A Wow Every Turn

Yesterday was simply the most amazing hike I have ever done.  Truly.  Worth every bug bite (I've counted over a dozen itchy welts so far...and most were through my clothes). Worth the achy muscles and joints (it was a challenging hike I'm still feeling after a hot bath, neck rub from boyfriend, Advil and 9.5 hours of hard sleep).  Worth every little annoyance and groan along the trail (and there were only a few of those...mostly due to steep, rocky trail conditions).  

Hanna came along with me.  She's a previous student of mine...and we've done a lot together.  I've hung from a harness at 70+ above the ground with her on Orcas Island and she heard more than a few expletives come from me during that ropes course...oopsie.  We spent 6 cold and raining days together on a camping trip to Yellowstone.  We've hiked & geo-cached in the Snoqualmie Pass together.  And she's seen me whiff it on the mountain and have to be carted away by ski patrol.  She knows me, she knows my limits.  I know her.  I know her limits.  I can honestly say that we make a great team...I'm not sure what exactly she gets from doing all this stuff with me...but I know I get a lot of inspiration, support and tons of fun being with her.  

We met Amanda, an art teacher visiting from Atlanta who wanted to hike Rainier.  It was fun getting to know Amanda and join her on this trip...and I certainly owe her one, because I never would have considered taking the trip down to Mt. Rainier Park just for a day hike...but now I can't wait to get back.  Amanda is a speedy hiker...so it was a really good reminder for me that I have to hike within my own limits and not push myself to keep up with someone else because I'm worried about their needs.  I think I did the best job I've ever done on a hike of focusing on my needs, my pace, my journey that I've ever done...all my work is finally paying off!  

So, the hike itself.  Woof...a killer killah.  3.75 miles up to 5900 feet to an old (but not abandoned) fire lookout tower on the top of Tolmie Peak (so that's 7.5 miles round trip).  They "say" that you are gaining 1100 feet...this is bullshit.  I found this elevation chart on Trails.com (a site that wants what I think is a lot of money, but with really helpful things like this elevation chart...might just be worth it if you hike all the time).  You can see how this trail breaks Lorien's Rules of Ideal Hiking...it goes down on the first half of the trail...and by a LOT.  So you start off gaining 500 of your 1100 total elevation gain...but then you lose half of it!  Which means you have to regain that 250 feet and also regain it when you go back!  So the elevation difference from the bottom of the trail to the top of the trail might be 1100 ft...but the total amount of "up" that your feet are trudging is 1600 ft!!  And the feet know...this is a big difference.  And I'm sure you can tell from looking at this map...parts of this puppy are STEEP! No wonder the PNW Leisure Hikers have this hike labeled "Challenging" when all of the guides say "Moderate"...it's only moderate if you are really in shape!

Mt. Rainier is back there...really.

But as I said...worth every annoyance, ache, pain and groan.  It took us just over three and a half hours to make it up to the top to the top (and around 2 to get down).  We started walking along the shores of a lovely alpine lake, Mowich Lake.  We didn't know because of the haze in the air that Mt. Rainier was right behind us.  In fact, there were numerous times that Mt. Rainier was in our view...but we didn't know where to look.  The trail went gradually up from the lake...and then went steeply down hill.  This part of the trail was in the worst condition...really rocky with lots of huge roots you had to maneuver over...I was really glad I had my trekking poles (actually Tom's...thanks Tom!) to help me keep my balance and foist me up some really steep "steps" in the rocks & roots.  It was all old forest with huge cliffs on one side and steep fall aways on the other.  This was one place that Rainier was actually right beside us...but we thought the white beside us was sky...not snow on the mountain...we figured that out on the way back.  After the steep down...we started a steep up...so steep, the National Park service actually put stairs much of the way...steep, steep stairs.  

Finally...the steepness mellowed out and we walked out of the woods into a lovely meadow  surrounding another alpine lake, Eunice Lake. The first time we actually saw Mt. Rainier was when we stopped for lunch at here...we had just finished taking pictures of Tolmie Peak and the tiny tower we could see at the top.  Bemoaning the fact that we still had that huge cliff to go up (along switchbacks, of course), we decided to hop out on to a little stone island and rest up before the big climb. 

There was no question of not doing the climb as we "knew" Mt. Rainier was on the other side of that peak, and we had climbed all this way to see Mt. Rainier. As we were making our way down to the little island, I turned around for some reason.  And there, behind us, as she had been for much of the trail up, was Mt. Rainier...peaking over the tress...and HUGE. 

It was the first time I screamed "WOW!" along the trail...I had many more "WOW!"s to scream.  It wasn't the greatest view (that was left to come)...but it was awesome nonetheless.  I pushed the gals to finish eating and get back on the trail up to the peak for the piece de resistance.    

Believe it or not, the trek up the switchbacks to the lookout tower was not that bad...the trail up to Eunice Lake was much tougher because of the trail condition...but this section was well-kept and steady.  We were warned by several folks we met along the way that the bugs at the top were bad...and they were...I ate several just opening my mouth to scream "WOW!" at the views.  No amount of bug spray seemed to help...they were ravenous and we were lunch.  But the views from the top were so, so worth it. Enjoy.

The way down was much faster...Hanna told me I was a "power hiker"...I just wanted to keep my heart rate up and squeeze all the exercise out of it as I could.  Mt. Rainier followed us all the way down...and it was just breathtaking all the way.  

 Hike-a-thon stats to date:  14.5 miles hiked, $212 earned ($12 for the 11.5 miles that buddies came along with me).  Sunday, Tom, Penny & I are going to tackle Little Si.  And next week...I think I might drag Hanners back out to Mt. Rainier National Park!