Belated Blogging

We visited the mountain on Presidents Day (yes, I know - almost two weeks ago) and are just getting to the blog now! We had been looking forward to a day that we could almost completely dedicate to time on the mountain, and, as Presidents Day approached, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to spend a good chunk of time hiking and soaking in the beautiful snow and granite. However, plans are good enough, but not set in stone. A couple of things came up and we were left with about a 4 hour chunk of time to be on the mountain. 4 hours is still pretty decent, though, and we were excited to get some serious hiking in - or so we thought.

After our last hike, we left the Wonderland trail at the point at which it passes Cougar Rock campground. The Carter Falls trailhead (part of the Wonderland trail) is in just about the same spot (within a tenth of a mile), so we decided to pick up the trail there. It was spectacularly beautiful as we entered the park that morning - sunshine, glistening mountain, iridescent green trees - and we were excited to spend some time stretching our legs and really getting into the trail. As we got out of the truck the wind hit us in the face. It was COLD. But a little cold wind couldn't stop us from our hike. We put on hats, packed the bag with snacks and cameras, and headed to the trail.

Not even a quarter of a mile into the trail, we approached a river. This is right near the spot where the Nisqually River and the Paradise River join - so it's a sort of delta with several streams all mingling together and apart. The view of the mountain was incredible, as it was catching the full morning sun. We stopped to take some pictures, freezing while we waited for the timer to shoot. We continued onward. As we got closer to the water we saw the footbridge, on its side, twenty feet downriver from the trail. We immediately began looking up and down the river for possible crossing points, and then began walking up and down the banks. There were a couple points over which we could hop from rock to rock, however there was one other rogue element that we didn't anticipate - the frosty river rock. It was about 8:30 in the morning, and the river bed was still in the shadows. All the rocks we were walking on along the river banks were super slick, and the ones in the water were no better. Karina, the daring one of us, made her way across one fork of the river, but couldn't find a way across the other one. I stood on the banks, nervous, holding out my hands to help her back across. Alas, there was no way across!

We hiked back out, hopped in the car and decided to drive up a little further and catch the trail up a ways and hike down. It was about 9:30 at this point, and we were still anxious to get some mileage out of our day. We made our first stop, which happened not to connect to the Wonderland trail (poor navigating on my part), but did give us a nice view of Christine Falls - that is, once we ambled down the slick snowy slope of a trail to the viewpoint. Again, Karina was the daring one, sliding down, whereas I was doing my best to dig in with each step and inched down the trail. The view was fine and dandy, but it wasn't our trail, and we quickly left to go to our intended destination - Narada Falls, which connects with the Wonderland Trail.

After walking for that short bit at Christine Falls, we weren't surprised to see that Narada Falls was pretty snowy, and other hikers preparing for their days had hiking poles, gaters, and some even snowshoes. Our time had diminished significantly and we were not prepared to hike on snowy terrain. With a deep sigh we decided to call it a day and swing through Paradise before heading out, this being our second or third failed attempt at hiking (remember our friend the fox and his interference with our hiking?).

We headed to the visitors center, made our way through the HUGE crowds there to sled, and then found a pullout on our way back down the mountain to stop and take in the views. Karina sketched and I wrote poetry. It was a decent way to end a hike-less day on the mountain.

As we approach spring and summer, we are beginning to anticipate backpacking trips and long days of hiking. Look forward for some planning blogs to come!

**Also - We'll get photos up from this non-hike, and the last hike soon! It's been a hectic month!

Fresh 2010

We FINALLY made it up to the mountain this January - barely! Our new year's resolution is to hike twice a month, or every two weeks. The last time we hiked (though not on Rainier) was just before Christmas at Cascade Head, on the Oregon coast. However, we have done plenty of venturing around Seattle, and we're going to count those in on the resolution. Don't fret, the final constraints of our resolution is as follows: hike twice a month, at least once on Rainier. Wonderland, here we come!

So, in honor of our resolution as well as in search of respite after a challenging week, we headed up to the mountain bright and early Saturday morning. After dropping our good friend Claudia off at the airport at 7am, we headed straight to the mountain, stopping only briefly for some espresso. Once we entered Mt. Rainier National park we decided to drive all the way up to Paradise to see what we could see, and play in the visitor's center for a few minutes, before embarking on our hike. Our hike was to be a short one, as I was limited on time, but we made sure we would cover some new ground on the Wonderland trail. After reaching Paradise, we quickly discovered two things: one, the snow was falling and the roads were getting slick - this side trip was going to be more time consuming than we had thought, and two, the visitor's center was closed for cleaning (on a Saturday morning!!!). So we used the facilities, and quickly jumped back in my truck to take it easy back down toward Longmire, where we would begin our hike. Time was ticking, and we hoped we would accomplish the small chunk of the trail we had chosen for the day.

Arriving back at Longmire at 9:45 or so, we quickly jumped onto the trail. We were going to hike the section of the Wonderland trail that goes between Longmire and Cougar Rock campground. We weren't ten steps in before Karina stopped walking and started feeling nauseous. Because she was "probably going to throw up," we walked over into a picnic area alongside the first leg of the trail, to clear the way for other hikers. After a few moments of indecision and upset stomach, Karina decided she was ok and that we should continue forward (though should she feel sick again we would turn right back around). So we continued forward.

This section of the Wonderland trail is pretty easy, with some rolling terrain, but no significant elevation gain whatsoever. For a good portion of this 1.6 miles out hike, we lumbered along the Nisqually river, which provided the few stunning views we experienced. The more interesting parts of this trail were the several upturned trees, exposing vast root systems beneath. We hopped over a couple of fallen trees and Karina even squeezed into the cavern created by a giant fallen tree. All in all we made it out to the junction with Cougar Rock campground before our turn-around time, and returned to Longmire with a few minutes to explore the gift shop and invest in some Mt. Rainier paraphernalia to display: two stickers and a patch.

Mileage completed on the Wonderland trail 1/30/10 - 1.6
Total mileage completed on the Wonderland trail - 7.11

WL 5.52 : Fox = New BFF

This last trip to the mountain did not go exactly as planned… not that it even was planned. It was a split second decision: on our way to the Yelm Starbucks to go do homework, we caught eye of the mountain in its beaming splendor and couldn’t not go up. So almost as quickly as Starbucks busted out our drinks, we busted out of town.

Our “plan” was to get to the park, rent some one-dollar snowshoes from the mountain, hit a section of the Wonderland trail by Paradise, where it would be relatively

flat, then head home and get back to studying. However it didn’t quite go as we had anticipated. On our way up, the part of the trail we left off at was clear enough to “normal shoe” on, but we decided to continue on to Paradise to maybe try out some snowshoes anyway. The one-dollar snowshoe rental was part of a guided ranger hike, which hadn’t yet started, and the other snowshoe rental was a good eight bucks. Snowshoeing, negative.

On our way out the visitor center we saw a fox and a very foolish man trying to feed it. We took lots of pictures of the fox, and became friends with him/her. Then he/she followed us (in the truck) down the road. Probably expecting food. Loren suggested taking him/her home, but I felt that stealing a fox from a National Park might have us doing time. But we probably spent at least half an hour, maybe more, with the fox.

Loren found her old car at a trail head.

Finally we thought it necessary that we at least touch part of the Wonderland trail. So we drove down to where we thought we left off, got in a huge fight about which way we were supposed to go and did something like this:

A little ridiculous. But we have an incredible sense of place in the Longmire area. And will now be prepared for next time, whether we snowshoe or normal shoe. Life on a mountain… if only.

- Karina

As they say, "if you can walk, you can snowshoe!"

It has been a long time since we've hit the mountain. We are thirsty for the mountain air and the sweeping views of glacier and stone - especially after a long fall semester of classes and sometimes frustrating living situations. So, to satisfy our dry mouths, to flood our drought with some good ole' mountain, we set out to drive up there and play in the snow last Sunday. After several days of spectacular weather and beautiful sunrises and sunsets during my commute, the mountain went into hiding, shrouded in typical western Washington winter weather - cloudy, rainy/snowy and cold. We decided not to brave the driving conditions, or expend the money on gas, let alone the precious 'study' time before finals, for just a possibility of a glimpse of the mountain.

Thus, we decided to fill some of our study-break time this week with mountain trip planning, utilizing our two new maps: one mini, gore-tex, waterproof, tear-proof version of the standard National Park Service map, including the Wonderland trail elevation profile map and six other must hike trail highlights. The other is a National Geographic, waterproof, tear-proof, topological map with a highlighted Wonderland trail that includes mileage along the trail, as well as all the backcountry camps and ranger stations.

After admiring the maps, we decided that we need to get out and go snowshoeing soon - and to further that desire we watched the snowshoeing tutorials on REI.com. Of course now we are experts in the sport, and ready to hit the trail as soon as possible... right?! We did put some good thought into it, picking a part of the Wonderland trail that is both accessible and relatively flat to begin with. We've looked into renting snowshoes at either REI or on Ft. Lewis, or borrow, for free, ones on the Mountain itself. We might even try to make it to a snowshoeing seminar at REI sometime soon. The goal: to get on the mountain by the end of December. Snowshoeing by the end of January. To be continued...

WL 5.5 : Are You Afraid of the Dark?

With a sunny Sunday upon us, we decided to trek up to the mountain and pick up the Wonderland trail where we left off. We arrived at Longmire at about 2:00pm and were on the trail at 2:15. We began by heading up Rampart Ridge, to see all that we missed in the foggy hike we took last time - and how much we missed! To begin with, we found where the mountain actually sat in perspective from the ridge, which was opposite from where we thought it was last time. We were in awe the moment we came around the corner and beheld the mountain glimmering in the sun. Karina actually fell to her knees when we saw it. And we hadn't even hit the Wonderland trail yet. After a photo op, we continued forward to the junction between Rampart Ridge and the Wonderland trail.

We intended to hike to Mirror Lakes, which we estimated to be about 5-7 miles up the trail from the junction, however without it marked on the sign, we had no idea exactly how far it was. We hiked on anyway, and hiked, and hiked some more. Once we left the junction we walked through several different layers of mountain land. We crossed three forks of Kautz Creek and saw some
spectacular views of the mountain, hiking over narrow log bridges and through the sandy shores of the water. Then we reentered the common forest - the one that everyone pictures when you think of a forest in the mountains - towering pine trees, shadows on the ground. However, the next layer we entered was something like we've never seen. It was this space that existed in limbo between life and death. Almost half the trees were fallen, and ashen gray. The other half were lively and green. It was bizarre, but carried with it its own beauty. At this point the forest morphed back into what I have been calling the 'common' forest and we continued to hike, upwards once more. We'd been hiking for a good 4 hours at this point, and realized we needed to turn around soon. Unfortunately we hadn't reached another backcountry camp, or anything to confirm what mileage we had achieved, but we were racing against the daylight and had to turn back.


As fast as we hiked, and though we turned back to avoid hiking in the dark, we still weren't fast enough and ended up doing the last two miles down from Rampart Ridge in the dark. This meant that we caught a spectacular sunset, but hiking in the dark is far from ideal. After plenty of stumbling and some miraculous luck we ended up at Longmire without any injuries or anything. Lesson learned - don't hike without flashlights, and try your best to avoid hiking in the dark.
Mileage on the Wonderland trail - 3.5 miles. Total mileage - 13.

- Loren

the setting sun view from Rampart Ridge

WL 2.0

Arising at the early hour of 6:50 am, Karina and I began what will be the best adventure of our early adult years. We started the Wonderland trail, a 93 some-odd mile hike that circles around Mt. Rainier. If you don't know, Mt. Rainier is the tallest mountain in the lower forty-eight, towering a massive 14,411 feet above sea-level - it's beautiful and demands the attention of any eyes within sight. Calling hikers and climbers of all levels, Mt. Rainier is a prime spot to stretch your legs and take in the splendor of the northwest, which is exactly what Karina and I intend to do.

Starting this morning we took a hike, a 5 mile hike on the Rampart Ridge loop, 2 miles of which was the Wonderland Trail. It was a cloudy, crisp morning, without a trace of the gorgeous, snowy mountain in the sky, but, hiking is hiking and even without a view we were determined to enjoy the green (and when I say green, I mean green) forest, with or without the mountain. So we hiked. We gained 1/10 of the mountain's elevation over a measly hour, and that was only during the first 2 miles of the hike. To say the least, I was sucking wind pretty bad. Karina claims she was out of shape too, but really it was just me. But I survived, as did she. Once we cleared the 2 miles of switchbacks, the trail leveled out along the ridge and then plummeted down some switchbacks to lead us back to Longmire. We had to take the last three miles at a decent pace to get home in time for other obligations and were bounding downwards pretty quickly when my stupid foot landed funny and rolled my previously sprained ankle. Then we had to stop so I could put on my brace before we continued the voyage back. We finished the loop in a total of 2 hours. Wonderland trail part 1 - check.

- Loren