We said our goodbyes to our briefest of the national parks, The North Cascades, hopped in the car and made a B-line for the great city of Seattle. Seattle is by far one of my favorite cities, the ocean, great food, nice folk, and it's extremely easy to navigate.
The drive down was uneventful, though full of anticipation. Our first stop had to be the REI headquarter store. We used to visit the store when we were kids living in Tacoma Washington, and going back was like going to Disneyland after a long absence. This store is nothing less than incredible. Hiking trails to test boots, a mountain bike test track, a river to test canoes and kayaks, the tallest freestanding climbing structure in the world, and even a rain room to test jackets. I would highly recommend visiting REI whenever in Seattle.
Itching to get to Mount Rainier National Park, we had a quick lunch at a former burger place, who's catch phrase is "Where six pieces of bacon is normal", and got back on the road.
We finished the short two hour drive to Mount Rainier, which has the most snow in the world right now, and just looks like a big white dome rising from the valley floor. Upon arrival we were greeted by the same type of campground as the North Cascades, lush undergrowth, tall trees, and logs covered in moss. Beautiful. We set up camp and took what time we had left in the afternoon to drive up to the visitors center and see what sort of hike we could do the next day. The ranger tried to talk us out of it, but we settled on the ambitious glacial hike to the Muir base camp just two miles from the rainier summit.
Our campsite was perfect for parkour due to the fallen trees, and well placed picnic tables. So I spent the next two hours leaping, climbing and hanging around camp, I was able to perfect my kong, and made some major advancement with my dash. If your not sure what I'm talking about, that's what YouTube is for.
Day 33
We woke early enough to get a good start on the mountain, figuring we could follow one of the guided expeditions up the mountain. The staging area for the climb was located in the parking lot of the visitors center, due to the heavy snow covering the mountain. We arrived promptly at 9:30am and psyched ourselves up for the 4.5 mile, 4700ft elevation gain hike. The first two miles would have been a paved path had the winter not been so harsh, instead we trudged through the snow. It was a good hike, we reached the Muir ice field within an hour and half, passing several hikers, and skiers along the way. Crossing the ice field was a slow grueling climb, partially because we had to be cautious of the steep ice, mostly due to the 2700ft in 2.5 miles. Almost rivaling that of Grigornio mountain in Southern California.
We reached the base camp, just a stones throw from the summit, yet so far. As the climb to the summit crosses dangerous crevasses and crumbling rock jutting from the glaciers. While at the base camp we had the opportunity to watch a group of Air Force survival instructors practicing self arrests and crevasse rescues for their push to the summit tomorrow. Our view from the semi-summit of the Rainier volcano we could see mount Hood, Adams and st. Helens. All giant volcanos. Despite the view the cold wind was cutting to the bone, so we started our swift decent.
The Muir ice field is so steep and wide that instead of trying to walk back down most people opt to slide. At the steepest points we would have a seat in one of the groove slides cut into the face of the glacier from peoples butts. Some of these slides extended as far as 1/4 of a mile and allowed speeds around 25 mph. Of course we got soaked doing this, but what a blast! In the areas not steep enough for slides we would half jog, half slide our feet quickly down the hill. The hike that took us 4 hours up, only took us 1.5 hours to get back down. Another feather in the cap.
We didn't find out until a few days after Rainier, but a good friend of our family climbed the same trail the very next day, he probably slid the same chutes we did.
MILEAGE:
Driving-
This trip: 213
Total: 4625
Walking-
This trip: 10
Total:199
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