Hello from the Staggering Ox in Helena! I’ve been eagerly waiting for this update point for months, I love the food here! Now that my Philly Cheese-Steak Quesadilla is in my belly (I’ve recreated it at home, but it’s just not quite as good…) I am finally ready to get a little writing done…

And a little really may be all it is, I actually don’t have a whole lot to be long-winded about today. (As my devoted followers all breathe a collective sigh of relief…) There was the potential for drama Friday morning, but that worked out about as well as I could have hoped. My gas gauge had been on “E” since sometime Thursday, and I knew I’d be pushing it to make it back to Naches to fill up again when I left Mount Rainier. I passed up gas in Cliffdell, having driven that way a couple days before, I knew it was about 40 cents more a gallon than it was in Naches, and I knew it was only sixteen miles further…except that I “knew” wrong and was misreading the map, the road between Cliffdell and Naches was where the spine of my map was and I miscalculated. Instead it wound up being twenty-five miles (not much of a difference I know, but I knew I was Really pushing it). I ran out of gas as I turned into the gas station in Naches. I take this as proof that my 4Runner loves me. This is the second time I’ve had that happen (both times I’ve run out of gas it happened as I pulled into the gas station), once in Alaska as well. Yes, my car loves me and I love it. Unlike that evil, lemon of a Jetta that I used to own…its whole sense of purpose was to make my life miserable, I’m sure of it!

I stopped at my sister’s house in Spokane and borrowed their internet connection for a while (they also fed me lunch, thanks!!!) and hurried to get that update posted, but I was slow enough there that I didn’t quite make it to Glacier National Park in time to catch sunset over Lake McDonald. It actually rained for quite a while and I thought I might not have to feel guilty about running late (and I was wishing I’d gotten the oil change after all, as well as showered when I had a chance) but it cleared up and looked like there was indeed a good sunset at the lake. Ahh well. I awoke the next morning to gloom, and after a quick trip up to Avalanche Creek, I headed towards the other side of the park. The clouds were so thick that I never saw any of the mountains until I was well over Logan Pass. I hiked out to the Hidden Lake overlook, which really was only interesting because of the mountain goats that kept posing for pictures. One actually stood on the trail just a couple feet from me.

I caught sunrise over Wild Goose Island yesterday morning, though it rather lacked any pretty colors, and then headed up to the Many Glacier section of the park. The hike up to Grinnell Glacier was roughly twelve miles roundtrip from the campground, but since the elevation gain wasn’t horrible, it didn’t feel that long. Unfortunately it was extremely hazy the whole way up (and down) so my pictures of Lower Grinnell Lake aren’t terribly exciting. The glacier itself was well worth the hike though, it’s not-so-slowly melting, and I was fascinated with the small icebergs that were floating across the lake in the wind. The hike was also nice in that I met a lot of really great people, who all seemed to be from the Midwest area – a couple from Petoskey, MI who filled me in on all the changes to Traverse City (apparently they’re not so into cherries there now and vineyards are the new craze), a family from Indianapolis, and two families who both happened to be from the Cincinnati area. A big thank you to Tom and his family, who I hiked most of the way back with while chatting about cameras and national parks – the hike down went much faster with good conversation!

I spent most of last night at the campground editing like crazy and getting ready for today’s update. Sunrise this morning at Swiftcurrent Lake was pretty, albeit it Very Windy, and now I’m here in Helena, oil change completed (gotta keep my 4Runner happy!) and soon I’ll be headed up to Paul’s mom’s house to spend the evening with Peggy and Greg. From there I’ll be making a quick trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton before I come home for my first pitstop later this week. I can’t wait for the Monarch/Medicine Circus show!!!

Good Morning, from Mount Rainier National Park! Technically, I don’t exactly have cell phone service, let alone an internet connection, but I’m going to pretend that I do and then upload/post as I cross through civilization later today. (Sidenote – Mom, I really did mean to remind you that I don’t get reception in the park so you wouldn’t worry when I didn’t check in for a couple days, but I lost service sooner than I expected…sorry!)

Where did I leave off…?

Oh yes, breakfast! Well, first I walked over to Manito Park and Gardens, a block or two from my sister’s house (Thanks again, Amber, Colin & Tiggy!) , and took some pictures of the rose garden, which I was supposed to have done last Friday, except for the whole broken-but-not-really-camera-fiasco. From there I headed out to my grandparent’s house for a leisurely breakfast of French toast. I live off peanut butter & jelly, turkey/ham sandwiches, yogurt, granola/energy bars, cheese & crackers, and various fruits and vegetables. Hot food is a real treat these days! Thanks Grandma & Grandpa!

I eventually did pull myself away from the breakfast table and set off for Mount Rainier (again). I opted to head to Gobbler’s Knob and get myself back on schedule, and rather than backpack to Goat Lake and set up camp, and hike from there up to the lookout, I decided to just hike back out in the dark. It went surprisingly well, though I did miss the good light on the mountain by about three minutes. I’d had trouble finding the forest service road, and then even after I did, there was a sign stating the road was closed three miles up due a mudslide. I was a little annoyed, since no one in my various internet browsing had mentioned the road being closed. The sign looked fairly worn and shot up, and I figured that I ought to drive up the road a bit and see if they’d just forgotten to take the sign down. Sure enough,three miles up the road, it was very apparent where the mud had come down the hill and covered the road, and while it didn’t look like a grater had ever come in to officially fix the road, the dried mud had been driven over enough to be pretty smoothed out and I was able to continue on without any problems. A little ways up the road, switchback-style, it became evident where the mudslide had originated from, since a third of the road was gone, and in its place was a gaping hole. I hugged the inside of the road as I drove by after peering over the edge, making a mental note of my mileage so I could be sure to avoid it again on the way back down.

I made it up to the trailhead, and then hiked up to the lookout in good time, but was just slow enough (the last 450 feet of elevation gain up the switchbacks kicked my butt) that I wound up missing most of the nice golden light. I should have had enough time, but the sun dropped behind a band of clouds on the horizon and that was that. The fun started on the way back. I hurried down the switchbacks and had made it to the national park boundary (the trailhead itself started in the Glaceirview Wilderness Area, which is managed by the forest service) before I had to pull out my headlamp, and hike the rest of the way through an increasingly dark forest. The moon was practically full, but that did me absolutely no good under the dense canopy of trees. I am a wuss. I hate, hate, Hate being alone in the dark. Hate it. But oh what I will do for a good photo op…I was quite proud of myself, I managed to only freak myself out twice, once for the shadow of a leaf on the path (pathetic, I know) and once because my headlamp reflected off a barkless tree trunk off to the side of the path (never mind that there were jagged, wind-blown tree trunks all over the place, but that particular one made my heart beat hard enough I thought it might burst out of my chest.) As I said, I am a wuss. Fear is a good motivator, and I made it up and out of the Goat Lake Basin in no time – the incline seemed much less steep when I could only see a couple feet in front of me. I also never broke an ankle, or my neck (or my camera, for that matter), so all in all it was a fairly good experience, though not one I feel the need to repeat any time soon. Oh, and my clapping and noise-making as I went must have worked well enough, since the only bear I saw was on the road, a couple miles down from the trailhead.

The following morning I got up bright and early and headed to catch sunrise at Reflection Lakes, which didn’t go so well since this time of year, the sun doesn’t seem to hit the southern side of the mountain at all. I took a nap and then headed toward the visitor center at Paradise, figuring I’d find out what the hike up to Camp Muir was like. I’d made the hike up to base camp three times before, but always around Labor Day, so I really didn’t have any idea what things would be like a month earlier. The ranger said hiking poles would be helpful, but crampons weren’t needed, and since it was a beautiful day, off I went. Camp Muir is a HARD hike – before I ran my first marathon, it ranked first on my list of most grueling physical activities. It’s only a 4 1/2 mile hike each way, but it gains roughly 4600 feet in elevation, 2400 or so of which in the last two miles…up a steep snowfield. The snow was getting sloppier the later in the day it got, and I wound up following a pair of climbers when they veered off the snow and headed for the rocks. I’d tried the rocks on one of my earlier hikes, and managed to have a loose rock slide in the scree and bash me in the shin, leaving a lump there for months. I was a tad wary of the rocks, but the climbers seemed to know where they were going, and watching a pair of day hikers ahead of me struggle up a particularly steep section of snow cemented my decision.

There was actually a very faint path through the scree, and the going was much easier there. I eventually caught up with the climbers when they stopped for a break, and I jokingly asked them how I was supposed to follow their trail if they stopped.  I wound up following them the rest of the way up to base camp, feeling a bit like Gollum stalking Frodo & Sam, but they really did know a good route, and once we were back on the snow (it’s still a good forty-minute hike even once you can see the little brown building up at Camp Muir) it was easier to just keep stepping in their footprints. I finally reached Camp Muir (elevation 10,100 feet or so?) five hours after leaving the parking lot at Paradise. Thanks to the climbers (Chris & Nathan, as I later learned), it was my best hike up there. I spent an hour or so hanging out at camp, taking pictures and chatting with a other couple climbers that I’d passed on the rocks. Some very nice guys. Jay’s from Omaha and gets to climb once a month or so in Colorado, and Jim was from Ann Arbor and had just summited Rainier a couple weeks earlier. Fingers crossed that their climbs have gone well. Chris and Jay had both tried to summit before but didn’t make it because of weather. The weather the last two days hasn’t been nearly as nice as when I hiked up to base camp, but when the clouds down here break for a bit, it’s still looked fairly clear up at the top, so I’m hopeful things will have worked out better for them this time around!

Getting down from Camp Muir isn’t as bad as you’d think, there’s not really any such thing as a controlled descent coming down the snowfields – you just slide on your heels a lot and try to stay upright. I’ve even seen people trying (somewhat successfully) to sled down on garbage bags. Unfortunately, I was a fool and didn’t take many pictures at all on the way up, figuring I’d get them on the way down…except that by then I was shooting too much into the sun. Oops. By the time I was off the snow and back on the trail, the clouds were starting to roll in below Paradise and the cloud-sea was beautiful. This wound up being my slowest trip back down by far, I was constantly stopping during the last two miles to take pictures. I was desperately wishing I had my tripod, but I’d left it in my car knowing that the hike up would be hard enough without the extra weight…which makes the climbers all the more impressive – they hike up to Camp Muir with 60-70 pound packs (helmets, ice pick, crampons, rope, etc.) Thankfully, I could crank up the ISO in my camera, and with the help of my newest lens, the 70-200mm IS F4.0, which I’m loving more every time I use it, I was still able to get decently sharp photos. I’m not sure how I lived without image stabilization before!!!

I opted to sleep in yesterday, and then did a short, four mile round-trip hike out to Comet Falls, but my legs were still beat from the Camp Muir hike, and I just wasn’t really in the mood. I was ready to turn back at the first, rather unimpressive waterfall I came to, but was urged on by another couple who said Comet Falls was just a little further up the trail, and well worth the hike – and then I was ready to turn back at the next waterfall I came to, but some other hikers there said it’s a bit deceiving, but that wasn’t it either, and gestured around the bend to where the real Comet Falls were. Thankfully, they were a couple hundred feet high and quite impressive, and I felt better about having done the hike. I eventually I wound up holing up in a parking lot (after a nap) and edited until my laptop battery was about dead. I charged up some while I drove up to Sunrise last night, and positioned myself for what I hoped would be an actual sunrise on the mountain, but no such luck – clouds galore this morning, making me all the more glad I hiked up to Camp Muir when I did! Time to wrap this up, I need to get the rest of the post-processing done, and squeeze in an oil change today as well on my way to Glacier National Park, not to mention I’ve got a whole lot of driving to do to get there…

Hello from Spokane, Washington! I’ve changed my plans (yet again) and took my sister up on her offer to stay at her house tonight, so I’m currently making use of her power outlets and getting caught up on my editing and backup discs. When I left Twilight-crazed Forks last week (it feels like Forever ago), I headed out to Rialto Beach in Olympic National Park and discovered that the fog had Finally cleared, though I was left with a rather boring, cloudless sky. I hiked down the beach for a while just kind of killing time before going to Second Beach for sunset. I’ve seen lots of pictures of the beach over the years, but due to some sort of feud between the Indian Reservation and the National Park Service, the trail, which starts on the reservation, was closed for quite some time. They’ve now reached an agreement, and I hiked the 3/4th mile trail down to the water. There’s a lovely sandy beach with lots of sea stacks and starfish at low tide, though the tide didn’t make it out far enough for me to see the tidepools before the sun went down. While I was waiting for the good light, I wandered down the beach barefoot and actually got my feet wet on purpose for a change, though my I can’t say I’d quite meant to do the same with the bottom of my pants, oops. Even though there weren’t any clouds, I was quite pleased the colors of the sunset, and the variety of compositions available on the beach. Definitely my best shoot so far.

After leaving the beach, I still had not decided whether I was going to stay on the coast another night, or head elsewhere. I had finally made up my mind to stay and see if I could get another fog-less day and started heading for the campground near Rialto Beach, when I changed my mind for the umpteenth time (the likelihood of either fog, or no clouds the next day, and the tides were not going to cooperate) and opted to instead shoot waterfalls the following morning, and then head to the northwestern section of Mount Rainier National Park. I drove most of the way to the Sol Duc turnoff, slept a couple hours, and got up at five to drive the rest of the way to the trailhead. Sol Duc Falls ranks as one of the prettiest waterfalls I’ve ever been to, and I’ve seen quite a few. And at six in the morning, I had the place all to myself. I spent an hour shooting there before figuring I’d better get on my way since I didn’t know what the lighting would be like at Marymere Falls. Marymere turned out to be fairly unimpressive, though I did wind up striking up a conversation at the viewpoint with a very nice woman from California whose boyfriend was working for the Park Service for the summer, and wound up chit-chatting with her the whole hike back to the parking lot. From there I made a quick stop at Madison Falls before heading to the Kingston ferry dock to catch a boat to Edmonds.

I arrived at the dock only to find the ferry nearly full and was directed into the “Maybe” line. Luckily, there was just barely room for my 4Runner and I made it onboard. Once in Edmonds I hurried down to the U-District and made a quick stop at Half Priced Books to pick up some dollar paperbacks and called in a take-out order to my all-time favorite Thai restaurant, Thai Tom’s. I haven’t lived in Seattle for nearly five years, but their number is still programmed into my phone for occasions like this. With my Swimming Rama in tow, I hurried to beat the traffic and drove halfway (drooling the whole time) to Mount Rainier before stopping to eat, and oh was it tasty!

I had already decided that I wanted to backcountry camp in the park and headed towards the ranger station to get my permits. Once there, I was intrigued by the 17-mile Mother Mountain Loop and after talking to the ranger for a bit, decided I was up for the challenge – little did I know what I was getting myself into! Backcountry permit issued, I drove up to Mowich Lake and set up my little tent at the walk-in campground before hiking up to Eunice Lake. I actually hiked a little ways beyond the lake, part way up Tolmie Peak, to get far enough above the treeline, and the view of the mountain was amazing. I contemplated staying long enough to catch sunset, but decided against having to do the hike back to camp by the light of a headlamp, and the mosquitoes were eating me alive (I sprayed myself with repellent before I left my car, but sweated that off on the hike up to the lake…and apparently the miniature can of spray I found in the bottom of my pack was a little too antiquated because the bugs seemed to think I’d been marinated in something particularly delightful).

After a rather fitful night’s sleep (it was warm, and there were some rowdy pre-teen boys in a couple of the tents nearest me), I packed my big backpack and set off towards Spray Park. By the time I’d hiked the three miles and 1300 feet elevation gain up to the pass, it was very warm and I was sweating like a pig under the weight of my roughly fifty pound pack. The wildflowers were lovely, though not interesting enough to warrant digging my camera out of my pack, and I somehow missed the turnoff for the side trail up to Spray Falls – not particularly surprising when I think of how much of the time I spent looking at my feet as I journeyed along the often unenven trail. All in all, so far so good though. Things took a rather drastic turn once I went over the pass and began the grueling descent down to Carbon River, where I was supposed to camp for the evening.

As I was hiking through Spray Park, I’d heard a thunderstorm off in the distance, and all too soon it found me. I was rained on for a bit, then hailed on, and then it cleared up enough that I felt safe enough to pull my camera out (with a stuff sack covering it in case it rained some more) so I could get a couple (crappy) shots as I headed down through Cataract Valley. The brief respite from the rain didn’t last, and I soon found myself in a downpour, interspersed with hail, and had to stop and put on my rain gear and pack cover. I wanted to put my camera back in my small camera pack, shoved inside the bigger pack, but that would have required unpacking half my bag in the rain, and I (stupidly) thought I could keep my camera safe hanging from my shoulder. I was carefully picking my way down the steep, rocky trail when I came to a bridge-less stream. Normally, though roughly six feet wide, I’d bet the stream is only a couple inches deep, but in the downpour, combined with the melting run-off, the stream had turned become extremely fast moving, with water spraying over a couple rocks in the middle in waves. Not comfortable with crossing the stream there (jumping it was out of the question…a flying leap with my monster sized backpack wasn’t going to happen, I’m entirely too uncoordinated, not to mention the whole issue of gravity, and nowhere to get a running start…) I started moving up the bank to see if I could find a better crossing along the rocks further upstream, and that’s when it happened….I slipped, my camera hit the grassy bank….and I fell on top of it, with the added weight of my heavy pack. The camera still turned on and everything seemed well enough so I continued on, and since I never found a better crossing (others were narrower, but deeper) I eventaully went back to where the trail crossed the stream and waded through. The strong current pushed at my boots, and water rushed over the tops, but with the aid of my hiking poles I did make it safely across, though I did have to sit on a rock (still in the rain) and pour the water out of my boots and wring out my socks. By the time I reached the Carbon River campground, my legs were jelly from constantly trying to come slowly down the trail (it drops 3100 feet between the top of Spray Park and Carbon River) and the bottoms of my feet were on fire. It was also only 4pm, and the thought of spending the rest of the day dying of boredom at camp didn’t sound remotely appealing, so I opted to hike another four miles to the Ipsut Creek Campground. It used to be a drive-in campground before flooding a couple years ago washed the road out from the ranger station up to the campground, so I figured there should be plenty of space even though I didn’t have a permit for that campground. I’d also hiked most of that part of the trail before and knew it had a nice, gradual descent, nothing like what I’d spent most of the afternoon coming down.

It was after I crossed the suspension bridge and tried to take a picture that I discovered that my camera wasn’t actually functioning quite properly. Normally, when I press the shutter button halfway down, the camera autofocuses, and then pauses, waiting for me to compose my shot, adjust the exposure, etc, before pressing the button the rest of the way and taking the shot. Now, it was skipping that crucial step, and skipping straight to taking the picture. Not good. I tried plugging in my shutter release cable in hopes that the problem was limited to just the shutter button itself, but no such luck. I nearly cried. I was all the more eager to make it to Ipsut Creek after that, no matter how badly each step hurt. I had also hiked the trail from Ipsut Creek up to Mowich Lake as a day hike years before and remembered the ascent to be brutal…I’d have to go up all those feet that I’d come down, and knew that having fresh legs would make a difference.

I finally arrived at the campground at 6:30 and found it to be nearly empty, except for the group with the rowdy pre-teens who’d camped by me the night before. Thankfully, the roar of the river drowned them out, and once I’d set up camp, eaten a little dinner, and purified water to fill my pack reservoir, I was in bed by eight. My boots were too wet to dry out overnight, but I could at least put on dry socks in the morning and that helped to make my feet a little more comfortable, and putting my pack back on that next morning didn’t hurt nearly as badly as I’d expected, given all the bruising along my hips. The trail also wasn’t quite as bad as I remembered. The first couple miles had a definite incline, but it meandered through the woods and wasn’t so rocky that I couldn’t shuffle along. The less I have to actually pick up my feet, the better! Unfortunately, even for as early as I started, it was still quite warm by the time I reached part of the trail that was nothing but a very long series of exposed switchbacks up to Ipsut Pass. It sucked. I was so excited to reach the top, and have an easy last mile and a half back to my car. All in all, I hiked 17 miles, 12 miles the first day, with roughly 3900 feet of each elevation loss and gain.

I hurried to get out of the park so I could pick up cell phone reception, and normally I’d call my mom first and let her know I was safe, but this time my first call was to my sister. I knew she’d be at the library and from her position at the reference desk would be in a good spot to make a couple phone calls for me and find me someone who could fix my camera. Turns out there are actually three people in Spokane who can fix a Canon 5D without having to ship it elsewhere. With my camera not behaving, I had to skip Snoqualmie Falls and wound up arriving in Spokane in time to shower (I Desperately needed one!) and go to dinner with my family, since everyone was arriving for the annual Family Campout, and even if my mom’s dinner was cold, my spinach and cheese ravioli was delicious!

I got up Friday morning and after organizing my car and getting all my backpacking gear put away, headed out to the camera repair shop to drop my camera off before going up to the Lake Pend Oreille. I had spoken with Ron the day before and was filling him in again about the problem while he took a couple shots, and then he said those magic words, “It seems to be working just fine,” and handed the camera back to me. Sure enough, it was working just like normal. Whatever the problem was, it had miraculously fixed itself.  I felt like a complete moron, but I’d say that’s plenty worth it since I didn’t have to pay to fix my camera, and I wouldn’t have to wait to get it back. Yay! After satisfying my ketchup craving and getting my Zip’s Drive-In fix while having lunch with my Grandma, I headed up to Sandpoint for the big family get together. I’ve spent the past three days eating real food, hanging out with my relatives, spending time with my niece Antigone, taking pictures of her and my cousin’s little boy Nikko, swimming, playing a little pinochle and picking huckleberries (best berry season ever!). It’s been nice.

And tomorrow it’s back to my trip…after a quick breakfast at my grandparents’ house. Technically I was supposed to already be back at Mount Rainier tonight, but I needed more time to get my editing done and do this update, and the mess I had to make of my car to get my backcountry pack packed has made me decide it just not worth doing Gobbler’s Knob as a backcountry hike – I’d rather haul my regular camera pack and have half the weight, and hike back by headlamp after sunset. I think that finally sums up the last few days. I’m headed back towards Mount Rainier, and then off to Glacier National Park from there, so I may not be able to get in another update and new pictures until I stop in Helena early next week. I’ve got a lot more internet time planned during the second leg of my trip, so updates should get a little more regular after that….