Rainier :: Part 2

Day 4: Thursday

What is sore: CALVES, hips, toes. Standing up looks like you are being resurrected. 

What stinks: ARMPITS, sleeping bag, shirt on its 4th day in a row.

What time is it: 5:00am wake time, on the road by 5:35.

What did we eat for breakfast: Nothing. No breakfast, no teeth brushing, no contact putting in. Just pack up and hit the road.

Who wants their picture taken: Me, Lisa. Not Roxanne. 

Hiking before the rising of the sun allows you to watch the colors change. The sun hits differently all around you. You walk with the crisp air. 

Look at that aura humming around Rainier. 

My ears were cold so I tied my shirt into a turban to go with the glasses that kept sliding down my face. 

We were on the same trail back to Mowich, but it felt so different. There were so many waterfalls and rivers I hadn't noticed before. It was a beautiful morning. 

And then the sun joined us. 

I love this moment Roxanne captured. 

That rock is unstable, so you have to surf on it for a minute and catch your balance with thirty pounds of top heavy. 

This position is less about catching your breath and more about resting your back. 

All day, it was my lower back that ached the most. 

We finally stopped at this creek to wash our face, brush teeth, insert contacts. Ahhh. So refreshing. 

Man, I just loved this morning. The beauty was everywhere, screaming at us. 

This was the last of the hobbit land before we pushed up and over mount doom. 

There wasn't really a trail when we got to this rockiness...just some yellow spray paint indicating the general direction to take. 

Choose your own adventure. 

And before you know it, we were at the summit pinnacle! 

I got so energized when I saw it. We made it! We are at the top of the world! 

Down the other side is a meander through gardener's paradise of flowers and Rainier and on to Mowich Lake. Easy. It felt like it was all easy from here. 

And Rainier wouldn't leave our site. 

The other bonus of getting up early: we were the only ones on the trail. We had it all to ourselves. 

Because we were returning to civilization, it didn't feel so scary to be alone. 

Fawn Lilly

Lots of them. 

We sat on Pride Rock and ate breakfast. 

I had granola cereal and it was so dang good. Best breakfast of my life. 

After filling our bellies, we laid facing the sky and Roxanne led us in a meditation. 

Sometimes the view of Rainier is this dome, half circle shape that reminds me of the moon. 

Like the moon landed on the earth, and we can only see the top half. 

Gosh, I can't get enough. 

Bear Grass

Lots of them.

The closer we got to Mowich, the more day hikers we encountered. 

One group we passed smelled so fresh, like laundry detergent. I said "Ooh you guys smell like fresh laundry! What do we smell like?"

ha

Then we returned to Spray Falls with Lisa in tow. 

I got as close as possible. The spray covered my body. 

This gives the best perspective of how massive this thing was. Look at me, a tiny speck. 

We did it! All three of us made it there and back again and got waterfall sprayed as a reward. 

Remember this overlook socked in by clouds on the first day? 

Look at it now. You can see so many waterfalls running down the cliffs from here. 

Ok, this is when things got weird. I don't know exactly what I mean by "weird" except it felt like it was part two of the trip. 

We stumbled into Mowich Lake camp so tired and sore. 

Mowich Lake camp is like a hostel. There is the parking lot, there are lots of camp sites right next to each other without shade - just lots of gravel squares and tables in a big open space.

There are rangers, a ranger cabin.

There are both day hikers AND backpackers, a stopover on the Wonderland Trail. 

People are relatively everywhere, swimming in the lake, prepping for an adventure around their car.

So like I said, we stumbled into camp not totally sure what our next move was. I was going to go pick a camp site and put my pack down, but Lisa and Roxanne walked toward the car. I followed them.

We took our packs off. Took our shoes off. Then they went and sat in the shade and Lisa had a victory cry. 

I ate a victory apple and peanut butter. 

We gathered our wits and went to pick a camp spot - the only one that had access to trees. 

It was so hot and sunny - everyone is in a communal camp with no shade. 

I needed to be out of the sun, so I set up my hammock in the only camp trees and it was so wonky, but I didn't care. We sat with our butts touching the ground. Roxanne was over there sitting straight on the dirt. 

Everything was making us laugh. Why is this hammock not working. Why is there no shade in this whole campground. Why are the sites so communal.

Then I watched a camper (Tori), a stones throw away, while she set up her camp. It's fun watching people do stuff. I told Lisa and Roxanne about every move she was making. 

We were worried the ranger would come and kick us out of the shady area - like being in shade was off limits at this camp. So when the ranger walked up to check our permits,  I heard him and Tori discussing the trail we wanted to explore tomorrow. 

I walked over and asked them about Tolmie Peak.

 He said it was "the best view of Rainier in the park".

She said it was "such a cool trail" with a giant smile on her face.

I asked Tori more questions, and turns out she was in the middle of doing the whole Wonderland trail ALONE. On a whim, didn't train, just up and decided to go for it.

She was so friendly and awesome. She became our Mowich Camp mascot. 

We discussed the lack of shade here but she said it was nice to be able to hang with people after being in solitude for so long, and she was excited to get into the lake (she was sweaty and stinky.)

So yeah, no one kicked us out of the shade, and I committed to doing Tolmie Peak tomorrow. 

As we explored the lake, we got side tracked by the ranger cabin - there was a lady there making some food. We went and talked with her - found out her name was Lisa. She said something about traveling by airstream, and we thought an airstream was a private jet so we secretly named her "Rich Lisa". (Jim later clarified what an airstream is...lol)

She was about 60+ years old and also doing the Wonderland loop all alone. Her husband WAS doing it, but tapped out a few days ago. 

She told us about the Hungry Hiker donation barrel of food that you can pick through. 

We dug around in it and found lots of good food to replace our current food we were so sick of. 

Lots of good exciting food - like POP TARTS!

We also found three hydration powder packs that you put in your water. 

We continued to listen to "Rich Lisa" tell us stories while eating our gross/delicious pop tarts. 

Then we dipped our feet and hands in the water and stretched our backs and decompressed. 

OK THEN. 

We all three went to the bathroom. And we all three returned to this here table with similar looks on our faces. 

"I think I'm getting a UTI"

"ME TOO!"

Then Lisa walked up holding her guts - "my bladder hurts".

Oh my gosh you guys we are dehydrated! 

We had just pumped water from the lake, so we started chugging. 

Remember those hydration packets we had just scavenged from the hungry hiker bins? 

We mixed ourselves a cocktail of liquid IV, and chugged and chugged. 

Then we went and pumped more water and chugged some more.

I said "if we really do have bladder infections and need to leave right now to get medicine, we can be to civilization in two hours." 

About an hour later, we each went to the bathroom to see the state of our urine:

Roxanne - That felt great!

me - Yes! Best pee of my life!

Lisa - So much better!

Geez Louis you know how stupid I felt? Hydration is Hiking 101. Duh.

But I will tell you how dehydration happened: water is HEAVY. So every time we filled up our bottles at a creek, I only filled up about half way. And then it was hard to get to our bottles because they were packed in the back of our packs while trudging along. 

Those dang powdered hydration were such a literal gift from the heaven. I really felt like I was hooked up to an IV because from there I:

went pee one zillion more times,

felt clear brained and focused,

felt energized, 

felt better, 

was a flower blooming in the sun. 

NEW RULE!

When hiking, we will fill our water bottles TO THE BRIM. 

If you don't want to carry around that much weight in water than YOU BETTER START DRINKING IT!

Lesson I learned #2: It's so easy to get dehydrated. Don't be stupid - carry your water in your front where you can access it every two minutes.  

You know what feels heavier than carrying a full bottle of water? Being dehydrated. 

That night as we settled into sleep, some drunk day campers were being super loud,

Lisa asked Tori to go tell them to be quiet. Tori marched over like a boss and explained the rest of us have big days ahead of us and please stop SHOUTING ACROSS THE CAMPGROUND.

They apologized and it was a quiet night. I had the best sleep of the trip even though:

I got up in the night to pee 2 times and it felt great. 

Day 5 Friday:

We packed up camp for the last time. I ate the best scavenged peanut butter and banana oatmeal. 

This hike was going to be awesome because all we had was a dainty day pack on our backs. So light. 

I felt like we were flying right up the mountain at top speed. 

Lesson I learned #3: Pack lighter. I thought an extra 8ish pounds wouldn't be that big of a deal, but it was. It made things way harder than I remember it being with only 20 pounds in my pack. But maybe it was harder because of the elevation situation as well. 

We walked past an old hornet nest, and then one of those stupid turds stung Lisa TWICE. 

See that cabin up there? That's where we are going. 

On the way up to the fire lookout, Rainier was revealed more and more and it was insane. You could see the whole valley. 

It was for sure the best view of the week. 

Being up there was the cherry on top of the best week. 

We sat and stared and sussed out which peak is what and which glacier is who. 

Back down at Eunice Lake, we got in the water to clean off our stinky dirty bodies. 

I was only going to get in half way, but before you know it, I was full submerged. I was floating in this crystal clear lake with peaks all around, including the one of Rainier when it looks like the moon has landed. 

It was so perfect. 

I still have an ear plugged with water from doing acrobatics and trying to touch the bottom. 

Sigh. Then we drove back to society.

We stopped and ate a burger because I promised a burger by myself. 

It was so good. 

But also such a weird feeling to be back. It was so loud. 

As we were eating real food, with the music right in our ears, and a FedEx truck screeching his breaks next to our table, Lisa said "I feel so over stimulated".

and that is exactly what was going on. So much.

Plus the stimulation of hearing from our families for the first time in a long time. 

I swear I felt like I was on Castaway. What is all this civilization? haha

It was so good to hear that everything went great all week at home. The boys had a ball without us, golfing, fishing, aim and game, sleepover. 

And best of all, Jim showed me the text from Avery that said "I don't want to come home ever. I love it here".

I cried. Such music to my ears. 

We had to get Avery and Bailey the next morning at 7am, so we stayed in a hotel ten minutes from the University.

It was such a great way to return to reality. We showered and checked in and exchanged pictures and reminisced. 

I don't have the words in the whole world to explain what a treasure this whole week was. 

It is in a special little lock box in my heart. 

Rainier :: Part 1

Getting our actual boots on the ground at Rainier was a one hundred step process. 

Step 1-12 was getting Avery and Bailey dropped off and squared away at FSY.

This gives me butterflies. 

I was so nervous for Avery. She was not excited to go - dreading it. As we were walking toward her dorm room, she told me - "when you are out backpacking, don't worry about me."

It was such a thoughtful thing to say, because I then and there released myself from dwelling on her all week.

It didn't stop me from crying and feeling feelings as we drove away, but I shook it off and focused fully on my beautiful adventure that lay ahead. 

One last wave goodbye. 

Steps 13-43 were driving up to the mountain, stopping by the Ranger Station to get our back country permit, stopping at the kiosk and paying for our parks pass, etc. 

At the ranger station, Ranger Rick and Marty gave us advice and solidified our reservations. 

Marty: "how do you feel about river crossings?" 

Roxanne: "great"

Lisa: *grabs Roxanne's arm* tell me more.

Marty: brings out a color picture showing the wash out hazard of the top half of the loop. Plus they explain that a lot of Ipsut Creek has been washed out. 

I: sit on the ground and scootch along my butt to demonstrate one way to safely cross a log. 

Marty: "sometimes people get backcountry passes, and they never return."

Us: ???

Rick: "I used to live in Henderson (recognizing my area code 702)"

Me: "really? maybe I was your teacher!"

In the end, we reroute our whole plan to cancel the loop and make it an out and back. This works out better for many of the variables, including bypassing the anticlimatic/washed out part of the trail and trading it for the more scenic side. 

Backcountry pass in hand, we head to the trailhead at Mowich Lake to begin the trek. I have so much nervous energy from all the driving and child abandoning and decision making. It feels good to get out and move my body with a 30 pound pack on my back. 

Look how fun it is to have a pack on your hips. We don't even hate our packs yet. 

Spray Park, here we come. Our first leg is now only two miles, sleeping at Eagle's Roost.

Also did you know that all the camps in Rainier have a TOILET and bear pole? I didn't know, but suddenly it feels like we've upgraded to complete luxury. 

Right off the bat, about a mile into the trail, Lisa steps weird and twists her foot in a bad way. Ligaments and tendons feel wrecked. We can still throw a rock at the car and this dumb luck happened. 

We give it a minute and hope that it works itself out - gets better, not worse. 

This first day is the only day with clouds. We still haven't seen Rainier. She's hiding behind that cell. 

Later you will see us at this same overlook except you can see all the peaks. 

We get to camp and set up our tent and I get disproportionately excited about these bear poles. 

I brought rope ready to tie my food up, but this makes it so brainless and easy. 

I got proportionately excited about the toilets. PS we were all on some iteration of our periods, so yeah. cha ching. 

Right near Eagles Roost is Spray Falls. 

We trek out to see what we can see. 

It is insanely breathtaking! You can't even believe. The sound and feel of it don't translate in pictures. 

Because you have to cross the creek and pick your way through the scattered, teetering rocks, Lisa stayed put out of sight to convalesce her foot. 

The only reason I didn't throw her over my shoulder and force her to see this treasure is because we would be coming back this way in a few days, and we would for sure revisit it then.

The lighting, the half sun, half grey. The greens and browns. 

It's so loud. You can't really talk to each other. You just look at it in your own mind. 

We filtered our water in this little creek. 

Lisa "iced" her foot in the water for as long as she could handle it. 

We discussed worst case scenarios for the foot situation. 

Laying three in a row inside the tent, we went through all the options:

A. Lisa head back alone to the car and have Joe come get her.

B. Lisa head back alone to Mowich Lake and camp alone for a few days until we return.

C. Lisa head back alone and drive to a hotel for a few days, then come back and get us. 

D. Lisa's foot miraculously heals and we all continue on as planned.

The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. 

Rise and shine. 

Today (Tuesday) we had a 7 mile trek to Carbon River Camp. We would be going as far into the wild as we would get on this trip. 

It is a pretty rough hike up and over a mountain peak, then down down down to the bottom where Carbon River runs wild, directly out of the mouth of Carbon Glacier. 

If it sounds cushy to be hiking down down down to you, let me tell you..it's not. Not with 30 pounds resting on all your cartilage. 

But the question everyone is asking: How is Lisa's foot? 

It healed!

It got better, not worse. 

Overnight, the magic waters of the freezing creek sewed it back together! 

We were so relieved. 

It was still tender, but not busted. 

Let's GO!

So Spray Park is an unbelieveable ramble through gardens and flowers and friendly streams while Rainier hovers in the distance. She's always there, at every turn. 

Every so often I would be walking along, turn a corner, and there she was, jumping out to say: Hey! Hi! Hello!

Except she's not that silly. She's regal. You bow your head in reverence. 

I can't not take a picture every single time I see her. 

But also, if the picture looks particularly beautiful, that means it's from Roxanne's camera. 

She took so many great shots and captured so many great moments. 

There was a group of 30 elderly, friendly day hikers. We leap frogged them all through the day. 

We came upon a group of them at this area sitting on "Pride Rock" eating their snack. 

I took a group picture for them on someone's 35 mm camera, (Carol! Come get in the picture, Carol), 

and they took this weird picture of us three. Why are we standing so weird. Why am I clinging for life on Roxanne's arm. 

We continued on to Seattle Park - the sub alpine, rocky area that led us up and over the mountain peak. 

We could see Mt Baker from up here. 

Here is the summit cairn. Add a rock to the top, and carry on your wayward, son. 

Things that I learned #1: There is an intense camaraderie you feel when passing other backpackers out in the wild. 

You both do a check in: "where you going? where are you coming from?" It was a strange sense of community and solace to see people. 

We would discuss all our passing strangers, wonder about them, joke about them - Carol, Dick, Tori, Androgynous Nemo, Rich Lisa...

Remember when Lisa was walking along, and Dick was sitting in middle of the literal trail, and she didn't even see him? 

Then later as we passed by Cataract Valley Camp, two women asked if we had seen a man (turned out to be Dick) and they were so annoyed at how long he was taking. 

We stopped at this box canyon for a snack. It felt so good to take off the pack for a little while. 

We prepped for the next push to camp. We were getting "into the sick of it", and it felt like we were heading to the middle of nowhere. For a few minutes my brain told me we were going off the map into where the bears live. 

But Mama Lochridge fearlessly led the way and I was able to shake the temporary irrational fear as we got closer and closer to camp.  

That push from Cataract Valley to Carbon River is only 1.6 miles, but it is so so steep.

It felt like it went on and on. 

The first and the last mile are always the hardest, but this last mile was particularly, comedically, never ending. 

We finally came upon two other women, and asked how close we were to Carbon River Camp? They said we were so so close. I could have hugged them. I actually put my arms out and pretended to hug them awkwardly. 

But then around each corner, our camp was NOT close. Where in the heck is Carbon River camp? 

The river/creek got louder and louder as we zeroed in to her, and then there was our beloved camp!

With one minor problem: the bridge that lead across was washed out. 

Lisa was in a bad head space, so when I saw this obstacle, me and Roxanne looked each other in the eye and held our breath to see how Lisa would take the news. She yelled "WHAT?" at us. haha

But the crossing turned out to be not that difficult. Just a taking off of the shoes and dipping hot tired feet into the freezing water to get across. It felt amazing. 

With the use of some guy's poles and my chacos, Lisa made it across without any ado. 

This was my favorite of the camps. I loved this waterfall creek that lulled us to sleep at night. 

The water feathered down the rocks in the most beautiful way. Like someone procured this landscape just for Carbon River campers who made the trek down to see it. 

This is the nymph fairy water hole we fetched water and washed up for the night. 

First: eat

Then: set up camp

We claimed the giant "group camp" and it had a lovely little kitchen table to eat on. 

This was when freeze dried meals were still appetizing. 

This night was a hammock night. 

Also this night, I accidentally left a bag of cashew clusters in a pocket of my pack, and a little stinker chipmunk chewed a hole right through my pack and ate them all. I feel so violated. 

A thief in the night. 

Day 3 Wednesday: we didn't have lot of mileage planned. 

We slept in, ate a slow breakfast, cleaned up camp. 

We cross over this neato suspension bridge and hiked up to stare at Carbon Glacier. It was only about a mile round trip. 

The trail to the Glacier overlook was rocky and uphill, steady in the sun. 

We found a little cave/rock overhang to sit and stare at that glacier. 

See that big dirty thing there in the middle of the canyon? That is Carbon Glacier. 

I love staring at a glacier. I can't really explain it, but it's a feeling of awe. It's a massive, moving, powerful thing that is also steady and silent and surprising. 

We saw 2-3 rock falls while staring at this beast. It is loud, and the rocks crash down echoing through the air. Rocks fall into the river (that you can't even see in these pictures!) and splash and clatter. 

We cheered and whooped at the spectacle. 

I could have sat and stared for much longer, but our shade was leaving us as the sun moved, and our human flesh started baking. 

**By this time we really started to stink. Stinky armpits and dirty clothes. 

Sweat, dirt, mosquito repellant, sunscreen, dirt, clothes hamper stink. 

All night, enclosed in my sleeping bag, my pit stink would waft up my nose any time I stretched my arms. I hoped I wasn't doing permanent damage to my favorite coat (that I was sleeping in). **

 

We returned to the nymph fairy falls, clambered up to the top tier pool, and stripped down for a freezing cold bath. 

It felt so amazing. So cold, but so cleansing. You could only stay in the water for a few minutes before your brain screamed at you to GET OUT!

The original plan was to stay down here at Carbon River Camp for two nights, but we adjusted to hike back up to Cataract Camp. It is a steep 1.6 miles that we would shave off for the next day when we had our big 9 mile hike back to Mowich Lake. 

We hoisted our packs and climbed up and up. 

Every step up, every calf burn, tell stories to distract from the pain, and before you know it we were at Cataract. 

Taking down and setting up camp is not as annoying as I thought it would be. There's so much down time, it's a methodical, meditative activity.

It was at this camp we realized how much food Lisa brought. SO much! 

And we realized she had hot chocolate packets (that were strangely heavy) and we drank and it was so good. Strangely fulfilling. 

We worked on eating all her heavy items and even pawned some food off to the neighbors in camp 3. 

The song that was the most stuck in our heads, the song we sang every day: Strawberry Wine.

You know the song from way back in the 90s? So good. 

Dinner time. 

This is when Lisa ruined freeze dried meals: 

"I can't eat another beef pellet", and I was like, yeah, you're right, they are little beef pellets as I gagged down my beef stroganoff. Yuck. 

We decided to wake up before the sun to start our return to Mowich and the subsequent climb back up and over mount doom. 

I patched up my sore toes with blister wraps and set the alarm for 5am.

Roxanne was too tired to tie up her hammock, so she threw it on the ground and we fell fast asleep with the sky still pale blue.