Day 5: Monday, July 17 - South Mowich to Carbon River
Keeping camp clean - "Always leave a place better than when you found it."
Another long day of hiking - a strenuous hike up from South Mowich to Mowich Camp - three miles, very very very steep switchbacks. We came across two fellows who were probably our grandparents age and they, too, were doing the whole trail. They were what Randy calls "old man tough" - three times our age and they can still kick our butts.
We hit Mowich Lake two hours later. While it was nice and sunny and we were picking up our first food drop-off, for some reason, I wasn't feeling too hot - chills and such came over me. It was so weird being in civilization too - the Mowich Lake area is a drive-in campground, so there were a lot of day hikers there, too. I felt sick, but I was antsy to get back into the woods again.
We climbed 500 feet in one mile - easy - to Ipsut Pass, and then THE worst descent of the trip began. See? I'm grimacing at the idea of this upcoming portion.
OK, it wasn't that bad, it was just really steep and really rocky for the first mile, so we went pretty slow. This was the terrain:
However, the view from the Pass was amazing as you could see very deep into the valley. And there was this colorful headwall of rock to our left. After the steep portion leveled out, we continued to hike downhill and that's when the feet and knees were having a hard time cooperating with the rest of my body. It seemed like forever until we got to the intersection with the Carbon River Glacier trail, where we turned right and headed southeast toward camp. But not before we stopped and shared a fruit cup we had picked up in our food cache earlier that day.
Randy, revisiting a rock he had come across when he climbed to Ipsut Pass last winter.
The rest of the trail was about 2.5 miles of easy uphill hiking to our camp near Carbon River. This particular part of the trail was fun because we came here in March when everything was covered in snow, so it was interesting to try and pick out parts of the trail we recognized. We kept looking for the log where we sat and spilled yogurt-covered raisins. We couldn't find it, but I did discover every hikers goldmine - Blackberry and Salmonberry bushes - the ultimate and bestest hiking snack in the WORLD. Randy wasn't so keen on the berries but I couldn't stop eating them.
Mt. Rainier as we approached camp, in the evening, around 7:30 p.m....
Camp came upon us surprisingly as we didn't even know it was there when we were here in March. The campgrounds had taken a hit over the winter, as there were many blow downs framing each site and the ground wasn't filled with the typical forest litter of dead leaves and small branches - it was dusty dry dirt, like a construction site, creating an unfamiliar atmosphere. Plus we thought a log was going to fall on our heads while we slept.
