We took two days off work this week to do a three day, two-night hike up at Mt Rainier. The goal was to setup camp near Observation Rock on night one with our "cross country" travel permit and then do several scramble routes on the northwest face of the mountain over the next couple days. Our first day found us hiking and navigating through clouds and fog throughout midday, with nary a view of the mountain, and nary a view of anything more than a 100 yards away. As the afternoon wore away, so did the visibility. By the time we reached the trail junction between the Spray Park trail and the climbers’ trail leading to Echo and Observation Rocks, we were drenched in fog wet and could only see about 20 feet in any direction. There weren’t any steep drop offs next to the trail to worry about, but we weren’t about to go scrambling about in the rocks trying to find a place to setup our tent when we couldn’t even be sure we’d be able to find the trail again in the morning if the visibility didn’t improve. So, we turned around and trudged back down the hill. About 4 miles later, we reached Eagle’s Roost camp which is a nice hikers’ camp for folks traveling the Wonderland Trail loop around the base of the mountain. It was deep in the trees and the now steady rain would hardly have reached us in our tent pitched on the soft, needle-covered forest floor, but we were soaked from our day in the clouds, hungry, tired from our climb up to Knapsack Pass and ready to call it quits. We humped the last 2 miles out to the car and took a brief 3 seconds to peek at Spray Falls (which I’m sure is quite nice on a sunny day) on the way down.
Alas, our long awaited trip was over. We still had time off work though, so I went to see Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix at the IMAX (in 3-D!) on Monday with our soccer friends Doug and Christine. By the time I returned Monday afternoon, Will had already cooked up the idea of stealing away to Mt Rainier the following day (after all, our entrance fees were good for a week) to try and get in at least one day of scrambling. On a whim, we decided to head down to the Mountain that night after a couple hours at my mom’s new condo on Shilshole. We arrived at the campground at Mowich Lake (Carbon River entrance) at midnight. We setup the tent by headlamp and proceeded to shiver our way through the night because we’d rushed through packing and had forgotten to toss our insulated pads in the back of the super-subaru. Up by 6am and on the trail by 6:30, we started a wonderful 13 hour traverse up Knapsack Pass through the bowl above Mist Park, across Spray Park, along the ridge below Ptarmigan, and to the base of Echo Rock. We didn’t see another human (though we did see other beings– goats, some photogenic marmots, ptarmigans, a chipmunk, and a vole) until we were on our way down Echo. Then we met two older fellows who were well on their way to summit the 100 highest peaks in Washington. La-ti-dah!!! Nevertheless, their company didn’t ruin the trip, even though the summit of Observation Rock was a bit more crowded than we’d hoped.
The trip down was long, arduous, and painful on the feet after so many trail hours and so little sleep. However, we made it home with some wonderful experiences, some ice axe self-arrest practice, some fun glissading, and plenty
of practice putting on and removing our crampons. We hope you enjoy these photos as much as we enjoyed getting them. The weather was gorgeous and really made up for the crud on Sunday. I couldn’t have imagined a more beautiful day on the Mountain.
just kidding… Actually, I’ve been looking around for ideas on what I could plan for them to do on campus and I’d like your help. 
It’ll be listed for $495,000 and it’s 3 bedroom 1.75 bath, well located in Ballard.4 blocks off "hot" Market Street. It has a nice deck, a good sized yard with flower gardens and croquet sized lawn. The wood floors are beautifully finished and it has a pretty new roof.
