swinging suspension bridge that crosses over to the west side of the glacial white river. When we arrived there we threw down the packs, stuffed some trailmix and candy into ourselves, and Chris and Matt investigated the construction of the bridge. We puttered around there in the rain for a while and then headed up along the river towards the Carbon Glacier.

The water from the glacier is a thick milky brew. Hard to believe that Sylvester Stallone is marketing this water as "Glacial water from Mt. Rainier is the finest drinking water on earth" - http://www.glacianova.com/productSly.html

Whatever.

Our trek up the Carbon Glacier gave us a close look at this massive river of ice. It's covered in a thick layer of rocks (the result of a huge rockfall off Mt. Rainier many decades ago). We walked along the glacier for a couple miles and then left it for the switchbacks of the mountain side. Again. Switchbacks up a mountain side...

Up, up, up to the ridge above Mystic Lake and then down to the lake and past it to the campsites. Seven of them here, along with 2 group sites, and an area for trail workers. All were full by the end of the day. When we pulled in there were several empty sites to choose from and we took the one that actually had sunlight hitting it (the sun had some out occasionally through the day - though the usual experience was a fine mist). We immediately spread all of our clothes, tents, rain flys, etc. on a line in the sun and on top of every available bush and tree branch. The drying process was short lived though as rain again started and we quickly set up the tents to find some shelter.

I crawled into my sleeping bag to facilitate the drying process - not to take a nap. I might have dozed off though. Maybe for like an hour or more. Eventually we got up and into our evening routine - pump water, make dinner, wait for it to get dark, give up on the wait and crawl into the tents when it's still light...

Thursday morning we woke to blue skies. Amazing. We quickly packed up and headed down the trail. A short trip to a stretch of new trail that replaces a washed out section (the people working on the trail had been at Mystic Camp with us the night before) and to the bottom of the Winthrop Glacier. Remember that one? That's the glacier that produced the water for our first river crossing on Tuesday morning.

The blue skies disappeared and the light Northwest mist returned.

The moraine at the foot of the glacier is a wilderness of rocks piled all over the place. A trail weaves through these rocks and we looked up the valley to the massive glacier and some views of Mt. Rainier through the clouds beyond. A large waterfall comes down the mountainside east of the glacier. We rounded the foot of the glacier and then began our last big climb - up to Skyscraper Pass and a couple miles beyond - Sunrise and the car.

The climb was long. And steep. And eventually we arrived at Skyscraper Pass - the highest point on the trip - 6,700 feet. The pass was covered in clouds and we decided not to hike up to the top of nearby Skyscraper Peak for a view of our route from above. Plus it was getting cold. Real cold. The wind was whipping across the pass and we quickly bundled up and headed back to Sunrise.

The trip from Skyscraper Pass to Sunrise was a LOT longer than any of us wanted it to be. I was a bit gimpy with the blistered foot, and we were all tired of carrying wet heavy packs. Plus the curious tourists strolling around in daypacks and tennis shoes didn't boost our mood. One even asked if we had been to Burroughs Mountain (2 hour round trip hike - and us loaded down with our heavy packs...).

As we got closer to Sunrise, it became more and more difficult to see. Not because of exhaustion
but because of the fog. Sunrise was stuck in a cloud and visibility was probably about 20 feet. Thick.

We managed to find the car, get our fresh clothes that we had left there, and change in a convenient restroom. Being in clean clothes and tennis shoes certainly made me feel better - though the tennis shoes hit my sore foot in an entirely new way and led to some short term limping...

We visited the Sunrise Visitor Center with its displays of flora and fauna, history, and mountain lore. Then it was back to the car for the drive home (past about 15 bicyclists climbing the road up to Sunrise!). The fog eventually cleared and we got as far as Enumclaw where we pulled into a McDonalds and devoured 6 double cheeseburgers, a quarter pounder with cheese, two regular fries and a large order of fries, drinks all around and 3 ice creams for desert.

Ahhhhh.... Civilization....