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
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