Travel Diary

Ah, the big day. We prepped the gear and headed to the mountain park entrance. Funny that it was about an hour to reach the entrance and we were only two hours from Seattle, and from Seattle it takes two hours to get there. I guess the town is just not too close to the main Rainier staging area.

Finally, the main lot was reached and it was already full at 9am so we went down some mountain road pass and found parking. I guess people just keep parking farther and farther out, until the end up at the auxiliary lots. I think everyone can visit the park. Just have to walk a lot farther if you show up late during the summertime. In short, earlier is way better.

At the base, we used the restrooms (already packed too) and then started the hike.

The first section is paved. People can even use strollers (some were!) and it’s accessible for most people. But after time, the pavement ends and it’s then dirt. Then over time, it gets steeper and the steps are harder. The incline on this hike is very steep. In fact, it’s a full mile incline if you take it far enough. And that was our intended goal.

I took photos constantly. One fascinating shot was a waterfall running down a rocky mountain from a glacier—almost looked like Yosemite Falls. The scenery there is just so vastly different than from the waterfall hiking trail. The green vegetation eventually ends and you end up on rocks and glaciers for the rest of the hike, all the while staring up at the summit of Mount Rainier, getting closer and closer. Many times, I’d only seen the mountain out the window of a place and looking over or down. Now, I was looking up at it and wondering just how much farther it was from us.

The terrain was changing fast. Once we hit our first glacier, we attached our crampons and that helped us to avoid sliding. I had borrowed a pair of hiking poles, but they proved useless and the tension was not strong enough to keep them from collapsing. Worth a try I suppose, but maybe I’ll invest in my own pair next time.

Climbing a glacier is tough. At some point, I felt that climbing the rocks might be easier than staying on the glaciers. Hard to say which was tougher, but the elevation was increasing and we were getting tired. We were probably 4/5 of the way and decided to head back. Finishing would have been nice, but we were slowing down a lot then so rest breaks were longer, and there was no reason to push any further. We could attempt the mountain in the future.

Going down was somewhat easier, but my toes were already sore from my boots and only getting worse. My knees were a little sore too. Yeah, it was good that we headed back. Definitely can't exert all energy just getting up the mountain. Save some for the return, as the saying goes.

Lesly enjoyed glissading down the glaciers. It would have been helpful to have taken people’s advice and to bring along plastic bags. I just surfed down the mountain on my boots when I could. Some people were even skiing or snowboarding. Looked fun, if not a little dangerous.

One thing I noticed on the way back was a sign that warned people there might be gaps in the glaciers higher up, that had to be hopped over. Wow. That definitely sounds intense. I imagine such drops would be deadly, so being in such a situation was not really high on my bucket list, although if everyone else was doing it without a problem, who knows. Moot point for that trip though. Just nice that I hadn’t seen it on the way up since that might have caused some apprehension if so.

The pain in my feet increased a lot as we descended. I was eager to be done with it, and finally, we were back at the trail head. Getting water was our first quest. I’d run out a long time prior. And of course, even that line was a little long.

I also realized that while my head was covered the whole time, the sun was off to my right side for the climb up which was several hours, and my neck had no sunscreen on it. I would be suffering a slight sunburn from that mistake. It’s not one I ever like to make, but I guess it happens. Just felt a little stupid in not preparing better. I had sunscreen the entire time and kept adding it to my face.

Then it was the long walk to the car. Any extra walking felted like it required a Herculean effort by then, but in time, we were trading boots for tennies, and then we were on the road back to town.

Once again, it was packed with people. We grabbed some beers and sat outside and listened to the free band playing, which was okay, but the duo from the previous night was better. Oh, and one very surprising thing was the elk that just wandered freely in town. One elk was about 20 feet away and munching on the lawn in the picnic area, just ignoring all the people, dogs, and even the band. Just not stuff you see very often. Maybe with deer, but not elk.

Our final meal would be pizza at a local joint. It wasn’t bad, though and there were leftovers. Then it was back to the loft to relax and call it a day.

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