two mountains and 60 years of marriage!

Hello everyone!

I had a wonderful weekend up in the mountains and followed up by a trip to Seattle to see family. Thursday afternoon I headed up towards Trout Lake on Mt Adams. I made a brief stop at the Bonneville Dam fish hatchery where I checked out the ponds of giant rainbow trout and the sturgeon which are truly enormous (ten feet long!). I arrived at Wampler’s house in Trout Lake and set up my tent in his backyard. I headed down to the Inn where I talked with friends and some visitors while enjoying a nice cold beer (Rogue Dead Guy) on the porch. The mountain was perfect and huge though I’m always amazed by how fast the snow melts off. It was just as hot in Trout Lake as in Portland (over 100 degrees!).

Jason and Wampler showed up and we walked to the swimming hole just moments away from the Inn. Having just spent time swimming in the warm waters of Minnesota I was very surprised by how cold the water was. On such a scorching hot day it felt perfect. We hung out on the rock, cooking in the sun until we were too warm and would jump into the cold water which not too long ago was snow on Mt Adams. We stayed for a few hours and then walked back up to the Inn for $1 taco night. We hung out at the Inn for a long time, talking with friends on the porch and laughing.

Friday morning I woke up in my tent and knew it was going to be a crazy hot day. Wampler’s thermometer in the sun said it was 90 degrees at 9 AM. I made some coffee and Wamp & I sat in the shade in his backyard. I went out into his garden and picked peas, zucchini, green beans and tons and tons of raspberries. We made raspberry milkshakes for lunch then froze the rest of the berries. They were sublime. In the afternoon we headed down to the swimming hole again where we hung out with friends and drank cold beers in the hot sun. That cold swimming hole is the most fantastic thing on a hot day. We stayed for several hours until we motivated to prepare for the bbq that Jason was going to be hosting. We ended up moving the bbq to Danny’s house as Jason, who works for the Forest Service, had been called out to a fire. We cooked up tons of food on the grill on the upper deck of Danny’s sweet A-frame house. Around sunset the sky started turning crazy shades of orange and pink. I borrowed Wamp’s truck and hightailed it to Trout Lake, the lake itself, with it’s beautiful views of Mt Adams and Sleeping Beauty. The sky was awash in intense pink light and I was the only person there. I grinned and marveled at how beautiful Trout Lake is.

Back at Danny’s I was congratulated for making the effort to capture the stunning sunset. More and more friends came by and we all hung out on the deck talking and drinking beers and cold water. I wanted to get an early start the next morning so Wamp and I left pretty early. I sat in the back yard for a bit a looked up at the zillions of stars before crawling into my tent for the night.

I woke up around 7 and quickly showered, made coffee and packed up all my stuff. By 8 AM I was on the road. I had decided to take the Forest Service roads up and around Mt Adams and then up to Packwood. From there it’s just a short drive to Mt Rainier. I entered the national park and made my way up to Paradise. I parked and began my hike. There was cloud cover which I was quite grateful for. It was so warm even at that high elevation. I think I would have gotten heat stroke during my climb up if the sun had been glaring down on me. Gina & I had hiked the same trail last July but this year’s heavy snow was still apparent. There were plenty of wildflowers but meadows were not as jammed as they were the previous year. In another few weeks I think the lupine will really be going. The earlier flowers like avalanche lilies and old man on the mountain were going strong and there was also plenty of beautiful bright pink Indian paintbrush. As I ascended the Skyline Trail I was surprised by the amount of snow still on the trail itself. At one point I passed some national park service employees who were putting poles and ropes across a snowfield to mark where the trail should be. I occasionally scooped up some snow and rubbed it on my neck to cool down. I knew this was rubbing off my sunscreen but I thought I’d deal with sunburn later rather than heatstroke now. As I hiked higher and higher my view of the Nisqually Glacier grinding down the mountain became more and more spectacular. Above timberline there was lots more snow. I stopped at a view point and watched the huge waterfalls coursing over the cliffs and tiny groups of climbers like ants going up the massive mountain. This is still one of the most incredible hikes I have ever done. I suspect it’s one I’ll try and squeeze in every year. An annual trip to Paradise sounds like a wonderful tradition.

I stopped at Panorama Point to eat my lunch. The elevation at this point is 6800 feet. I ate a bagel and had a clementine. There were very aggressive chipmunks running around; they clearly had been fed by too many hikers. There was also a big hoary marmot (what a name!) running around on the rocks. Behind me loomed massive Mt Rainier while in front of me was the Tatoosh Range still dotted with snowfields and Mt Adams in the distance. I got back on the trail and discovered that Lower Skyline Trail was closed due large amounts of snow and steep ice on the trail. Strangely enough the Upper Skyline Trail was open though there was definitely snow still lingering. After going up for a bit the trail begins to descend quickly. I watched several hikers glissade down a huge snowfield. It looked fun but they all said it hurt as the snow was very rough in places. As the trail descended back below the treeline the wildflowers appeared again. I snapped zillions of pictures and generally freaked out over the gorgeousness. I must say it was a little strange to do such a hike by myself but given that I was on my way from Trout Lake to a family dinner in Seattle I was alone. I was able to hike at my own pace and stop to take photos without holding anyone up.

At the bottom of the trail as I was walking past the Paradise Lodge I saw two small fawns on the edge of the woods. They drank from a small creek and walked around the trees looking at me with curiosity. I snapped a few pictures and was grateful for my good fortune. I walked down past the visitors center and to my car in the crazy parking lot. The lodge at Paradise is undergoing major renovation so the construction has greatly affected parking in what is already the most congested part of Mt Rainier. I changde my close and cleaned up as best I could in a park bathroom. I got in my car and started going down the mountain. I stopped at a bridge high above the Nisqually River, chocolate brown from it’s glaciermelt. I exited the park and began working my way over to Seattle on little highways. I stopped in a little town to hang out in a park and just get out of the car for a bit. It was so hot though that I didn’t last long before going back to my air-conditioned car.

I arrived in Kirkland shortly before our 7:30 dinner reservations at Anthony’s Homeport. I sat on a bench and watched the boats on Lake Washington before walking down the street to the restaurant. I was the first to arrive so I was seated at the giant table by myself and ordered a beer. Soon after almost everyone arrived at once. We had gathered to celebrate my grandparents’ 60th anniversary. All my cousins were there (all three of them!) and my aunts and uncles as well as my brother and sister. Everyone was taking photos and videos and laughing and talking. My sixteen year old cousin David ate a whole basket of bread displaying the insatiable appetite of a teenage boy. Uncle Wayne ordered oyster shooters which Sara, Jeremy and I all happily did will others were totally disgusted by the raw oysters. Yummmm! I had a fantastic piece of Alaskan Halibut with a northwest berry sauce. I also tried Sara’s crab cakes, Jeremy’s fried oysters and my grandpa’s mahi mahi. It was all delicious! After dinner we all headed back to Buzz & Barb’s house. Barb had made a wonderful slideshow movie with scanned in photos, both recent and old, which we watched in the living room projected onto a big screen. Grandma & Grandpa opened their presents and then we had cake and some amazing homemade blueberry ice cream. It was around midnight when people began leaving. I was staying the night, not willing to drive the 3 hours back to Portland so late and after a day of so much driving already.

In the morning I picked blueberries with my Uncle Buzz while drinking my morning coffee. They have several blueberry bushes and they were all absolutely loaded with berries. We brought in the berries and my Aunt Barb whipped up some fantastic blueberry waffles. We watched some old videos of my visit to Washington when I was 12 (18 years ago!). I finally motivated myself to hit the road and hugged everyone goodbye. It was an uneventful drive home with out any traffic nightmares. It was scorching hot in Portland (100 something degrees). I went to Elaine and Gina’s house to get my pictures off the camera & begin posting them to flickr. Elaine and Dave got home from Trout Lake as they had gone up there just about the time I was leaving Trout Lake for Mt Rainier. We hung out on the porch and talked for a while before I went home to finally unpack. I was happy to sleep in my own bed, something I’ve been missing out on lately with all my travels. This coming weekend I’ve decided to give away my camping reservations on Hood Canal (the southern end of Puget Sound). Instead I’ll be sailing with Sara & Jeremy up in the San Juan Islands. Such tough decisions I have to make! It should be sunny and wonderful. I’m excited to explore some islands I’ve never seen and maybe maybe maybe I’ll get to see some killer whales. My eyeballs might just pop out of their sockets and heart burst from happiness. I love summer!

Please let me know how you are and what you’ve been doing. I hope all is well!

Xoxo,
carolyn