| Summary | |
| Owner | MITOC Gallery Administrator |
| Creation Date | 2005-08-25 16:26:12 UTC-0400 |
| Description | Hiking near Mt. Rainier We arrived in Seattle and were picked up by Summer's aunt, who we stayed with. This was the first time we visited Summer's family in Seattle, and we had a wonderful time catching up and talking with the Lovells. They have a beautiful house right on the shore of Lake Washington with a great view of Rainier from their back porch. The Lovells (Mary, Steve, and cousin Matt) suggested that we drive out to Rainier and go on their favorite dayhike. We got up not-so-early on Saturday morning and stopped at a wonderful little bakery in Black Diamond in route for cookies and potato rolls. After grabbing some food for lunch, we continued on to the trailhead at Chinook Pass, right on the border between Rainier National Park and Snoqualomie National Forest. We stuck to the Snoqualomie side because we had Luke the Labrador with us, and dogs aren't allowed in Rainier. Summer was amazed at the trails in the west--nice grade, not too many rocks, no jumping around. She was VERY happy when I told her that most trails out here would be like that--she's not a big fan of New England's rocky, striaght-up-the-mountain trails. We had a nice gentle hike to Sheep Pond, where we grabbed a bite to eat and played fetch with Luke, who can fetch as long as he has a pulse. After our Sheep's Pond stop, we continued up the trail to Sourdough Gap with views of Mt. Adams. We grabbed lunch at the top of Sourdough Gap and admired the view across the valley on the other side. Up to this point, we didn't have a view of Rainier, so we decided to take a little scramble up an unnamed promentory near us. Since we were at the park boundary, Mary stayed with Luke while the rest of us jaunted up the slippery scree to the top. Up top, we were treated to magnificant views of Rainier and the surrounding ranges. Spectacular! Crystal Lake laid just below us. After taking in the view, we headed back down to meet Mary and journey back to the trailhead. After getting to the car, we decided to head around the mountain to Paradise, where there's a restaraunt. We got there just as the sun was setting, and were treated to good food after a bit of a wait for a table at the popular place. |