2 posts tagged “mount rainier”
So my brother and I make plans every year to go do something fun. Just him and I, we leave the rest of the family and spouses behind to have some bonding time. We usually do things like white water rafting, camping or hiking. We always have a really good time where ever we go too. So we've come to call our outings "BroSis" events. We missed the last couple years though due to, well life and other things.
So our 2006 BroSis, starts out as a day hike near Mount Rainier. Which evolves and changes into a photographic expedition and campout on the flanks of the mountain. It always happens like this, and we love it that way. So with some research, we decide that for the rare picturesque scenery that we want it will entail a long hike into the true wilderness. We want shots that not everyone has, not the boring kind you see taken from some along the roadside National Park scenic lookout. Nope, we have to do things the hard way. And we like it that way.
I went up to the Ipsut Ranger Station to aquire our permit on Friday morning. You need a permit for camping in the backcountry, which is just where we were going. Our original plan had us going 7.9 miles in and staying overnight on the flanks of Mount Rainier. Upon arriving at the Ranger Station I found that all of the spots at our destination were completely filled. Ranger Jean did her best to find us a spot close to where we were planning on going, but every other open spot landed us miles beyond our goal or 6 or more miles off of a spur trail out of the way. Our only other option was to take up the last spot at Carbon River campground, which was about 3.5 miles in, which was alot less than we had planned on. At first we were bummed out, but this would prove to be a good omen later on.
I picked up some cookies my Mom made for us on the way home and busted my hump to get back home and jump back into bed so I could get some well needed rest before leaving. I got up around midnight, Ras being the absolute sweetheart that he is had a pot of coffee made for me and I began to swill it down while I repacked my gear, double checked my list and threw all my crap into the car to make the drive up to my brother's house, an hour away.
I give my brother a wakeup call at around 4:00am while I am en route to his place. I arrive about 40 minutes later and we begin stuffing his Blazer full of our gear. I divvy up the food... all dehydrated and freeze dried stuff and he groans as he has to find room for it all. I console him with the promise of special treats hidden in my pack for later, and he stops his groaning long enough to get the rest of his gear ready. We jump in the car and we start the one hour roll to our trail head, while watching X-Men III on dvd. We enjoy the last comfy cushiony seats that we will have on our big butts for the next couple of days.
We pull into the Ipsut
Entrance, the Ranger toll box is closed up. I thought ahead and had
already bought our pass to park and put our back country permit number
on it, so we roll right on through and proceeded down the 4 miles of
gravel road to our trailhead. Now for the official journal.
Some
of my journal entries have specific information, like time and
elevation and some do not. We will chock it up to either the GPS not
finding a sattelite or my laziness/tiredness.
08/12 07.45am Loc 46° 58.501N, 121° 49.743W Elevation: 2200'
We
have arrived at the parking area where our trail begins. We've already
got our backcountry permit, which I make sure to fasten to my backpack
before I go off and forget it. (how bad would that have sucked to
forget it and have to trek all the way back down to get it arrrg!) We
find that one of the Nalgene bottles has a bum seal on it and it has
spilled energy drink all over everything. Luckily, the ultralight
packs we got are silicon infused nylon and they repel the drink like
water off a duck's back. We curse and mumble and clean up all the
spilled drink. We take a moment before donning our packs to scarf down
the ham, egg and cheese croissant sandwiches that I made for our
breakfast and we dip into the stash of cookies my Mom sent home with
me. Thanks Mama! We decide to leave a few cookies behind in the SUV
for a treat when we get off the trail on our way home. We find the
stinky PooHouses near the trailhead and take one last pit stop.
I'm writing my journal on the hood of the Blazer, enjoying the warmth of the engine, waiting for Dusty to finish taking his dump. It's a bit nippy and I am wondering if I should pack that extra fleece shirt or take my chances. It is extra ounces added to my pack... hmmm I think I'll take my chances. I look over at my pack, it looks heavy already. wtf am I thinking!?
Dusty finally returns, lighter in step and better of mood. We joke about the smell of the latrines... they smell like old people who pee themselves, and then we joke about how it won't be too long before we are those very same type of old people. We clumsily throw on our packs and I am thinking "Hey, this 28 pounds doesn't feel so dang bad!" I will, of course, change my tune later down the trail. Our walkie talkies are set to the same channel, we test them out with a series of corny roger-roger jokes. And we are off!!!!
It's obvious to me at this point that my boots are not
as broken in as I would have liked them to be. My arch on the right
foot start immediately burning with pain. Fabulous. We start our
ascent, which will be a long gradual all uphill one and I try to
compensate by bearing more load on my left. We aren't even a half mile
in and I'm experiencing all kinds of lameness. A little while later my
left butt cheek decides to wrench up on me, right as we clear the
forest and roll into a sheer drop down jaggged rocks on our left.
Dusty is about 20 yards ahead of me and we keep in touch via the walkie
talkies making jokes the whole way about being gimps, old and not
remembering the trail being this hard. At this point neither of us
have done any picture taking, we just wanted to plow through the
annoying uphill parts of the trail and get them over with.
Okay, so surely you are all bored to tears so far with this long winded post. I'll leave you to digest this portion and I will come back with some more of our adventure and this time.... pictures too!
So this week.. it's been hell.
I have been preparing myself mentally and physically for a backcountry camping excursion with my brother on the flanks of Mount Rainier. We will be near the 7000' elevation mark, which is nearly half way up... nestled between the Winthrop and Carbon Glaciers. All in all our trip will be 15.8 miles round trip. We will end up at a sun warmed glacial lake and see some flower speckled moraines while travelling through some inland rain forests, across a large suspension bridge and through some old growth forest action.
Why?
Because we can. Maybe. I hope.
Already my feet are killing me... my new Timberlands are nice to look at but they need some serious breaking in before my feet are ready to call them home. Monday I took my niece to climb Little Si in North Bend, yeah it's not so little. And it was nothing but up up up through switchbacks being baked in the light of the sun. Both of us were dying. But we did it, and came back down vowing to do something shrouded in shadey trees on Thursday.
The first three miles of the grand hike is pretty easy. I have done it about 15 times. It's the last leg of it, I have done it once and only to the top of the ridge parellelling the Carbon Glacier. I am trepidacious of that last leg. It's been like... forever since I've taken on a hike like this. In fact it's been since my spinal fracture that left me the fat lump of crap that I am today. The great thing I am finding out about all the prep (we are going "Ultralight") is that I am finding myself inspired and wanting to do even more challenging hikes. I woke up this morning and decided that I will use the rest of this season to get myself back into form and train during the winter and spring for a full Wonderland Trail hike in 2007. That is 93 miles around the entire base of the dormant volcanic Mount Rainier. I am figuring that by the time I am ready to do it, I am going to attempt it in 10 days. That is pretty average, I just don't want to cut myself short and end up a shriveled blister footed corpse on some trail pass along the way due to exhaustion. Now I just need to find an adventurous trail buddy who wants to hang with my stank for 10 days, since Ras told me "Have fun!" when I mentioned it to him.
Maybe 2008 will be a summit quest... that would rock!
REI has wtfpwned my wallet. Damn them.
Wish me luck and hope that a black bear doesn't mistake me for a big fat juicy huckleberry!
